Moez M. Kaba

Kaba has won significant victories for clients such as Amgen Inc. in its battle to prevent state authorities from disclosing pricing information; for social networking app Grindr in a case over its potential liability for the acts of users; and for the Navajo Nation in its suit against the Environmental Protection Agency and several mining companies.

“They’re keeping me busy,” he said. That referred to client Valient Pharmaceuticals International Inc., though Kaba could have been talking about his extensive litigation work as a whole. For Valient and parent Bausch Health Co., Kaba was in court in San Francisco in early August seeking to persuade U.S. District Judge James Donato to dismiss a whistleblower suit claiming Valient improperly sought to block cheaper generic versions of an ulcerative colitis drug. Silbersher v. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., 18-cv-01496 (N.D. Cal., filed March 8, 2018).

The plaintiff’s complaint “gets credit for its novelty but is incredible in its reach,” Kaba told the judge, alleging that the patent attorney who claimed to be a whistleblower had no inside information on the drug maker’s conduct but was relying on publicly available knowledge.

Donato appeared to be swayed. “If anyone can file the case, it’s not a [False Claims Act] case,” the judge said at the hearing, though he added that he might give the plaintiff a chance to amend his complaint.

It was hardly Kaba’s first job for Valient. As lead counsel he won judgment on the pleadings in May 2019 in a $100 million trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract case, after taking over the defense in 2018. Iconlab Inc. v. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., 8:16-cv-01321 (C.D. Cal., filed July 14, 2016).

Kaba said his winning argument in that matter was that the events alleged arose out of the activities of foreign manufacturers. “My client did not engage in the activities alleged, and the court could never fashion a remedy in the U.S.,” Kaba said he told the judge, who agreed.

“This was a very important win for our client. We like to take on these important and difficult cases.”

For gay dating app Grindr LLP, Kaba won unanimous affirmance at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a social network application and its owners cannot be held liable for the acts of users. The ruling for the first time applied Communications Decency Act immunity to apps. Herrick v. Grindr LLP, 18-cv-396 (2nd Cir., opinion filed Feb. 9, 2018).

“The other side has petitioned for cert,” Kaba said. “They’re trying to reverse the CDA. I think their chances are slim.”

— John Roemer