Walker v. Medtronic Inc. The 4th Circuit upholds the district court decision that plaintiff has no common law tort claim against defendant Medtronic, maker of the allegedly defective SynchroMed pump for delivery of medication through a catheter, as her claim is preempted by the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 and regulations which provided for premarket approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Tagged with: Preemption Products Liability Tort/Negligence

American Petroleum Institute v. Cooper North Carolina’s Ethanol Blending Statute – which allows gasoline marketers in our state to participate in the blending of ethanol and gasoline (and the tax credits that go along with such blending) – does not conflict with and is not preempted by the Federal Renewable Fuel Program, the Lanham Act, or the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act, nor does the Ethanol Blending Statute violate the Commerce Clause. Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted.

Tagged with: Commerce Clause Constitutional Intellectual Property lanham act Preemption

Fisher v. Communication Workers of America Plaintiffs’ claims — that defendants violated North Carolina’s Identity Theft Protection Act and Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act by posting a list of plaintiffs’ names and social security numbers after plaintiffs dropped out of the defendant-union - are preempted by the National Labor Relations Act. We affirm summary judgment for defendants.

Tagged with: Labor & Employment Preemption Unfair Trade Practices

Williams v. American Eagle Airlines, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-07-1179, 14 pp.) (Barbara Jackson, J.) Appealed from Durham County Superior Court. (Allen Baddour, J.) N.C. App. Click here for the full text of the opinion. Holding: Where plaintiff belongs to ...

Tagged with: Breach of Contract Durham County Labor & Employment Preemption Tortious Interference

Ross v. FDIC (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-01-1063, 18 pp.) (Wilkinson, J.) No. 08-1851, Oct. 29, 2010; USDC at Raleigh, N.C. (Dever, J.) 4th Cir. Click here to read the full text of the opinion. Holding: A North Carolina high-school teacher ...

Tagged with: consumer protection limitations North Carolina Preemption Raleigh

Viable Solutions, L.L.C. v. Solace Consulting, LLC. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-04-0941, 7 pp.) (David C. Keesler, USMJ) W.D.N.C. Holding: Plaintiff showed that defendant Roundtree had access to plaintiff’s copyrighted manual and notice of its confidentiality when Roundtree worked for two ...

Tagged with: Breach of Fiduciary Duty Copyright Intellectual Property Preemption Unfair Trade Practices

Norfolk Southern Ry. Co. v. City of Alexandria. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-01-0589, 22 pp.) (King, J.) No. 09-1566, June 16, 2010; USDC at Alexandria, Va. 4th Cir. Holding: A city ordinance that has been applied to plaintiff railroad’s operation of ...

Tagged with: Municipal Preemption