VOLUME 262—NO. 103 $4.00 WWW. NYLJ.COM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2019 Serving the Bench and Bar Since 1888 ©2019 ALM MEDIA PROPERTIES, LLC. COURT OF APPEALS IN BRIEF Chinese Professor’s hearing date of Dec. 3. She also NY Highest Court Judges Spar IP Fraud Case Reassigned mentioned that the payments were coming from a defendant A third judge in the Eastern in the case discussed in the Over How to Define the Word District of New York is now sealed relatedness motion. handling the case of a Chinese While the Curcio question ‘Act’ in Disability Benefits Case citizen accused of stealing an now moves to Chen’s court- American company’s intellec- room, Donnelly issued her tual property on behalf of the order Monday on the related- Office by Patricia Walsh, who was Chinese telecom giant Huawei, ness motion. BY DAN M. CLARK injured when an inmate acciden- according to orders filed Mon- “I have reviewed the Govern- tally fell on her while exiting a day. ment’s letter motion and con- JUDGES on the New York Court of transport van. Walsh broke the CRAIG RUTTLE/AP U.S. District Judge Pamela clude that the cases are not Appeals sparred Monday over how inmate’s fall and ended up with Chen of the Eastern District of presumptively related,” she the word “act,” as in action, should damage to her rotator cuff, cervi- Tova Noel, center, a federal jail guard responsible for monitoring Jeffrey Epstein New York was assigned the case wrote. “Indeed, the Government be defined in relation to an injured cal spine, and back. the night he killed himself, leaves federal court in Manhattan yesterday. after her colleague, U.S. District concedes as much in the letter, correction officer, who the court Walsh was represented before Judge Ann Donnelly of the East- asserting that the cases may not decided, in a rare split reversal, the Court of Appeals by Jonathan ern District of New York, found be presumptively related. I find was entitled Edelstein, managing partner at that the case is not presump- that relating the cases would to special Edelstein & Grossman in Manhat- tively related to another case not result in significant savings disability tan. Attorneys for Epstein on Donnelly’s docket. of judicial resources.” benefits over “The kind of accident that hap- Bo Mao was arrested in —Jane Wester the incident. pened here where an inmate is August in Texas, where he The majority, drunk or high and takes a fall is Guards Wary of Their was charged with conspiracy Ginsburg at High Court on a 4-3 vote, the kind of thing that can often hap- to commit wire fraud. Federal For Music Program ruled that a pen to a person, and is the kind of prosecutors say he helped to After Health Scare law entitled thing a correction officer should Clients Being Singled steal intellectual property for the injured be protected from,” Edelstein said. Justice Feinman a Chinese company, which is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, officer to It’s unclear if the inmate was widely believed to be Huawei. who was released from the performance-of-duty disability intoxicated or on drugs at the time, Out for System Failure Soon after Mao was arrested, hospital Sunday, was at the retirement benefits. Chief Judge but multiple correction officers tes- his case was moved to Brook- U.S. Supreme Court Monday Janet DiFiore was among the three tified at the time that she appeared lyn and quickly reassigned from to attend a scheduled musical judges on the dissenting side. that way. It was difficult for her to in August, while awaiting trial on U.S. District Judge Frederic program there, a spokeswoman “If the legislature intended to stand, Feinman wrote. BY TOM MCPARLAND sex-trafficking charges. Block of the Eastern District said. exclude the injuries at issue here, it Walsh was one of a few correc- After the hearing, Figgins said of New York to Donnelly. Pros- Ginsburg, 86, was hospital- could have easily drafted the statu- tion officers tasked with » Page 7 A MANHATTAN federal judge on his client was being used as a ecutors had filed a motion to ized Friday night with chills tory language more restrictively,” Monday set an April 30 trial date "scapegoat" for broader "system- designate the case as related to and a fever and treated with Associate Justice Paul Feinman The Court of Appeals decisions for two Metropolitan Correctional ic issues" at the federal Bureau of another case, but that motion antibiotics and fluids. She was wrote for the majority. begin on page 22. Center employees charged with Prisons. Particularly, Figgins raised has remained under seal, and first evaluated at Sibley Memo- The case was brought against falsifying records the night Jeffrey questions about staffing at MCC Mao’s defense attorneys com- rial Hospital in Washington the New York State Comptroller’s Online at nylj.com Epstein died in federal custody, as and why Epstein, the prominent plained in court Thursday that and then transferred to Johns attorneys for the accused decried a Manhattan and South Florida-based they haven’t seen it. Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, lack of accountability in the federal financier, was left in a cell by him- Donnelly’s docket includes a about 40 miles away. prison system. self in the jail's special housing major case involving Huawei, It was the latest in a series Montell Figgins, who is repre- unit, instead of with a cellmate. though she has not explicitly of recent health scares for the NY Lawyer Hit With $280K senting defendant Michael Thom- "There's only two people confirmed whether that case four-time cancer survivor, the as, told U.S. District Judge Analisa charged, but for this to happen, was the subject of the related- leader of the court’s liberal Torres of the Southern District of the whole system had to fail," Fig- ness motion, which was filed wing. She took a rare sick day Verdict by Ex-Client He Called New York that he wanted to see gins said. "Where are all the other Aug. 28. earlier this month when she the results of an inspector general people in the system who may have She came close in court missed an argument session ‘A-Hole,’ ‘Dangerous Jerk’ report, which he said could shed not done their job?" Thursday, when she was dis- with what court spokeswoman light on "conditions and super- "There are allegations that my cussing an upcoming conflict- Kathy Arberg described at the vision and policies" at the jail client didn't do his job," he con- of-interest hearing related to time as a stomach virus. around the time of Epstein's death tinued in remarks to » Page 7 payments to Mao’s attorneys. Until early this year, when BY JACK NEWSHAM Prosecutors say an Ameri- she was recovering from lung- can subsidiary of Huawei has cancer surgery, Ginsburg had A CRIMINAL defendant-turned-law- Donald agreed to pay for Mao’s Wilson never missed an » Page 6 yer won a $280,000 verdict in Man- Glassman Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and hattan earlier this month against 2nd Circuit Revives Suit Against Thompson & Knight attorneys. his former attorney who allegedly In a letter to Donnelly, assis- Amazon Hires Gibson labeled him an emotionally unsta- tant U.S. attorney Alexander Dunn, MoFo Teams ble “a-hole” and a “dangerous jerk” Ohio Drugmaker, Saying Judge Solomon explained that Mao’s To Sue Pentagon Over who mistreated women. alleged association with Hua- $10B Cloud Contract »2 After a 10-day trial, a state court Mishandled Jurisdictional Query wei is a key fact of the govern- jury found New York solo practitio- Robert ment’s case, so the payment ner Robert Feldman had breached Navidea creditor Platinum-Montaur Feldman agreements deserve special Follow us on a contract with his former client, BY TOM MCPARLAND Life Sciences LLC and its Holland & scrutiny. Twitter Donald Glassman, committed legal Knight attorneys, claiming that the Donnelly appointed Cur- malpractice and defamed him, THE U.S. Court of Appeals for the company was still owed the money @NYLawJournal cio counsel for Mao and set a among other findings. Second Circuit on Monday revived under a 2012 loan agreement. On several counts, however, the a lawsuit to recover $1.7 million in Originally filed in New York jury awarded no damages, which decade over the claims, stemming unpaid debt from Ohio-based drug- state court, Navidea, a Delaware both sides said would be the sub- from a roughly six-month period maker Navidea Biopharmaceuticals corporation headquartered in Dub- ject of post-trial motions. The jury after Glassman was convicted of Inc., saying a district court judge lin, Ohio, removed the suit to the awarded Glassman $10,000 for the third-degree rape of his then- had improperly dismissed the U.S. District Court for the Southern DECISIONS OF INTEREST breach of contract, $20,000 for wife. Glassman, who won a new case without first determining a District of New York, where Judge malpractice and $250,000 in puni- trial and was acquitted, became a key jurisdictional issue. Valerie Caproni later dismissed it First Department agreement to treat, eliminate ant tive damages. The trial was before lawyer after the criminal charges The ruling, from a three-judge for lack of Article III. The decision infestation. Niles v. Nature’s Way Pest Manhattan Supreme Court Justice were resolved. panel in an opinion by Judge followed confusion on both sides PERSONAL INJURY: Tenant raised Control, City Court, Warren. Louis Nock. Jon Norinsberg, a civil rights Michael Park of the U.S.