Tuesday's ruling notes that a Universal Music Group Inc. affiliate ended its contract with Remy Ma nine months before she shot Makeda Barnes-Joseph outside a Manhattan nightclub.

The Grammy Award-nominated rapper was convicted of assault and other charges. She's serving an eight-year prison sentence.

Barnes-Joseph's lawyer says she's disappointed by the ruling. A lawyer for Remy Ma had no immediate comment. A lawyer for Universal didn't immediately return a call.

The appeals court upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss Barnes-Joseph's case against Universal and various affiliates. She also is suing the rapper and the club.

A San Francisco law firm, which was sued by the bankruptcy trustee in charge of liquidating Thornburg Mortgage, has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it "long on rhetoric but short on facts."

The trustee's lawsuit filed in March named attorney Karen Dempsey of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and the firm itself as part of an alleged conspiracy that involved four top Thornburg executives improperly paying themselves handsome bonuses just before the mortgage lender filed for bankruptcy last year.

In court papers filed on Monday, the law firm said the complaint did not show that Dempsy knew about the allegedly improper conduct of the executives.

"Using novel theories of conspiracy and aiding and abetting, the trustee seeks to impose what would be unprecedented 'vicarious' liability on special counsel for a debtor," the filing said.

A lawyer opened a sex discrimination trial Thursday by accusing the U.S. arm of Swiss drug company Novartis of discriminating against 5,600 female sales representatives, saying they are denied promotions and equal pay and sometimes face a hostile workplace.

Attorney Katherine Kimpel acknowledged to the jury in federal court in Manhattan that the company has extensive written materials warning against discrimination but accused it of "saying one thing on paper but another thing in real life."

She said women hired since 2002 entered a company that disrespects and undermines its female workers, resulting in lower pay, fewer promotions and sometimes a hostile workplace dominated by an "old boys network."

She said the discrimination was especially severe for women who became pregnant. Sometimes, she said, they faced managers who fished through their work looking for ways to spoil their careers or pressured them to take shorter leaves or to work while they were on leave.

Novartis attorney Richard Schnadig said the company does not discriminate against women and there was no glass ceiling.

"This is a fair, decent, responsive company that has been sensitive to women's' needs," he said. "We don't discriminate. ... the company makes no claims that we're perfect."

Schnadig said 70 percent of its sales managers are men because the demographics of the workplace have not yet recovered from the days when fewer women entered the work force. He said the company has 14,000 U.S. employees with significant numbers of senior positions held by women, some of whom will testify at the trial.

The public relations nightmare for Toyota continues. The company has been plagued with recall after recall. After its most recent announcement, the company faces a class-action lawsuit. On Feb. 9, Toyota announced that the 2010 Toyota Prius, which was previously exempt from recalls, was now being recalled because of a problem with the brake system.

At the same time, Toyota announced that the all-new Lexus HS 250h hybrid was also being recalled due to a similar brake issue. Embedded in that same announcement was a note that about 7,300 2010-model Toyota Camrys were also being recalled due to a completely unrelated issue.

Two days later, Alabama law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. announced that they were pursuing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 500,000 Toyota Prius and Lexus hybrid owners.

According to Dan Miles, head of the law firm’s consumer fraud and class action department, Toyota knew about the braking system defect well in advance of the official recall.