Insurance Liability insurance; care, custody, or control exclusions The loss of a third party’s personal property, not necessary to work being done by an insured, is not excluded from coverage by a care, custody, or control exclusion. “In order to win under the ‘care, custody, or control’ exclusion of its policy at the summary judgment level, Westfield had to show ...

Employment ERISA Medical benefits under a plant closing agreement vested for life, even though the agreement did not explicitly use those terms. “The language contained in the Closing Agreement clearly entitles retirees to an eligibility for a specific medical benefit. The retirees represented in this action were eligible for these retiree medical benefits, and elected to commence their retirement benefits ...

Good bridges make good neighbors. We’re blessed with some great bridges here in Wisconsin. The bridge that connects downtown Milwaukee to Walker’s Point (that’s the historic Fifth Ward to you younger attorneys) is a masterpiece.

Longstanding precedent holds that federal courts can’t enjoin state court proceedings, despite the state court defendant’s claim that the proceedings violate federal rights. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971).

Employment Equal Pay Act Where a female employee was paid more, not less, than a comparable male employee, summary judgment was properly granted to the employer on her Equal Pay Act claim. “Moore’s testimony is partly confirmed by the company’s payroll records, which show that he was hired at the same rate as Goodman, but received only a 40- cent ...

Civil Procedure Foreign law; expert testimony Expert testimony about the meaning of foreign law is unnecessary when the foreign law at issue is France’s. “Sometimes federal courts must interpret foreign statutes or decisions that have not been translated into English or glossed in treatises or other sources. Then experts’ declarations and testimony may be essential. But French law, and the ...

Antitrust Minimum-markup laws Wisconsin’s minimum-markup law does not violate the Sherman Act. “It may well be that gasoline retailers are getting together with each other and agreeing on how to estimate their costs or what final price to charge, or that retailers and wholesalers are colluding to manipulate the average posted terminal price. ‘However, we have been given no indication ...

Longstanding precedent holds that federal courts can't enjoin state court proceedings, despite the state court defendant's claim that the proceedings violate federal rights. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971).

Employment Sex discrimination Where an employee spent 16 hours per week on non-work related websites, her termination was not sex discrimination. “Weber identified a number of male URA employees that had outside employment, conducted personal business while at URA, viewed pornography on URA computers, or viewed websites that could have been related to their outside employment. She argues that all ...

Employment Retaliation; constructive discharge Although a supervisor threatened to fire an employee if he didn’t withdraw an EEOC charge, the employee was not constructively discharged where the employer repeatedly assured him he was not terminated, even though he didn’t withdraw the charge. “To find that one singular threat, followed by multiple reassurances that the employee has retained his job, was ...

Constitutional Law Freedom of speech; university student funds The University of Wisconsin violated students’ free speech rights by refusing to fund student organizations that engaged in prayer, proselytizing, or religious instruction. “We deferred action on this appeal while the Supreme Court had Christian Legal Society under advisement. It is the latest in the sequence, beginning with Healy v. James, 408 ...