The issue of the state of mind or intent of a party can play out a number of ways based on the nature of the case. In the criminal context, proof of the mens rea of the defendant is typically an element in the statutory definition of the crime. In a civil contract case, whether
When Bexis sends around his weekly list of potentially bloggable cases, we always lunge for the criminal matters, which are fairly rare. Cases brought under Title 21 bring us back to our days at the U.S. Attorney’s office, where we knew nothing of billable hours, MDL case management orders, fancy office coffee machines, or an
A few years ago, we detailed the efforts of the plaintiffs’ bar to tweak the Restatement of Torts to decrease the chance that a suit for damages would be defeated because the plaintiff engaged in a criminal act. The Restatement (Second) from 1979 called this the Wrongful Acts Doctrine, but the concept has a long
We write today with an update on a case applying the defense of illegality (or “in pari delicto”) to cut off product liability claims under Kansas law. Messerli v. AW Distributing, Inc. is the sad case of someone who passed away, allegedly as a result of inhaling intoxicating fumes (or “huffing”) from computer
We don’t write a lot on criminal cases, but published opinions in the Ninth Circuit involving the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act always catch our eye. In United States v. Marschall, No. 22-30048, 2023 WL 6135771 (9th Cir. Sept. 20, 2023) (to be published in F.4th), the Ninth Circuit held last week that some
We don’t see the defense of illegality much in the product liability space, but when a plaintiff’s claims arises from his or her own illegal behavior, the illegality defense can be a powerful tool. We mention this now because a district court in Kansas recently applied the illegality defense to dismiss a case based on
When Bexis sends around the weekly list of cases, we jump on the ones where the United States is the first listed party. It returns us to our salad days at the U.S. Attorney’s Office way back at the end of the 20th century. (We had more fun, more authority, more hair, and less insomnia
We have a weak spot for criminal cases. We also have a weak spot for doom-scrolling, inevitably provoked by the country’s insane politics over the last eight years. And we have a weak spot for visiting nearby Delaware, home of tax-free shopping, excellent beaches, Dogfish Head Brewery, and judges who know corporate law. We live
Last year the HHS Office of Inspector General issues a “Special Fraud Alert” (“Alert”) concerning “Speaker Programs” – more usually known as continuing medical education (“CME”). Since we believe that truthful commercial speech is First Amendment protected, seeing “fraud” bandied about like this caused us to take a look. We’re well aware that for years
Here’s another quasi-guest post by Reed Smith’s blogger-in-training Dean Balaes. This one provides a critique of the scary Park doctrine, aptly described here as “Frankenstein’s Monster,” that allows imposition of criminal liability on corporate officers for illegality they didn’t even know about.
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In 1816, Mary Shelley and Lord Byron entered into a wager to