On September 12, 2024, in In re Live Life Bella Vita LLC, No. 23-55613 (9th Cir. Sept. 12, 2024), the Ninth Circuit joined the majority of circuits by holding that claims for indemnity and contribution are considered separate claims in the context of Limitation Actions, and thus, if a claimant wants to lift the federal court stay and proceed in state court, all claimants must execute a stipulation preserving the shipowner’s right to have the federal court determine limitation of liability.
Continue Reading Majority Rules: Ninth Circuit Joins in Treating Contribution and Indemnity Claims as Separate in Limitation Proceedings

On June 16, 2023, the Supreme Court of Texas released the plurality opinion in Sarah Gregory and New Prime, Inc. v. Jaswinder Chohan, et al., __ S.W.3d ___, No. 21-0017, 2023 WL 4035886 (Tex. June 16, 2023).  The Court considered the award of noneconomic damages and the standard applied in reviewing such awards and held that the jury’s discretion to make an award is limited and that noneconomic damages must be supported by evidence of the nature, duration, and severity of the injury to support both the existence and the amount of compensable loss of the type of damages claimed.
Continue Reading “Juries cannot simply pick a number and put it in the blank.” – Texas Supreme Court Remands Case Involving $15 Million Jury Award for Noneconomic Damages Where Award was Unsupported and Arguments to the Jury Unsubstantiated