In the latest win for the National Credit Union Administration, financial institutions including Royal Bank of Scotland and Wells Fargo lost a bid to dodge claims that they duped Kansas-based U.S. Central Federal Credit Union into pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into residential mortgage-backed securities.

On Wednesday a state appellate court in California revived a putative class action accusing Chevron of failing to compensate consumers for the effects of hot temperatures on the amount of gas dispensed at the pump. Just days before, a judge in Kansas denied a bid by Shell, BP, and other defendants to decertify a class of Kansas consumers in federal multidistrict litigation over hot fuel.

The $1 billion jury verdict that Lombardi won for Monsanto on Wednesday against bitter rival DuPont was the biggest of the year--and the fourth largest ever in a patent case.