The following published opinions were released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on May 23, 2008:
St. Paul Travelers Insurance Co. v. Century Asphalt Materials LLC (Higginbotham, Benavides, Dennis, JJ.; opinion by Dennis, J.). Contractor Technology (”contractor”) made payments for materials delivered by Century Asphalt (”supplier”) for contractor’s Texas public works project; in the interim period between remitting the checks to the supplier and the checks clearing, contractor filed for bankruptcy. In the proceedings before the bankruptcy court, the bankruptcy court found the payments to be unauthorized post-petition transfers and ordered supplier to relinquish the payments back to contractor. Supplier then sought to recover the payments against the payment bond issued by St. Paul. The bankruptcy court held that its order to relinquish payments placed the parties back into the status they would have been in at the time payments would have been due, and that the time period for making payment bond claims for public works projects under Texas’s McGregor Act did not begin to run until its order, making the payment bond claim timely. The district court reversed, holding that the payment bond claim was recluded by the McGregor Act’s timing requirement. On appeal of the district court’s order, the Fifth Circuit affirmed, holding that § 2253 does contain a notice exemption for bond claims that are avoided under bankruptcy, and that equitable tolling could not be applied to avoid the McGregor Act’s timing requirements.
Paulsson Geophysical Services, Inc. v. Sigmar (Garwood, Clement, Elrod, JJ.; per curiam opinion). Affirming preliminary injunction in Lanham Act case, holding that court had subject matter jurisdiction over Lanham Act claim against U.S. defendants, even though claim was based on mis-use of trademark in transaction between defendants and Pemex; and that Paulsson had shown all the necessary elements to justify the preliminary injunction.