Posts on ‘January 2nd, 2009’

Pittsburgh-based Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellott has merged with the 12-attorney firm of Hendrickson & Long in Charleston, W.Va. Tim Ryan, chief executive officer of Eckert Seamans, said in a statement, “This group’s experience, its established reputation in West Virginia, and the collective talents of its attorneys provide a perfect fit for Eckert Seamans.” Eckert Seamans has 275 attorneys in 10 offices throughout the Eastern United States.

An allegedly defamatory statement made by an attorney in a letter making a settlement offer to an adversary met the publication requirement of a defamation action, a New York state judge has ruled. But since the letter was sent from one attorney to another and was “pertinent” to ongoing litigation, it enjoyed an “absolute privilege” and could not form the basis of that cause of action, the judge held.

A Philadelphia judge has asked the state Superior Court to uphold a series of rulings dismissing the claims of plaintiffs who allege that the manufacturers of their hormone replacement therapy drugs are liable for their breast cancer. Fourteen cases decided by Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Allan L. Tereshko have been consolidated for consideration by a single Superior Court panel. Tereshko granted defense motions for summary judgment in all of the cases, finding that the claims were time-barred.

The 11th Circuit has ruled that a defamation case brought by gun store owners against New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg should proceed in Georgia’s Cobb County Superior Court, not in federal court. At the heart of store owners’ claims is a news conference in which Bloomberg announced that New York City was filing a federal suit in New York against 26 gun dealers to force them to comply with laws on firearm sales. He also called the gun dealers “a group of bad apples who routinely ignore federal regulations.”

Britain’s former chief legal adviser warned Friday that the U.K. should be prepared to take in Guantanamo Bay detainees if it helps the United States shut the prison camp down. Former Attorney General Peter Goldsmith told BBC radio that Britain’s government should consider accepting detainees with no previous links to the U.K. if the incoming U.S. administration requests help. Some 250 detainees remain at the camp because of concerns they would be persecuted if sent back to their home nations.

Conservatives on the 9th Circuit couldn’t muster enough votes to rescue the Boy Scouts. The court denied en banc review to a Boy Scouts group in a case that raises tough church-and-state questions and drew a wide range of amici. Two couples, one lesbian and another agnostic, challenged a lease the Scouts signed with the city of San Diego allowing them to operate recreational facilities on park land, saying that the deal violated the Establishment Clause because of the Scouts’ professed reverence of God.

In an unusual challenge to the Bureau of Prisons’ practice of extracting DNA samples from convicted felons, a federal appeals court has ruled that the process does not infringe federal prisoners’ religious freedom. Russell Kaemmerling, who was convicted of conspiring to commit wire fraud and is being held in a Texas prison, sued to block the BOP from collecting his DNA on the grounds that it amounted to a defilement of “God’s temple” and was “tantamount to laying the foundation for the rise of the anti-Christ.”