The U.S. Bankruptcy Court ruling on behalf of Intelsat regarding the collapse of the C-Band Alliance (CBA) "copied Intelsat’s arguments almost verbatim while ignoring governing law and critical facts," appellant SES briefed Friday in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia (docket 3:22-cv-668) in its appeal of that bankruptcy court ruling (see 2210140063). It said reversible errors by the bankruptcy court include concluding that the 50-50 proceeds deal between the two satellite operators applied only if the two sold their C-band spectrum rights directly rather than if the FCC auctioned them. SES said the court concluded that despite clear language in the CBA agreement and ignoring the unbroken course of performance of months of collaborating under the CBA agreement even after the FCC opted to go the auction route. It said the bankruptcy court also erred when it held the CBA contract didn't apply but also precluded SES' unjust enrichment claim.

“Delay” is the watchword of the complaint in which plaintiff Maria Fernanda Soto Leigue alleges that Keiser University violated the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act and that she and members of the potential class are entitled to relief, said the school’s response Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-22307) in opposition to her Dec. 16 motion to modify the case’s scheduling order. The plaintiff alleges that, due to its high student turnover rate, which ranks in the top 10 among private U.S. universities, Keiser is forced to implement aggressive telemarketing strategies to recruit new students and those practices caused it to run afoul of the FTSA (see 2210310022). Her Dec. 16 motion asked for a one-month extension in the deadlines for exchanging expert witness and rebuttal witness reports on class certification. “The record is clear that Keiser is not responsible” for the plaintiff’s lack of diligence, yet she “continues to refuse to take responsibility for her own failure to prosecute her claims,” said the school. The plaintiff “has had sufficient time and sufficient information to diligently initiate the relevant discovery,” said Keiser. Her failure to timely obtain the information she claims her expert needs “is solely an issue of her own making,” it said. “Good cause does not exist to modify the scheduling order.”

Trial over Entertainment Studios Networks' racial discrimination claims about McDonald's advertising practices (see 2210110008) is scheduled to commence Sept. 19, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Judge Fernando Olguin ordered Thursday (docket 2:21-cv-04972).

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams for Southern New York signed an order Dec. 22 (docket 1:22-cv-10119) setting a Feb. 10 deadline for Amazon to oppose Jiakeshu Technology’s Dec. 21 motion to remand its petition to vacate an arbitrator’s decision to the same New York Superior Court from which Amazon removed it Nov. 29. Jiakeshu's petition seeks to reverse an arbitrator's ruling that Amazon can keep about $50,000 in Jiakeshu's sales proceeds it seized after shutting down the third-party seller for improperly paying customers to manipulate online product reviews (see 2212010065). As grounds for remand, Jiakeshu’s motion said, the recent Supreme Court decision, Badgerow v. Walters, said that a federal court faced with an application to confirm or vacate an award under the Federal Arbitration Act may not “look through” the underlying dispute to decide whether it has jurisdiction over the application. The decision's “practical effect,” said Jiakeshu's motion, “is that a party trying to confirm or vacate an arbitration award will often have to turn to the state, not federal, courts to do so.” Jiakeshu further argued Amazon “failed to establish a valid basis for removal.”

Plaintiff Avid Telecom, in a first amended complaint Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta, updated party information for the defendant, TransNexus, noting it's a Delaware corporation with principal offices in Atlanta. The original complaint placed TransNexus' principal offices in Lithia Springs, Georgia. The original defendant in the case, TransNexus LLC, previously merged into TransNexus Inc., making TransNexus Inc. the correct defendant in the lawsuit, said the first amended complaint (docket 1:22-cv-04829). Common carrier Avid's suit alleges TransNexus defamed Avid CEO Michael Lansky by depicting him as an illegal robocaller (see 2212080050).

Counsel for plaintiff Ramon Fontanez filed a letter motion Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-05568) asking U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon for Southern New York to extend by 30 days the deadline to file a motion to reopen Fontanez’s Americans With Disabilities Act complaint alleging the website of ChocXO Chocolatier is inaccessible to the blind and visually impaired. The parties “have not yet finalized and consummated the settlement in this action” but anticipate that the settlement process “will be fully complete” within the 30 days, Fontanez’s lawyer wrote Rochon. The judge signed an order Oct. 21 dismissing the case without prejudice to the right to reopen the action within 20 days if the settlement isn't consummated. Wednesday’s request for an extension was Fontanez’s second.

