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Tag Archives: third-party

Civil Practice – Federal Jurisdiction – Diversity – Remand – Fraudulent Joinder Argument – Contract – Third-Party Beneficiary

Sonic Automotive, Inc. v. Blanchard : Although defendant argues that the N.C. plaintiff fraudulently joined a Texas car dealership as a plaintiff in order to defeat diversity, the complaint alleges that the Texas dealership was a third-party beneficiary of the (allegedly breached) contract between the N.C. company and the Texas-resident defendant. In fact, the Texas dealership was defendant’s employer when the contract was executed. Defendant has failed to show that the Texas dealership was fraudulently joined.

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Jury discounts contrib defense in trucker’s P.I. case

It was a cold day in December 2008 when Mike Sprinkle backed his tanker truck up to the loading dock at an asphalt plant in Greensboro and, like he had done many times before, climbed a ladder to the top of the truck and guided a pipe into an opening for a refill. An employee of the plant, Hammaker East, told Sprinkle that the pipes were clogged and it would be a short while before the asphalt started flowing. But when the clog was dislodged, the burst of asphalt was so strong it caused the pipe to fly out of the truck, spraying asphalt all over Sprinkle and knocking him to the ground, shattering his knee in the process.

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Practical Litigator: Third-party cases in hiding – The corporate relative case

Several years ago a prominent and weather-tested workers' compensation lawyer from down east approached me at a CLE where I had just finished a presentation on inadequate-security cases. He represented the estate of a young woman who had been murdered while working at a check-cashing store, leaving behind two young children. The facts of the case were horrific. The woman was working alone on a Saturday morning and was found by a customer. Her head had been all but severed from her body. Her fingertips had been removed with surgical precision at the first finger joint. Although more than two years had passed since the crime, the police had no suspects.

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Mediated settlement reached in Indian Beach condo dispute

The plaintiff was serving as general contractor on a 70-unit condominium project located at Indian Beach (“the project”) in a contract with Shearin Family Investments, LLC (“Shearin”). The defendant was the construction lender for the project. Beginning in 2007, the ...

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