New England Biz Law Update

An auto manufacturer did not have a duty to defend a motor vehicle dealer in a suit brought by a purchaser of a vehicle plagued by alleged “nonconformities,” the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled. “The issue on appeal is one ...

 The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a federal District Court judge’s decision to dismiss a class action against Charter Communications for failing to provide credits to its customers for their loss of cable, Internet and telephone service ...

A recruiting company’s formula for calculating the per diem component of consultants’ wages violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provision, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. A U.S. District Court judge had awarded the company summary ...

An employee could not bring suit in federal court more than 90 days after receiving a right-to-sue letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission despite the fact that he filed a new administrative charge within the 90-day period, the 1st ...

An arbitration clause in a collective bargaining agreement did not preclude an employee from going to court to sue her employer under the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act and the state’s Fair Employment Practices Act, the R.I. Supreme Court has ...

A Rhode Island Superior Court judge has ruled that an independent contractor who was responsible for generating new business for a Rhode Island company could not be sued for tortious interference after leaving to start a competing firm. The Rhode ...

An insurance company that paid workers’ compensation benefits to an injured plaintiff is not entitled to full reimbursement from a settlement of a third-party liability suit, a U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island has determined. The plaintiff argued that ...

A high school principal did not have to work 10 years before being entitled to payment for her unused vacation time, a Rhode Island Superior Court judge has determined. The defendant School Committee argued that the plaintiff principal’s own employment ...

A Texas-based company could not be sued in Rhode Island for manufacturing allegedly defective fertilizer products that caused a Rhode Island plaintiff to lose royalty payments, a U.S. magistrate judge has found. The defendant company argued that the complaint should ...

A Massachusetts Superior Court judge’s finding that real estate agents are governed by the commonwealth’s real estate statute, G.L. c.112, §87RR, and not the state’s independent contractor law, is headed to the Appeals Court, according to lawyers on both sides ...

Tagged with: Nov. 1 2013 issue