Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog

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By: Lubin Austermuehle, P.C.

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Patrick Austermuehle
Peter S. Lubin

Latest from Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog

We talked about the lawsuit between Promega Corp., a biotech company based in Madison, Wisconsin, and its shareholders a couple months ago in this blog post. At the time, Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn said she was convinced minority shareholders had been oppressed by the company and its founder and CEO, Bill Linton, but she was unsure of the best way to remedy the situation and make sure the oppressed shareholders received a fair return…
A federal judge recently dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by former Playboy model Karen McDougal against Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The lawsuit concerned statements Carlson had made about McDougal during his show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” which airs on the Fox News Channel. The judge ultimately granted the motion to dismiss filed by Fox News after determining that the allegedly defamatory statements constituted only nonactionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole as a matter of law. The…
After a corporation attempted to designate its principal agent the right to file an answer to a complaint pro se, the trial court found that the corporation had not properly appeared before the court and awarded a default judgment to the plaintiff. The corporation attempted to have the default judgment declared void, and the trial court found that the corporation had not demonstrated that it acted with due diligence to explain its failure to file…
Recently, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a putative class action lawsuit alleging a technical violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) was sufficient to establish the Article III standing required in order to proceed in federal court, reversing the District Court’s dismissal of the claims. Only time will tell the full impact of this ruling but it does have the potential to be an important precedent that any business…
Every time you hear a famous song playing in a commercial, it’s because the producers paid for the right to use that song in their commercial … or at least they were supposed to. According to a recent copyright lawsuit the Doobie Brothers filed against Bill Murray, the famous actor allegedly failed to obtain permission from the band before using one of their hits in a commercial for his clothing line. Murray, along with his…
Two corporations agreed to arbitrate a dispute in front of a foreign arbitration panel in Birmingham, England, under the terms of their agreement. After they agreed to arbitrate, one of the parties filed an ex parte application to a U.S. district court asking the court to issue a subpoena compelling a third company to produce documents for use in the arbitration. The district court initially granted the motion, but later quashed it after the defendant…
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In a recent opinion, the Delaware Court of Chancery considered a summary judgment motion in an action by Applied Energetics, Inc. against George Farley, who at the time of the challenged actions was the sole member of the company’s board of directors and compensation committee as well as an officer. The suit sought to undo certain actions taken by Farley on behalf of Applied and recover certain amounts the company paid him. The company sought…
Leprino Foods Co. is the largest manufacturer of mozzarella cheese in the world and is solely responsible for making all the mozzarella that goes on top of Domino’s, Papa John’s, and Pizza Hut’s pizzas. It’s worth billions of dollars, but it’s also a family business. It was founded in Denver, Colorado in the 1950s by Michael and Susie Leprino. The couple had five children, including Michael Jr. and James. James went into the family business…
Freedom of speech and defamation law are sometimes in tension with each other. Freedom of speech holds that people should be free to say what they want without fear of reprisal. Defamation law holds that people can be held liable and forced to pay for harm caused by false statements about a person or business. As libel attorneys, we have written at length about the limits of libel law liability and the interplay between defamation …
A business made loans to the son of its founder and never required the loans to be repaid. The business later attempted to write off the loans as bad debts or as ordinary and necessary business expenses. The IRS pursued the business, seeking $92 million in back taxes. The company petitioned the tax court, but after a trial the court upheld the agency’s determination, finding that the debts could not be written off because the…