Wolk & Levine, LLP

Last week the whole team at Wolk & Levine got together (via video conference) for a nice break during the workday to play a game called Who Da Baby? This game is about guessing which staff member was once the adorable child you see below. The game went very well, and a few people earned a small prize because they were able to get a perfect score. When it was over, everyone agreed that we were all a lot cuter before we got into the legal profession. #WhoDaBaby #LawFirm

Could there be a formula for negligence? In 1944, a barge tied up in New York Harbor broke its mooring lines, struck a tanker, and sank along with its government-owned cargo. In the ensuing lawsuit, United States v. Carroll Towing Co., Judge Learned Hand indicated that there was no rule for dealing with liability when an unmanned vessel causes damage. Judge Hand proposed the formula B < P x L as the solution, where P is the probability of harm, L is the gravity of harm, and... B is the burden of taking adequate precaution. Essentially, the test states that if the burden is less than the gravity of the harm times its likelihood, then the defendant hasn’t met the required standard of care, but if the burden is greater, then they may have met the standard. On the facts, Judge Hand determined that leaving the barge unattended posed a substantial enough risk to reasonably require a crewmember to be aboard, and thus, the defendant was held liable. Although modern juries are not told this formula when determining negligence, it represents the common-sense thought-process involved and the formula forms the core premise of many insurance and risk management practices today. #TortLaw #Liability #RiskManagement

On September 28th, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2655 into law. The new legislation would charge first responders who take and distribute unauthorized accident or crime scene photos of deceased individuals with a misdemeanor offense and a fine of up to $1,000. This law, informally referred to as the Kobe Bryant Act of 2020 by its sponsor, California Assembly member Mark Gipson, comes several months after revelations that eight LA County Sheriff's deputies took and shared unauthorized photos at the scene of the helicopter accident that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and 6 others. AB2655 will take effect on January 1,2021. #KobeBryant #CaliforniaLaw #FirstResponders

Wolk & Levine would like to wish a happy 92nd birthday to 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Senior Circuit Judge, Dorothy Wright Nelson. Ms. Wright Nelson is a graduate of both the UCLA School of Law and the USC Gould School of Law and was first appointed to the 9th Circuit Court under President Jimmy Carter in 1979. #legalbirthdays

COVID class action! Last month, the sandwich chain Earl of Sandwich filed a proposed class action suit against Liberty Mutual Insurance. They are seeking to represent a class of all commercial property policyholders that have been denied coverage of their losses during the pandemic. Earl of Sandwich alleges that it suffered substantial damage due to COVID-19 closures and that Liberty Mutual illegally denied coverage. The sandwich chain further claims that its insurance policy... does not have an exclusion for pandemics and, absent a finding of a virus on the premises, its virus and pollution exclusion should not apply to COVID-19. According to Earl of Sandwich, the virus does not meet the definition of a pollutant under the policy and the proximate cause of losses was precautionary measures taken by the state to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the future, not because coronavirus was found on or around plaintiff’s insured property. Earl of Sandwich, which cited news reports that the property-casualty insurance industry has $800 billion in surplus, is seeking payment of the business interruption losses of all class members as well as damages. #Covid19 #EarlofSandwich #ClassAction #InsuranceLaw

One year ago, today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which aimed to protect banks from federal liability for serving state-authorized cannabis businesses. Additionally, the SAFE Banking Act would allow legal cannabis businesses to open checking and savings accounts, use payroll services, open lines of credit provided by banks, and accept other means of payment besides cash. Unfortunately for those in this industry, ...the Senate Banking Committee has declined to hold a vote on the bill since it appeared before them last December. Back in May, lawmakers tried again to further the SAFE Banking Act, this time by including its provisions within the Coronavirus relief bill called the HEROES Act. The text of the bill cited the need for increased public safety as the reason for its inclusion within the relief package, asserting that cannabis businesses handling less cash will help curb the spread of Covid-19. The Senate, however, refused to hold a vote on this version HEROES Act. As of now, all iterations of the SAFE Banking Act remain in legislative limbo. Will state-authorized Marijuana Businesses ever get access to banking services? Only time will tell. #SAFEBankingAct #Covid19 #USSenate #Canibis #Marijuana

