Cases
Representative Matters: In re Zynga Privacy Litigation - Commercial Litigation - Obtained judgment dismissing consolidated federal class actions alleging claims under Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Stored Communications Act, Computer Fraud
Abuse Act, as well as state common-law
statutory claims. Plaintiffs alleged that Zynga shared personally identifiable information with advertisers through the transmission of referrer headers that linked to Facebook user pages - allegations that were based on an October 18, 2010, front-page Wall Street Journal article. Zynga argued that any leakage did not involve the contents of any communications under the federal privacy statutes, that any transmissions resulted from st
ard web-browser operations
that plaintiffs had not alleged any actual harm. In May 2014, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of all claims against Zynga
the dismissal of most claims against Facebook in the parallel Facebook Privacy case. In re: Zynga Privacy Litigation, 750 F.3d 1098 (9th Cir. 2014).
Swift v. Zynga Inc. - Commercial Litigation - obtained a dismissal with prejudice of a class action brought against Zynga Inc. under the California Unfair Competition Law
the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, following a successful motion to compel arbitration based on the U.S. Supreme Court's 2011 AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion decision. In the first application of that decision to an online terms of service agreement, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found that the Zynga's modified click-wrap agreement was effective to bind the plaintiff to arbitrate the claims as an individual -
, did not allow the plaintiff to pursue her claim as a representative of the putative class. Swift v. Zynga Game Network, Inc., 805 F.Supp. 2d 904 (N.D. Cal. 2011)
The Kindred Limited Partnership v. Screen Actors Guild- Commercial Litigation - Copyright infringement
wrongful foreclosure action brought on behalf of Feldman/Meeker Co. to obtain return of copyright for the motion picture The Kindred. Obtained partial summary judgment that SAG's foreclosure on the motion picture copyright was unlawful
ineffective. Damages claim settled shortly before trial set for June 2010.
Airis v. City
County of San Francisco - Commercial Litigation - Plaintiff's jury verdict in May-June 2007 trial in favor of world's largest air cargo developer arising from planned quarter-billion dollar air cargo facility at SFO. The verdict against the city was based on a unanimous jury finding that the city's airport staff breached its contract duties under a San Francisco Airport Commission-awarded exclusive negotiation agreement by unfairly interfering with the approval process before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The California Court of Appeal, First District, Division Two, in September 2010 reversed the trial court's JNOV
reinstated the unanimous jury verdict. Airis v. City
County of San Francisco, 2010 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 7546 (2010). Following reinstatement of the judgment
an Airis motion for attorneys' fees
costs as the prevailing party, the City paid the judgment
settled the attorneys' fees
costs issue by paying $8.8 million.
PeopleData v. Yahoo! - Commercial Litigation - representation of Yahoo! in defense of breach of pay-per-click advertising contract
various related tort claims
prosecution of cross-complaint for successor liability
fraudulent conveyance of business assets. Matter was settled, with Yahoo! as a defendant obtaining an affirmative recovery.
Hool
Meeker v. Village Roadshow Limited - Commercial Litigation - representation of independent movie producers in fraudulent conveyance action against entertainment industry conglomerate based on transfer of business
employees of a corporate subsidiary following arbitration award
judgment, which with interest totaled $40 million. Case settled after defeating summary judgment motions
within one month of trial.
Pacific Resources v. ULR - Commercial Litigation - successful defense, including recovery of defense attorneys' fees in a three-judge arbitration panel dispute involving breach of contract/fiduciary duty claims associated with the dissolution of a financial consulting joint venture
FMC v. London Market Insurers - Insurance Coverage - defense jury verdict in FMC's $20 million claim for environmental cleanup at its Mouat site (later reported at FMC Corporation v. Plaisted
Companies, 61 Cal.App.4th 1132, 1165-1179 (1998).
Aerojet-General v. Cheshire
Companies - Insurance Coverage Litigation - Mr. Seabolt was lead defense counsel in Aerojet-General Corp. v. Transport Indemnity Co., a ten-month, four-phase trial (including two jury trial phases) in a specially constructed, converted auditorium courtroom involving more than 30 other law firms. After three months of trial, the jury returned a unanimous defense verdict, rejecting Aerojet's claim against its insurers for pollution cleanup costs estimated at between $500 million to $1 billion. The National Law Journal
the San Francisco Daily Journal highlighted the case as among the largest jury trials tried to a defense verdict in 1992. Mr. Seabolt's opening statement in that case has been published in Environmental Insurance Litigation (Shepard's/ McGraw-Hill 1992). The California Supreme Court later affirmed the defense verdict on Aerojet's indemnity claim. Aerojet-General v. Transport 17 Cal.4th 38 (1997). The Court of Appeal later affirmed the res judicata effect of that judgment
quoted part of Mr. Seabolt's closing argument at the original trial. See, Aerojet-General Corp. v. American Excess, 97 Cal.App.4th 387, 412 (Feb. 2002).
Kelly v. Alex
er Grant - Commercial Litigation - successful defense of preliminary injunction
arbitration brought by a national accounting firm against key Tax partner under partnership noncompete clause.
Briscoe v. Morrison-Knudsen - Construction Litigation - successful defense of construction manager in a $30 million construction delay case involving an advanced wastewater treatment plant (other aspects of the case reported at Frank Briscoe Co. v. Clark County, 857 F.2d 606 (9th Cir. 1988)).
Morrison-Knudsen v. Kaiser Cement - Construction Litigation - International Chamber of Commerce arbitration arising from the construction of a cement plant in Indonesia.
Other Construction Litigation Matters - representation of contractor for construction contract delay claim arising from the construction of the Trans-Panama Pipeline, defense of design engineers arising from dam failures at Winslow, Arizona
Bajo Piura, Peru, defense of design engineer on San Francisco Muni-Metro Rail Center
Representation of the company that developed the first computerized engraving system in a trade secret dispute.
