New England Biz Law Update

A U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island has found that a company that terminated an employee for excessive absenteeism could not be awarded summary judgment, as the employee raised a jury question regarding whether he gave notice sufficient to ...

Tagged with: Family and Medical Leave Act FMLA John J. McConnell Jr. John McConnell Judge McConnell Rhode Island US District Court USDC

A recent wave of entrants to the Boston legal market underscores that outside firms large and small are finding the client-rich environment irresistible and are undaunted by the challenge of competing with the city’s established firms. North Carolina-based business firm ...

An employment practices liability policy that specified a duty to “defend any claim” did not require the insurance carrier to bear the cost of a compulsory counterclaim against a former employee who sued the insured for wrongful termination, the Massachusetts ...

Tagged with: employment Employment policies Justice Gants massachusetts Mount Vernon Ralph D. Gants Ralph Gants SJC Supreme Judicial Court Visionaid Visionaid and Mount Vernon

The business judgment rule did not shield a company board’s vote not to pursue a derivative suit demanded by a shareholder as there was evidence that the vote was not taken in good faith, a judge in the Business Litigation ...

Tagged with: business litigation Judge Kaplan Mitchell H. Kaplan Mitchell Kaplan

A building manager’s complaints about her salary and extended work hours were insufficient to place her employer on notice that she was asserting a right to overtime for purposes of triggering the protections of the Massachusetts Wage Act’s retaliation provision, ...

Tagged with: Judge Kaplan Massachusetts Wage Act Mitchell H. Kaplan Mitchell Kaplan superior court Wage Act

A 50-percent shareholder in a computer technology company could show the existence of a “true deadlock” in corporate governance necessary to proceed with an action for involuntary dissolution under state law, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has decided. The plaintiff ...

In the absence of discriminatory or retaliatory motivation on the employer’s part, an at-will employee who resigns due to the non-payment of wages is not entitled to assert a claim of constructive discharge, a Superior Court judge in Massachusetts has ...

Tagged with: Gavin Reardon J. Gavin Reardon Jr. judge reardon massachusetts subway superior court unpaid wages

The U.S. Supreme Court capped off its latest term by handing two key victories to corporations seeking to avoid being sued in plaintiff-friendly state courts. In Bristol–Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, the Supreme Court held that California ...

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has found that lawyers for a limited liability company could be sued for breaching a fiduciary duty to the LLC’s minority members despite the lack of an attorney-client relationship. Counsel for the LLC were accused of ...

A Massachusetts employer’s claims for breach of a non-compete agreement must be litigated in California where the defendant lives and worked for the plaintiff, notwithstanding a Massachusetts forum selection clause in the employment contract, a Superior Court judge has found. ...