[UPDATE:  Minnesota Litigator has covered the hard-fought Cenveo v. Southern Graphic Systems case repeatedly.   In the latest installment of this serial, Cenveo prostrates itself before the Court in abject apology for an over-length brief and an erroneous word count after having asked for leave to file an over-length brief, which the Court denied.  The point […]

[UPDATE #2:  (Sept. 2010) Third-party Maslon Borman Edelman & Brand is apparently out of the case.] [UPDATE: (July, 2010)  Originally commented on in early June in light of the apparent secrecy of the case, this case was “all sealed up” but now somewhat less so in light of last week’s order by U.S. Mag. Judge Janie […]

What could be easier than determining whether, in a particular lawsuit, there is more than $75,000 “in controversy” (which is a requirement for “diversity jurisdiction” in federal courts)?  In fact, the analysis is most often quite straight-forward. But what about a case in which an insurer seeks a declaratory judgment from the federal court — […]

[UPDATE:  Originally post below was in April.  This week, as predicted, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the Minnesota Court of Appeals (here)  Plaintiffs lost.] At issue in this case, Life Time Fitness paid employees base salaries and also a bonus based on performance of various segments of the company.  Life Time would advance the bonus […]

[UPDATE:  Originally posted in January, another correct Minnesota Litigator prediction, and another Plaintiff fares badly at the Minnesota Supreme Court (opinion here (Judges Page, Meyer, and Anderson, Paul, dissenting in two separate dissenting opinions)).] Let’s say an employer (say, Capella University) terminates an employee (Elen Bahr) because, asked to perform some act, she refused, sincerely […]

3M has sued TransWeb LLC for patent infringement and the case is before United States District Court Judge John R. Tunheim (D. Minn.).  TransWeb, in turn, represented by the prestigious bi-coastal litigation powerhouse, Quinn Emanuel (and locally by Leonard Street & Deinard), has a problem with that.  To hear New Jersey-based TransWeb tell it, they […]

As reported by the Native American Times, a group of about 90 American Indians has brought suit in U.S. District Court (D. Minn.) for recognition.  Here is the complaint.  The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Donovan F. Frank and newly minted U.S. Mag. Judge Leo Brisbois (whose tribal affiliation, incidentally, is with […]

It is a symptom of our times that a great deal of current civil litigation is more debt collection than anything else.  During times such as these, litigators are called upon increasingly for post-judgment enforcement — that is, “getting the money” rather than for “winning at trial” — where defendants either have no defense or […]

Thank you, readers, for following Minnesota Litigator! Readership is up to about 2,000 visits for the past month, with the vast majority from throughout the state of Minnesota (followed in order of volume by California, Illinois, New York, our neighbors in North Dakota (what’s up with that, Wisconsin?), and Texas,  respectively) — visits from a total of […]

The BNSF Railway Company once owned a railroad maintenance shop in Brainerd, Minnesota.  About 20-30 years ago, BNSF worked with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (“MPCA”) to clean up the site, agreeing to a limit of 1,400 parts per million (“ppm”) for lead contamination.  But when current owner Northern Pacific Center (“NPC”) wanted to redevelop […]