A long-standing legal feud between Alabama and two neighboring states is likely headed to the Supreme Court. The dispute centers around how much drinking water metro Atlanta can take from Lake Lanier on the Chattahoochee River.

Lawyers for Florida and Alabama asked the Supreme to step in after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Georgia. The ruling was a major setback for the two states, which contend that Congress never intended that the federally funded reservoir would provide local drinking water.

They argue that the 1946 Rivers and Harbors Act authorized Buford Dam and Lake Lanier for hydropower, navigation, and flood control, not for drinking water. In addition, the two downstream states claim that metro Atlanta is using so much water upstream that it is having a negative economic and environmental impact, threatening the water supply for factories, industries, and wildlife.

“In terms of dollars and cents, the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling has the potential to shift the need for billions of dollars of infrastructure expenditures from the Atlanta region to downstream communities, including those in Alabama and Florida,” lawyers for Alabama said.

The balance of power is this dispute has seesawed back and forth over the past several years. In 2009, Florida and Alabama scored a victory when U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson agreed that metro Atlanta had little legal authority to draw water from Lake Lanier. He also set a July 2012 deadline for officials from the three states to reach a deal resolving their dispute over water rights. Georgia subsequently appealed and negotiations have failed, leading to the inevitable Supreme Court showdown.

Assuming the Supreme Court agrees to hear the matter, this will be an interesting case to watch. It will also finally bring closure to a feud that has been going on for over twenty years.

Sources: The Associated Press and Anniston Star

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

Intellectual property is becoming increasingly valuable to businesses in Birmingham and across the country. As a result, many more companies are filing lawsuits to protect it.

Just this month, a Hoover seller of athletic protective masks filed a patent infringement lawsuit against a sporting goods store chain and a California-based company. The Alabama business lawsuit was filed by Sportshields LLC, based in Hoover, in U.S. District Court in Birmingham.

The defendants named in the lawsuit are Academy Sports and Outdoors and Pro Performance Sports LLC, a San Diego, Calif., company that does business as SKLZ.

According to the complaint, Sportshields has been selling its patented sports face masks since 2008. However, over the past year, SKLZ and Academy have been making, importing and selling one or more masks that infringe on the Sportshields patent, according to the lawsuit.

Among other things, the lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop Academy and SKLZ from infringing on the patent rights and damages in an amount at least equal to Sportshields’ lost profits, plus other damages.

Source: Birmingham News

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

In the latest development in the hostile takeover bid of Birmingham’s Vulcan Materials, Martin Marietta Materials has announced that it will seek Department of Justice Approval this spring. By doing so, Martin Materials would address one legal hurdle standing in the way of its attempted acquisition of Vulcan.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the company reached an agreement with DOJ to discuss the merger in late April, ahead of Vulcan’s next shareholders meeting in May. At this time, the parties will address the DOJ’s antitrust concerns in an attempt to come to terms on a consent order. If an agreement with the DOJ is not reached in April, the agreement provides that Martin Marietta will not seek to close the transaction prior to mid-August without the consent of the DOJ.

“We believe that both sets of shareholders will be best-served by Vulcan and Martin Marietta commencing active, good-faith negotiations with a view toward reaching mutual agreement on a compelling transaction,” said Martin Marietta President and Chief Executive Ward Nye.

“We are ready and willing to meet with Vulcan and their advisers immediately to accomplish this objective,” he added.

In a statement, Vulcan said, “This timing agreement is a routine procedural step by the DOJ and is fully consistent with our expectations and analysis. We think it’s important for both sets of shareholders to have clarity on the impact of the DOJ process.”

For more information about what the DOJ will be considering at the April hearing, please see our previous post here.

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

Last week, opening statements were held in the retrial of State House vote-buying case. As we discussed on this blog, the case was first tried last summer but ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision on all charges.

VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, Sen. Harri Anne Smith of Slocomb, former state Sens. Larry Means and Jim Preuitt, lobbyist Tom Coker and former Country Crossing casino spokesman Jay Walker face charges accusing them of offering, or accepting, cash and campaign contributions in connection with a proposed gambling bill.

According to both prosecutors and defense attorneys, the new trial won’t be a rehashing of the arguments made this summer. “I think it’s going to be different. I think you’ll hear some different things from the government and also some different things from us,” lawyer Joe Espy said.

Like the first trial, the government will have to explain to the jury the difference between bribery and permissible campaign contributions. Then, prosecutors must convince the jury that McGregor and the other defendants did indeed break the law.

The case is expected to last up to two months.

Source: Birmingham News

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

Jefferson County can’t seem to stay out of the courtroom. Bank of New York Mellon has filed a business lawsuit against Alabama’s bankrupt county, accusing it of improperly cutting the amount of money owed to holders of its sewer-system debt.

Specifically, BNY alleges that the county is improperly charging attorneys’ fees and other costs against the system’s net revenue. The bank is an indenture trustee of $3.6 billion of sewer system warrants, tasked with managing the administrative aspects of loans like payments.

According to the lawsuit, the county has violated the creditors’ rights by reducing the system’s net revenue due creditors by deducting certain costs, which include depreciation and amortization, money for planned capital expenditures and other non-operating costs.

The lawsuit comes just after the bankruptcy court handed control of the sewer system back to county officials from a state-appointed receiver. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Bennett required county officials to continue payments to creditors from the system’s revenue but did dictate the amounts to be paid.

The BNY lawsuit asks Bennett to bar Jefferson County from charging any expenses beyond labor and other customary operating costs from the monthly amounts due to sewer system warrant holders.

Source: Reuters

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

As Birmingham business attorneys, we are not surprised to see the attempted takeover of Birmingham-based Vulcan Materials Co. is headed to the court. A Delaware Chancery Court judge is scheduled to hear the business lawsuit on Feb. 28. The issue before the court the legality of Martin Marietta Materials Inc.’s hostile takeover bid.

As we have been discussing on the blog, the contentious takeover bid has spurred a number of different lawsuits, including those by Vulcan shareholders who favor the deal. In the Delaware lawsuit, Martin Marietta is seeking a declaration that a non-disclosure agreement between it and Vulcan will not stand in the way of its takeover bid.

In its countersuit, Vulcan contends that Martin Marietta used confidential information in in hostile takeover bid. Specifically, the Alabama company alleges Martin Marietta violated a letter of agreement and separate confidentiality agreement when it used private information from Vulcan to publicly argue the benefits of a merger last December. It argues that these breaches should bar any takeover attempt.

Vulcan further argues that Martin Marietta sought to “cover its tracks” by filing the current lawsuit that seeks a declaration that it complied with the letter of agreement.

Source: Birmingham Business Journal

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

In many ways, business relationships are just like a marriage. They are great when they work, but messy if things don’t go well.

When resolving Alabama business disputes is rarely easy, there are steps you can take to make the process a bit less painful.

Remain Objective. As with any type of dispute, it is often difficult to keep emotions in check. It is understandable given that owners often invest significant time and money into the business. However, emotions can often cloud our judgments and get in the way of a solution.

Address the Problem Promptly. While minor issues may resolve on their own, major issues generally only get worse over time and can end up destroying the business. Therefore, it is important to address disputes quickly and openly.

Prepare Ahead. Having a plan in place to deal with disagreements is the best way to avoid litigation. For instance, having a buy-sell agreement in place can avoid a messy business breakup.

Ask for Help. In many cases, the dispute cannot be resolved without the assistance of an Alabama business attorney. Often, a mediator can also help broker an equitable agreement between business owners.

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

The ongoing business litigation between the University of Alabama and sports artist Daniel Moore took central stage last week in an Atlanta courtroom. The artist, famous for his paintings of Alabama football, is facing trademark infringement claims by the university.