The U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Sherman granted AT&T’s request for an entry of default against Goodman Networks for failing to plead or otherwise defend AT&T’s complaint, said a clerk’s entry Tuesday (docket 4:22-cv-00914). AT&T sued the wireless networking company for breach of contract, alleging in its Oct. 25 complaint that Goodman owes AT&T more than $1.22 million for high-speed internet and other services that were provided and invoiced but never paid for.

The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals calendared Communications Workers of America v. Dex Media for oral argument on Feb. 8. The CWA is appealing a March 23 judgment (docket 3:20-cv-3295) in U.S. District Court for Northern Texas in Dallas claiming an arbitrator in a collective bargaining agreement demonstrated “unacceptable bias” and denied YP Holdings employee George Animadu due process and fundamental fairness after his termination “without just cause” in January 2014 while he was a member of a collective bargaining unit represented by CWA. YP Holdings “took over a year” to submit an answer to the union denying the grievance and failed to respond at the second step of the grievance process, said the complaint. Dex Media acquired YP Holdings in 2017. The union filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board in October 2017, which issued a formal complaint of unfair labor practices. Dex Media, which took the assumed name Thryv in 2018, wouldn’t respond to the grievance and the case proceeded to arbitration, where the company argued the union was barred by laches due to the time that had passed from initiation of the grievance, the complaint said. The union cited the company’s refusal to respond to the grievance as the cause for the time-lapse. In August 2020, the arbitrator dismissed the grievance based on laches. U.S. District Court Judge Sam Lindsay dismissed the case with prejudice in March, and CWA filed a notice of appeal in April.

Since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC's revocation of China Telecom's domestic and international authorities (see 2111150025) without relying on classified evidence obtained in electronic surveillance of the Chinese telco, the company's request for disclosure of that classified evidence is moot, the appellate court said Tuesday (docket 21-5215). If the U.S. government wants to use those materials in another proceeding against China Telecom, it will have to petition a federal district court for a determination that the surveillance was legal, and the court will adjudicate whether due process requires disclosure, the appellate court ruled. Disclosing the classified evidence "would be wholly ineffectual" because the FCC revocation proceeding and appeal of it have ended, it said. The D.C. Circuit vacated the U.S. District Court order granting the federal government's petition seeking a determination the surveillance was lawful and its findings could be used by the FCC, and remanded it to the lower court with instructions to dismiss. Deciding for the D.C. Circuit were Judges Karen Henderson, Greg Katsas and Harry Edwards, with Henderson writing the nine-page decision. A China Telecom outside lawyer didn't comment. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement the agency's 2021 decision to revoke China Telecom's authorization was based on national security agencies' recommendation that the company's U.S. operations "provided opportunities for increased Chinese state-sponsored cyber activities, including economic espionage and the disruption and misrouting of U.S. communications traffic." "There is no higher FCC responsibility than safeguarding our networks, and today's ruling is a strong affirmation of our authority to do so," she said.

Nexstar and Comcast settled a year-old legal battle over a retransmission consent agreement for Mission Broadcasting’s WPIX New York, said an order Monday in docket 1:21-cv-06860 in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York (see 2211010063). Nexstar didn’t comment on the details of the settlement, but a Comcast spokesperson said the companies now have a retransmission consent agreement. The settlement resolves a breach of contract suit that began after Nexstar sought to apply after-acquired clauses to WPIX’s retransmission consent contracts with Comcast, after WPIX was acquired by the Nexstar-affiliated Mission Broadcasting. Comcast reacted by filing a petition for declaratory ruling against Nexstar with the FCC arguing Nexstar was violating media ownership limits, and Nexstar responded by filing the lawsuit against Comcast. The FCC never acted on Comcast’s petition, and Comcast said Tuesday the matter remains open and isn’t affected by the settlement. Charter filed a similar challenge in the superior court of Delaware, which a Nexstar spokesperson said remains ongoing. Late last month Nexstar lost a battle over discovery in the case, with two judges ruling retrans negotiations over WPIX during the lawsuit led to a blackout and Comcast filing a good faith negotiation complaint against Nexstar earlier this month (see 2212130029)