May 2006 Archives

The Supreme Court will decide if tobacco giant Philip Morris must pay nearly $80 million in damages to the family of a longtime smoker, Jesse D. Williams. At $79.5 million, the award in the Oregon case is more than 150 times the $521,000 actual damages awarded by the jury.

The outcome of this case will determine if companies could be shielded from large jury awards. A 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling had recommended there should be no more than a 9-to-1 ratio between punitive damages and other compensatory damages.

Read "Court Trims $ 150 Million Tobacco Award" posted on May 18.

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Anne Majerik, 60, enlisted the services of a Beverly Hills matchmaker, Orly Hadida, reputed to be "the world's priciest matchmaker" and paid her $125,000 to meet with wealthy, cultured men. She was disappointed when all she got were a few introductions to some inappropriate men, and sued Orly. A jury has awarded Majerik $ 2.1 million compensation.

Orly argued that Majerik is a serial suer of matchmakers. She said that the widow used her and the men Orly introduced her to, enjoyed herself and then claimed that she had been "psychologically damaged by the process" and demanded compensation.

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The Manhattan Institute Center has published a report 'Trial Lawyers, Inc.: Health Care ' examines the impact of the "litigation industry" on health care. This is the third in a series of reports published by the center on 'Trial Lawyers, Inc."

The report finds that litigation is a large contributor to the health care bill, and pharmaceutical litigation also exacts a staggering cost on the economy. Litigation exposure is many times more than the annual research and development budgets of the pharmaceutical companies. Litigation has targeted all levels of health care, including nonprofit hospitals, nursing homes and managed-care providers.

Malpractice suits have inflated the cost of health care by encouraging "defensive medicine" - unnecessary procedures and referrals that doctors prescribe in order to limit their liability.

Product liability lawsuits are also frightening companies away from innovations that would lead to health improvements, not only for American society, but for the entire world.

Finally, the report concludes that medical litigation hardly protects or compensates the actual victims, who often receive less than 50% of the damages, the rest going to lawyers and administrative fees.

Read "Harvard Study Finds 40% Malpractice Suits Baseless" posted on May 11.

Read the Manhattan Institute Center report

Three lawyers, Shirley Cunningham Jr., William Gallion and Melbourne Mills Jr., who represented plaintiffs in the diet drug fen-phen cases, concealed the settlement amounts due to their clients and overpaid themselves.

The drug's manufacturer had settled with the victims for $ 200 million in 2001, but the lawyers never told plaintiffs what was the amount they were allotted each. They paid each client lower than the amount due, and pocketed the difference. Special Judge William Wehr said the lawyers passed out money from the settlement "like it was theirs to do with as they wish."

A number of legal experts, bar associations and professors of law have reacted to this case, saying that it is both embezzlement and unethical on the part of the three lawyers.

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Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has sued Darrel M. Sanders for a fraud committed in the name of helping the children of persons killed in Iraq.  Sanders approached business owners and requested permission to place candy vending machines in their premises, falsely claiming that the proceeds would benefit the children. He claimed to be employed by the Armed Forces Children's Education Fund. Nixon says that Sanders has no affiliation with this or any other charity.

The lawsuit asks for a restraining order to prevent Sanders from placing any more vending machines and asks the court for permission to seize the vending machines. It also asks for the defendant to pay the appropriate  restitutions, penalties and costs associated with the lawsuit.

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Christian Brando was held in contempt of court for his behavior during the Robert Blake civil trial which interfered with the processes of the court.

Last year, a criminal court acquitted Blake, the star of the ‘Baretta’ TV show, of murdering Bonny Lee Bakley but a civil court jury ruled that he had intentionally caused her death and awarded damages of $30 million to her children.

Brando apologized to the judge saying, "I have to watch my mouth,” and was fined $1,000.

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Donald and Bridget Watkins have been awarded almost $13 million in damages for their part in a class action suit in which they are the lead plaintiffs against State Farm, an insurer. The jury found that the insurer had intentionally acted maliciously by employing Haag Engineering and its independent adjusters from E.A. Renfro Co. to assess the damage caused to homes by a tornado which swept through Oklahoma in 1999. A spokesman for the company said that it was disappointed with the verdict and that it would appeal against it.

