This is a good ‘war story’ about getting paid.  The client was (and is) based in the European Union, and they sold product to the US market.  Their products were (and are) high-value, about $100,000+ per item. Not stuff I’d be able to buy, but I digress. The company insisted–strongly–on using their ‘home country’ terms and conditions of sale in the US, without thoroughly reviewing whether there was anything in the home country law that could adversely affect them in the US. We were not involved at that point.

In the ongoing saga of what is known as the “Ashley II Litigation,” the United States District Court of South Carolina recently set aside several years of distributions to the shareholders of a dissolved, closely-held family corporation because the payments were intended to avoid liability for environmental contamination of property the company had not owned in 40 years. PCS Nitrogen, Inc. v. Ross Development Corp., 2015 BL 36539, D.S.C., No. 09-cv-03171, 2/12/15. This latest decision follows a prior case where PCS Nitrogen, Inc.

The July 10, 2014 opinion by the U.S Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit (Georgia, Florida, and Alabama) in Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC held that the act of filing a proof of claim on a time-barred debt is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This decision could have an impact on providers attempting to work and collect old patient debts.

Creditors in bankruptcy cases may be interested in the July 10, 2014 Opinion issued by the Eleventh Circuit in Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC. 

“Our basic point of reference when considering the award of attorney’s fees is the bedrock principle known as the American Rule: Each litigant pays his own attorney’s fees, win or lose, unless a statute or contract provides otherwise,” wrote Clarence Thomas for the majority in last month’s United States Supreme Court decision in Baker Botts L.L.P. et al. v. Asarco LLC, 2015 U.S. LEXIS 3920, 83 U.S.L.W. 4428 (June 15, 2015).