This was the situation faced recently by a firm client in a dissolution of marriage case. The client had moved out of the marital home, taking with her her separate property. The trial court entered an order requiring her to return all of her property to the marital home. We believed that this order was outside of the court’s powers because under the applicable statute the only action that a court can take in a dissolution action with respect to a spouse’s separate property is to set it aside to that spouse. Here, in contrast, the court was setting aside one spouse’s separate property to the other spouse, even if only temporarily until there was a final decision in the dissolution.

We filed a petition for a writ of prohibition for this client to block enforcement of the trial court’s order. The Court of Appeals issued its preliminary writ within 48 hours of our filing.

While the issuance of a preliminary writ is no guarantee that a permanent writ will be issued blocking a trial court’s order — there are extensive proceedings, including full briefing and oral argument, before a permanent writ is issued or denied — the majority of preliminary writs do result in permanent writs.

The writ application and supporting suggestions were prepared by Joe Jacobson with assistance from Martin Green and Brad Schneider.

The court’s orders were made orally from the bench immediately following argument in Camden, New Jersey.

The court has now opened the case for discovery on the damages issues, which were barred by a prior order bifurcating the case. Green Jacobson lawyers successfully obtained a jury verdict of liability and damage causation in July 2011 after an almost six-week trial.

During his sabbatical, Fernando will be traveling around the world with his girlfriend. They are traveling with no fixed itinerary, destinations, or schedule. They will initially be traveling in south Asia, starting in Hanoi, Vietnam and likely ending in Bangladesh. They will then travel in eastern Europe, probably starting near the Baltic Sea and working their way down to Romania. Finally, they will fly to somewhere in South America, spending the final third of their approximately one-year journey traveling throughout Latin America.

Jenny, Fernando’s traveling companion, is an accomplished photographer. They will be recording their travels and explorations on their blog, Mostly Harmless Travel Blog.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sua sponte issued an en banc decision setting aside the panel decision in an earlier Zoltek appeal and reinstating the company’s claims against the United States for royalties for use of Zoltek’s process patent for the manufacture of a specialized carbon fiber skin for use in stealth aircraft. The Court concluded that its earlier opinion, which had held that the U.S. could not be held liable for its contractor’s infringement of a process patent if any step of the patent took place outside of the U.S., was fundamentally at odds with both the language and Congressional purpose of the applicable statutes. All of the active judges on the Court, save one, agreed to set aside the earlier opinion.

Click here to read the full decision.

Joe found the opinion exciting from an intellectual perspective. The 34-page majority opinion ranged across the legal landscape, including quotations from luminaries Judge Learned Hand and Justice Olive Wendell Holmes, and citing cases going back to 1894. The opinion adopts large potions of Joe’s brief and oral argument on appeal, as well as an argument advanced by the Federal Circuit Bar Association, one of two amici curia participating in the appeal.

Joe believes that it is likely that the government will ask the Supreme Court to review the decision.

So here, without invading any confidentiality, are brief summaries of three settlements we recently obtained for our clients:

Case One: Our client was a woman threatened with foreclosure by a large national bank. There were problems with the foreclosure and the loan documents. This case was settled with the bank dropping the foreclosure, paying our client a tidy sum, and paying our attorneys’ fees as well. The client was thrilled.

Case Two: An elderly widow invested almost her entire life savings, a substantial sum, in a fraudulent investment opportunity that turned out to be Ponzi scheme. The bad guys were unable to pay back the money. Nevertheless, after some three years of litigation we were able to convince the advisors and accountants who had recommended the widow make the investment pay for their bad advice. After two confidential settlements against two unrelated defendants — settlements reached almost a year apart — our client ultimately recovered more than the amount she had invested in the scheme net of investment returns.

This was an uncommonly good result for the victim of a Ponzi scheme, where a recovery of pennies on the dollar is the more usual result.

Case Three: An out-of-town investor entered into a business venture with an outstate farmers’ co-op to build an industrial plant. At a crucial point in the venture, the farmers decided they were no longer interested in the deal, but were not willing to reimburse the investor for their half of the development costs. A settlement reached the week before trial gained for our client most of the money he was looking to recover.

Congratulations to Jonathan Andres and Brad Schneider for their successes in these favorable settlements.