Last month, The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) successfully petitioned the Federal District Court in the Southern District of New York to vacate anti-trust rules that have governed the structure of the film industry for over 70 years. These rules came about in the late 1930s, when the DOJ sued eight of the major film studios of the time, to break up the functional monopoly they had achieved in all aspects of the film industry. The studios, in addition to owning the means of... production and distribution of motion pictures, also owned the theater chains where films were exhibited to the public. The result of the DOJ’s lawsuit was the establishment of The Paramount Decrees in 1948, which ended the monopoly and other anti-competitive activities in the film industry by forcing Studios to sell their theater chains while barring them from buying any more. The DOJ's recent petition to the Court argued that the decrees are no longer necessary and that it would be in the greater public interest if the Court terminated them. The DOJ reasoned that changes to state and federal anti-trust law since the enactment of the decrees, along with structural changes to the film industry are sufficient to stop the studios from engaging in monopolistic or anti-competitive activities. #AntiTrustLaw #DOJ #FilmIndustry #Movies

On Friday the world lost Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a titan of the legal profession. In recognition of the legal and social significance of her career, we are highlighting one of her celebrated accomplishments. Justice Ginsburg authored the dissenting SCOTUS opinion in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire, a 2007 case in which a trial court jury awarded plaintiff Lily Ledbetter 3.6 million dollars on claims that her employer, Goodyear Tire, was paying her lower wages than it should h...ave due to discriminatory pay policies. When Goodyear appealed the decision, the Court of Appeals ruled that the discriminatory pay policies were established well outside of the statute of limitations to bring such claims. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the Appeals Court's interpretation of the law in a 5-4 decision. Justice Ginsburg disagreed. In her dissenting opinion, she argued that every issued paycheck that follows discriminatory wage policies is in and of itself, an act of discrimination, and therefore resets the statute of limitations to bring wage discrimination claims. Years later, In the first piece of legislation signed in his administration, President Obama signed the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. The bill nullified the Court’s earlier decision and put the law in line with Justice Ginsberg’s dissenting opinion. Ginsburg reportedly framed the text of the bill and hung it in her chambers. #SCOTUS #RBG

On this day in 1787, the delegates in attendance for the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia formally signed and ratified the U.S. Constitution. Every September 17th, The U.S. Government not only observes the date of the formal adoption of the Constitution but also recognizes all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens.

A Song of Ice and Fire author and Game of Thrones co-executive producer, George R.R. Martin, has filed suit in California alleging that the film rights to his horror novella, The Skin Trade, reverted to him after a production company failed to use them. An agreement in 2014 provided that Blackstone Manor LLC would lose the rights if principal photography did not begin by September 1, 2019. When asked to extend the agreement, Martin declined. In his complaint, Martin cla...ims that on September 1, at the last moment, Blackstone Manor put together a bare-bones cast and crew to begin shooting a small number of scenes, based on a script he described as of unknown origin, length or quality. He argues Blackstone’s intent was not to produce a film but merely to prevent reversion of the rights and likened the situation to a contractor agreeing to build a skyscraper and, on the last day to begin construction without a foreman, crew, or approved blueprints having a handful of day laborers take a month to build a gazebo on the construction site instead. Martin alleges breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and is seeking a declaration stating that he is the true owner of the rights. #GeorgeRRMartin #ContractLaw #GameofThrones #Skintrade See more

Attention Glendale Businesses! Do you want to show your customers and employees that you are committed to keeping them safe and curbing the spread of Covid-19 in your business? If you do, consider taking the Glendale Economic Division (@ChooseGlendale)’s Safety First Pledge. When businesses take the Safety First Pledge, they promise to follow all Los Angeles County reopening protocols and guidelines, educate employees on said protocols and guidelines, institute regular cleani...ng policies within the business, enforce the use of face coverings and social distancing by employees and customers, and comply with other important safety measures. Businesses that take the safety pledge can receive face masks and hand sanitizer (while supplies last), Safety First signage and window decals, as well as promotion of your business on the Glendale Economic Development newsletter. You can take the Covid-19 Safety First Pledge today at chooseglendaleca.com/safetyfirstpledge #Reopening #SaferAtWork #ChooseGlendale #Covid19

Judy Scheindlin, host of the long-running court show Judge Judy, filed a lawsuit against talent agency, Rebel Entertainment Partners, and its president Richard Lawrence last month in Los Angeles Superior Court. The issue at the heart of the case is about so-called package fees which are fee agreements between production companies and talent agencies that are given to agencies in exchange for bringing talent to a project. These fees are often paid in perpetuity. Judge Jud...y’s complaint alleges that Defendants made the most absurd, unconscionable and unlawful purported packaging fee arrangement in the history of television in which Defendants made roughly $22,000,000 since the show premiered in 1996. Judge Judy argues that Defendants are not entitled to one penny of fees because they never represented a package and only represented two non-writing, then unemployed producers and that the fee agreement constituted egregious self-dealing that violated Defendants’ fiduciary duties owed to their client. #JudgeJudy #FiduciaryDuty #LASuperiorCourt