The Supreme Court's May 2009 ruling in Ashcroft v. Iqbal is quickly becoming the best thing to happen to the products liability defense bar since Daubert. We told you a couple of weeks ago about the dismissal of a false-marketing suit involving Astra Zeneca's antipsychotic Seroquel because it didn't meet the new, tougher pleading standard the Court laid down in Iqbal. Now we have word of two other recent Iqbal dismissals involving controversial products. No wonder Senator Arlen Specter is on the warpath!

In what's probably the last gasp of the analyst conflict-of-interest litigation, the appellate judges agreed with the SEC that mutual fund disclosure obligations shouldn't be broadened beyond what the law already delineates. Plus: Don't say Chinese Wall in the Second Circuit.

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy partner James Benedict told us on Wednesday he's received some very nice letters from the Fidelitys and the Vanguards of the world since winning a motion to dismiss in a derivative securities action last week. We can understand why. In the case, Rachelle Korland, a shareholder of EuroPacific Growth Fund, alleged, among other things, that the fees paid out of her fund to pay broker dealers were illegal. "This complaint could have been filed against any mutual fund," Benedict told us.

A plaintiff who bought six tickets to a Yankees-Royals game on Stubhub objected to paying $57.75 per ticket when the tickets' face value was just $20 a piece. She sued the Yankees, Stubhub, and its parent, eBay, for deceptive practices. Rejecting the claim, Manhattan federal district court judge John Keenan suggested Stubhub clients would have to be stupid not to realize they were paying a premium for reissued tickets.

Cite as: 61 W. 62 Owners Corp. v. CGM EMP LLC, 107341/09 , NYLJ 1202470997426, at *1 (App. Div., 1st, Decided August 24, 2010)Before: Tom, J.P.; Catterson, Mosk

Two cases don't quite make a trend, but it's pretty interesting that the federal judges who last week certified ERISA classes both previously dismissed securities class actions raising very similar allegations against the defendants.

It will be up to Delaware Chancellor Leo Strine Jr., not New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich, to preside over the crucial next two months of arguments in shareholder litigation over NYSE Euronext's $8.2 billion sale to IntercontinentalExchange.