British telecom giant Vodafone is not liable for up to $4.4 billion in back taxes and penalties, India’s top court said Friday, in a ruling that removes significant uncertainty for foreign companies investing in the country. At least eight other companies — including GE and AT&T — are fighting tax cases in India that could be affected by the Vodafone precedent.Visit International News

Bingham McCutchen has sued former client Frank McCourt, seeking a declaratory judgment that the firm is not liable for any losses the real estate developer turned baseball team owner might suffer as a result of his pending divorce action.

A California jury says Yamaha is not liable for injuries a man suffered when he crashed in one of the company’s off-road vehicles. The case was the first to go to trial among more than 170 lawsuits filed in California over the company’s Rhino brand of vehicles. The plaintiff argued that defects in his 2005 Rhino 660 caused it to roll, fracturing two bones in one leg.

Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are not liable for nearly $100 billion in losses allegedly incurred by a group of investors in mortgage-backed securities issued by Lehman Brothers, a federal judge has ruled, granting the rating agencies’ motion to dismiss the investors’ suit. The judge sided with Moody’s and S&P, who said they were not liable under the Securities Act of 1933 as either underwriters or sellers.

Every baseball fan — or at least every attorney who follows baseball — knows that under the doctrine of assumption of the risk a team is not liable for fans injured by, say, foul balls or broken bats. Now, in a suit filed by a New York fan whose nose was fractured by a bat during a Brooklyn Cyclones pregame, a New York judge has ruled that the doctrine also extends to a bat “propelled” by a player either “warming up” or “horsing around.”