Minnesota Litigator
News & Commentary
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Sharing the Class Action Bonanza: Appeals of Williams v. Heins Mills & Olson, P.L.C., et al.
As a member of the Heins Mills law firm, Plaintiff Brian Williams (now with Gustafson Gluek P.L.L.C.) participated in the shareholder lawsuit headed by the Heins Mills law firm against AOL. The case made Williams a millionaire, but it made Defendants Sam Heins and Stacey Mills MILLIONAIRES (that is, the case made something like $4.5 […]
E-Discovery Costs: When the party’s over, don’t forget to turn off the lights…
An unpublished Minnesota Court of Appeals decision this week in Afremov v. AGA Medical Corp., et al, has some good lessons for litigators and those who work with them. Litigators: when a case settles, don’t forget to tell your service providers (for example, the e-discovery vendor who has been hosting your gigabytes of data) to […]
Petters: Figuring Out Who’s Wearing the White Hats, Who’s Wearing the Black…
In countless westerns and action movies, there comes a scene where guns are drawn and the characters and audience are all puzzling over who is “on the good guys’ side” and who is on the other side. In almost every case involving white-collar wrong-doing, there is a similar drama of “who knew what when” […]
Sentenced to TB? Inmate (et al.) Class Action Settlement re: Workhouse Contagion
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kyle, Sr. (D. Minn.) has issued an order of preliminary approval of a class action settlement in this case, filed in late 2008, arising out of a tuberculosis outbreak at the Ramsey County Workhouse. Terms of the settlement are here (see page 20 and following). Plaintiffs’ class was represented by […]
Minnesota Real Estate Lawyer Must-Read: MidCountry Bank v. Krueger, et al., Minnesota Supreme Court
The MidCountry v. Krueger et al. case is critical reading for those who need to examine title to property in Minnesota or determine the priority of secured creditors. The case was described previously on Minnesota Litigator here, a post last November when Minnesota Litigator predicted affirmance of the Court of Appeals. This week, the prediction […]
Missed the boat…. intervention denied…
Minnesota Litigator has no experience with workers’ compensation law but understands the system essentially provides no-fault insurance for work-place injuries with the employer’s works-comp insurance taking the premiums, paying out the claims, and being subrogated to any workers’ claims against third-party tort-feasors. (Readers are invited to clarify, correct, show off expertise in the comments!) In […]
ADT v Swenson: Hearing on Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment, Hearing in July, Briefs, Below
This week U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim set on cross-motions for summary judgment for July 6, at 10:30 a.m. in this high profile and tragic case of murder and a home security alarm system that failed to avert the nightmare scenario. The parties’ briefs are here and here. As one would expect, the […]
Pleading Successor Liability Post-Iqbal/Twombly in Minnesota
At the risk of repetition, again Minnesota Litigator highlights how Minnesota civil litigation is changing (in the federal courts, anyhow) thanks to recent U.S. Supreme Court cases, widely known as Twombly and Iqbal (previous Minnesota Litigator posts touching on the cases are here). One area where Minnesota Litigator, as counsel for the FDIC, learned firsthand […]
Re: Petters Ponzi Scheme, Bounced on Jurisdictional Grounds
Two off-shore investment funds (incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, with principal place of business in Connecticut) sued hedge fund defendants and PricewaterhouseCoopers (as outside auditor to the hedge funds) (Minnesota, Delaware and Bermuda citizens) in connection with plaintiffs’ losses from the hedge funds, which, in turn, suffered losses due to their investments in the […]
Petters Ponzi Scheme Clean-Up & Related Fee Applications: PwC Cleans Up
Given the importance and the complexity of the basic question, “Where did the money go?” it makes sense that the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers, primarily responsible for the task of tracking the money in the aftermath of the Petters Ponzi scheme and its collapse, has the disproportionate share of the most recent grants […]