What is the proper procedure for voluntarily dismissing a count in a civil action? This question is not explicitly answered by the text of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Eleventh Circuit offered a tutorial in Perry v. Schumacher Group of Louisiana, 2018 WL 2473721 (11th Cir. June 4, 2018), making clear that Fed….
Category: Civil Procedure
Toxicology Expert’s Opinions Properly Excluded for Failure to Consider Dose-Response Relationship or Potential Alternative Causes of Plaintiff’s Disease
In Williams v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC, 2018 WL 2191426 (11th Cir. May 14, 2018), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s exclusion of proffered expert testimony by a toxicologist, and of the plaintiff’s proposed lay testimony that her home had “no present value” because of emissions from a nearby fertilizer plant, and affirmed the resulting…
False Claims Act Statute of Limitations Extended
An extended limitations period—up to ten years, in some circumstances—is applicable to actions by private plaintiffs under the False Claims Act (FCA) even when the government declines to intervene, according to a recent Eleventh Circuit decision, United States ex rel. Hunt v. Cochise Consultancy, Inc., 2018 WL 1736788 (11th Cir. Apr. 11, 2018). In so…
En Banc Reminder: Even Self-Serving and Uncorroborated Affidavits Can Preclude Summary Judgment
On January 31, 2018, the full Eleventh Circuit held “that an affidavit which satisfies Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure may create an issue of material fact and preclude summary judgment even if it is self-serving and uncorroborated.” United States v. Stein, 2018 WL 635960 (11th Cir. Jan 31, 2018) (en banc)….
Presumption Against Extraterritoriality Applied to Alien Tort Statute in Jurisdictional Dispute over Folk Singer’s Death
A popular Chilean folk singer named Víctor Jara was tortured and killed in the wake of the 1973 military coup that toppled Salvador Allende’s government and brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Nearly 40 years later, Jara’s family discovered that his suspected killer, a former Chilean military officer named Pedro Pablo Barrientos Núñez, had moved to…
Be Careful What You Wish For—Eleventh Circuit Rejects Argument That Appellant’s Own Requested Jury Charge Requires Reversal
In Smith v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 2018 WL 549141 (11th Cir. Jan. 25, 2018), an Engle progeny tobacco case, the Eleventh Circuit rejected the defendant’s argument that the jury’s compensatory damages award should be reduced based on comparative fault. The relevant legal question was settled last month, when the Florida Supreme Court clarified in…
Formality Needed to Secure Post-Dismissal Amendment Right
Last week, in Cita Trust Co. AG v. Fifth Third Bank, 2018 WL 416253 (11th Cir. Jan 16, 2018), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a $400-million contract dispute over an unauthorized bond transfer, demonstrating that the court will strictly enforce both procedural rules and contracts negotiated by sophisticated entities. This dispute concerned a…
Court Limits Right to Cure Improper “Shotgun” Pleadings
The term “shotgun pleading” refers to a complaint that, for one reason or other, fails to give the defendants adequate notice of the claims against them. In the Eleventh Circuit, courts have identified roughly four categories of shotgun pleadings: (1) a pleading with multiple counts where each count adopts the allegations of all preceding counts;…
ACLU Gets Jurisdictional Discovery from Michael Jackson Because of Disputed Facts
When is a litigant entitled to jurisdictional discovery? The Eleventh Circuit addressed this issue in an opinion published June 20, 2017, ACLU of Florida, Inc. v. City of Sarasota, 2017 WL 2636542, holding that, when the jurisdictional facts are genuinely in dispute and a party does not unduly delay in seeking discovery, the court abuses its…
Improper Claim-Splitting Warrants Dismissal
In a case of first impression, the Eleventh Circuit has held that a plaintiff’s second case against a defendant, arising out of the same nucleus of operative facts, was properly dismissed as the product of improper claim-splitting. Vanover v. NCO Fin. Servs., Inc., 2017 WL 2129557 (11th Cir. May 17, 2017). In 2014, Karen Vanover…