Moore’s paintings and prints depict some of the most famous victories in Alabama sports history, including The Goal Line Stand from the 1979 Sugar Bowl against Penn State. He is currently working on The Shutout from last season’s national championship win over LSU.

While Moore claims that his work is protected under the First Amendment, Alabama maintains that Moore should pay royalties for the ability to use the Crimson Tide’s trademarks, name, colors, indicia, and logos.

In 2009, a federal judge found that Moore’s paintings and prints were protected but that other merchandise that featured those painting was not. Both sides appealed.

The appellate decision is expected to have a significant impact on sports licensing. The overall retail market for collegiate licensed products is valued at $4.3 billion a year, of which sports art comprised about one percent.

Both Moore and Alabama also have powerful allies. The Collegiate Licensing Company, which represents Alabama and many other big name schools, wrote a friend-of-the-court brief on the university’s behalf. Meanwhile, Moore has the backing of some 30 law school professors.

We will, of course, keep you updated.

Source: CBS Sports

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

With all of the talk about Martin Marietta Materials Inc.’s proposed hostile takeover of Birmingham-based Vulcan Material’s Co., we want to give our readers a brief overview of the federal laws regarding mergers and acquisitions.

As we mentioned last week, the federal government has recently stepped up its scrutiny of proposed mergers, leaving many businesses wary of large-scale mergers and acquisitions. However, mergers can still be a great way for Alabama businesses to grow and expand into new areas.

In fact, each year, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice review over a thousand merger filings. According to the FTC, 95 percent of merger filings present no competitive issues.

What mergers will be questioned?

Merger law bars mergers that may lead to harmful effects. Section 7 of the Clayton Act specifically prohibits mergers and acquisitions when the effect “may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly.” The key question the agency asks is whether the proposed merger is likely to create or enhance market power or facilitate its exercise. Issues like higher prices, fewer or lower-quality goods or services, or less innovation are often considered as well.

Due to their potential impact on the marketplace, proposed mergers between direct competitors (horizontal mergers) often get the closest examination. This was the case with AT&T’s failed efforts to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG last year.

What happens when a merger is investigated?

In many cases, the parties are able to resolve competitive concerns by consent agreement, which allows the beneficial aspects of the deal to proceed while addressing the competitive threat. Yet, in some cases, the agency and the parties will not agree on a fix, and the government may go to federal court to prevent the merger pending an administrative trial on the merits of the deal.

Source: FTC

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.

A recent decision in the BP oil spill litigation highlights just how important an Alabama business contract can be, particularly when it comes to assigning liability. The federal court ruled that the oil rig owner Transocean is not liable for many of the pollution claims because it was shielded by a contract provision in its agreement with well-owner BP.

Despite this court win, Transocean is still on the hook. As reported by the Associated Press, while the contract provision saved Transocean from having to pay potentially billions of dollars in damage claims, it is not exempt from other liability. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier found that the driller is still liable for punitive damages and civil penalties, which could also be billions of dollars.

The decision comes amidst talks of a potential settlement. BP has been working with multiple parties to reach settlements that would avoid the trial scheduled to begin in February, or at least eliminate many of the issues to be decided.

The Justice Department is working with the states to create an outline for a settlement, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange told The Associated Press. According to Strange, a federal magistrate judge has also been asked to assist in settlement discussions.

“The closer you get to a trial date, the more pressure builds to reach a settlement,” Strange said.

Rutledge & Yaghmai is a full service litigation firm that offers more than fifty-seven years of diverse legal experience. The attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai leverage that experience to assist large and small businesses throughout Alabama in achieving their business goals while minimizing their risks.

In addition to offering transactional business services such as Alabama business formation and planning, Rutledge & Yaghmai prides itself on the diversity of Alabama business litigation cases it has handled successfully.

To learn more about the wide range of transactional and business litigation services we offer Alabama businesses, please contact the attorneys of Rutledge & Yaghmai today.