Former TWA Pilots’ Jobs Again Threatened
— Retain Green Jacobson for Potential DFR Claim

It was just this past summer that Allen Press and Joe Jacobson tried a duty of fair representation, or DFR, case on behalf of a class of 2341 former TWA pilots against their former union, the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA). In that case, the TWA pilots claimed that ALPA failed to fairly represent the pilots in negotiations to protect their seniority rights in connection with American Airlines’ purchase of TWA’s assets in 2001. A unanimous jury returned a verdict in favor of the TWA pilots at the close of the 5-1/2 week trial.

Fast forward a decade to the present day, and the job security of the former TWA pilots now flying for American may again be threatened by the actions of their union, now the Allied Pilots Association (APA).

American Airlines recently filed bankruptcy. American, once the largest and most profitable U.S. airline, was the last of the so-called legacy or mainline U.S. airlines to file for bankruptcy protection. As part of the bankruptcy, American has demanded concession from the APA, its pilots’ union. Of special interest to the former TWA pilots is one of the concessions demanded: the removal of a provision known as Supplement CC to APA’s collective bargaining agreement with American. Supplement CC is a provision that provides limited job protections to the former TWA pilots employed by American. Supplement CC was put in place by American and the APA when American purchased TWA’s assets in 2001.

The removal of the Supplement CC protections would have a devastating impact to the careers of the 600 former TWA pilots now flying for American.

In a surprising move, the APA, which represents all American pilots including the former TWA pilots, has stated publicly that it will grant the demanded concession free of any corresponding benefit to the former TWA pilots. Concerned they are not being fairly represented by the APA, their current union, two groups of former TWA pilots have retained Green Jacobson, P.C., to investigate and, if warranted, prepare a DFR lawsuit against the APA.

Given the complexity of the issues to be discussed, it is not expected that today’s mediation session will result in a settlement. Further mediation sessions are scheduled for March 2012.

“We have spent days preparing for this mediation, gathering data, meeting with the class representatives, meeting with our co-counsel, and working with an expert consultant,” said Joe. “Even if the mediation does not result in a settlement, the work we are doing is helping us get prepared for the damages trial that will be necessary if we don’t settle.”

Allen and Joe, assisted by co-counsel, obtained a jury verdict of liability and damage causation against ALPA in a 5-1/2 week trial held in federal district court in Camden, New Jersey this summer. Court proceedings have been stayed for 90 days to allow the parties to attempt to reach a negotiated settlement.

Phillip’s new role will be a multifaceted one. He will be coordinating social service interventions for students and families in the district. He will also act as a liason with both private and public stakeholders with respect to the district’s community development efforts. And, in his new position, Phillip will also work with both local municipal courts and the county’s Family Court to create alternatives to incarceration for district residents who violate the parental neglect and juvenile law codes.

Phillip has been a long-time volunteer on the school district’s municipal task force as part of his community service and pro bono activity at Green Jacobson.

Interestingly, Phillip actually helped create the position he is now filling.

Four years ago, Phillip, other volunteers, and district administrators conceived of the post as a key part of their efforts to prevent students from “falling through the cracks” due to uncoordinated agency interventions.

Phillip states that he is eagerly looking forward to being part of an effort to change the dynamics of an urban school district that has the potential to be world class. Phillip credits the leadership of superintendent Dr. Stanton Lawrence as a major reason he sought out the position with the district. Phillip states that Dr. Lawrence has a comprehensive vision for the district’s turnaround and has recruited a stellar administrative and teaching staff that he is proud to join.

Green Jacobson will miss Phillip and wish him success in his new position. We are confident that the students of the Normandy School District will benefit from his attention.

Under the Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan, an independent Appellate Judicial Commission composed of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, three lawyers elected by the members of the Missouri Bar, and three laypersons appointed by the Governor, nominate three candidates to fill open seats on the state’s appellate courts, including the Supreme Court. The Governor selects the new judge from the three nominees.

The other nominees are Court of Appeals Judge George Draper, who sits on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, and Circuit Judge Michael Manners, who sits on the Circuit Court for Jackson County (Kansas City).

Governor Jeremiah “Jay” Nixon has up to 60 days to select the new judge from the three nominees.

Click here to open the trial transcript in a new browser window. Links from the announcement lead to the application forms filed by each nominee.