Fifth Circuit Update
Well, it's been a quiet week in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, my home Circuit.
Actually, the Court has been handing down opinions with such regularity, the sister circuits are starting to take offense because the Mighty Fifth is making them look slothful by comparison.
Yesterday, the court handed down three published opinions, two of which might have interest to civil practitioners. Very briefly:
- In Carmona v. Southwest Airlines Co. (pdf), the Court reversed the district court's decision to grant judgment as a matter of law on a flight attendant's ADA claim. The flight attendant's psoriatic arthritis had caused the employee to miss work. The jury had found in favor of the employee on his ADA claim but had rejected his claim under Title VII. Judge Garwood wrote the opinion.
- And my personal favorite, Wells v. Smithkline Beecham (pdf). The Plaintiff brought a products liability claim under Texas law and argued that Smithkline Beecham ought to have warned him that Requip would cause compulsive gambling, resulting in millions of dollars of gambling losses. The Court affirmed the trial court's Daubert ruling finding that the expert testimony linking compulsive gambling to Requip was not up to snuff. Judge Higginbotham wrote the opinion.
Daubert is one of my favs, so watch this space for some further analysis--unless the Mighty Fifth keeps up this pace, in which case there will be insufficient time!
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