The case brings up issues of corporate accountability and as Jeff Marr, who represented the plaintiffs pointed out, Oklahomans' willingness 'to put an end to corporate arrogance'.

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Howard Stern's new employer,  Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., will pay CBS Radio,  a subsidiary of CBS Corp., $2 million for its rights to the recordings of the Howard Stern Show. This settlement will enable the shock jock to regain control of the master tapes of his terrestrial radio program. The other details of the settlement have not been revealed.

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A sheriff's deputy, Chris Harris, was awarded $10 million in a civil judgment against rapper Turk,  who was convicted of shooting the sheriff four times during a drug raid in Memphis, Tennessee. Turk (real name: Tab Virgil) is currently serving time in Shelby County Jail in Tennessee.  On Wednesday, May 24, Judge James Russell set the compensatory and punitive damages awards at $10 million.

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A federal jury has awarded $125 million in damages to OSI Systems Inc., a Southern California company, ruling that a dispute with L-3 Communications Inc. caused it to lose substantial business after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan awarded OSI Systems $33 million in compensatory damages and $92.6 million in punitive damages, finding that L-3 Communications engaged in malice, oppression or intentional fraud. The case relates to deals when the two companies sought to acquire a third company, Perkin Elmer Security Detection Systems, in 2002.

In a release, L-3 Communications said it "believes this verdict and the damages awarded are inconsistent with the law and evidence presented. The company intends to move to have the verdict set aside and, if necessary, to appeal."

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All those who have a Google AdWords account or purchased Google advertising through an ad agency are eligible to submit a claim form for their share of a court-approved settlement.  This would amount to some share of the $ 60 million that would remain after the lawyers take out their share, as authorized by the court.

Advertisers who fail to file a claim during the period of June 19, 2006, to August 4, 2006 will  be included in the class but their claim will be forfeited.  They would also be unable to participate in any later settlement.

Claimants also have the option of excluding themselves by following the instructions on the settlement site. This will leave them with the option of participating in a later lawsuit. However, they may miss the opportunity if no secondary class action suits arises.

The third option for advertisers is - they could write to the court and parties about why the settlement is not fair. Read my posting on May 10, 2006 about an advertiser who has done that.

Read this link to know your various options and their implications.

A group of 52 Indian men have been awarded over $ 1.2 million in a lawsuit against their former employer, John Pickle Co. for fraud, false imprisonment and civil rights violations.

"Defendants recruited Indian workers in India, brought them to the United States, housed and fed them separately from the non-Indian JPC employees, identified them as Indians and made numerous discriminatory comments about their ancestry, ethnic background, culture, and country," wrote Federal judge Clair V Egan.

The verdict comes more than four years after the workers left the west Tulsa (Oklahoma) factory, where they were forced to work long hours for only a few dollars per day. The men accused the company of making them live in a dormitory on the factory grounds and keeping them from leaving the factory grounds even when off-duty.

If divided equally, each worker might receive more than $20,000.

An arbitrator has certified a class action against Ryland Homes, for plaintiffs who claim serious leakage issues during summer storms. Estimates to fix the leaks are expensive and Ryland's efforts to address the leakage problems are unsatisfactory, the plaintiffs say.

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A federal judge has approved an amount of $ 6.6 billion to be paid by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. to settle claims that they helped Enron Corp. manipulate earnings. Wall Street firms accused of helping the company hide losses and inflate profits have already paid settlements of $ 7.3 billion. Other banks and brokerage firms that have not struck settlements include Merrill Lynch & Co., Barclays PLC, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Deutsche Bank AG and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC.

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Owners of Teflon coated cookware in 20 states and the District of Columbia have joined a lawsuit against DuPont Co. for health risks from the use of nonstick products. The lawsuit alleges that the company failed to disclose possible health risks while knowing that Teflon could release chemicals that could become toxic when heated at high temperatures during cooking. It also claims DuPont misled the government and consumers for years about the safety of Teflon.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status, and asks for details of substances used to manufacture Teflon, substances that may be emitted on heating, and a list of tests and experiments to determine possible emission.

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Author Studs Terkel and other professionals, including a doctor and a lawmaker, have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop  AT&T from giving customer phone records to the National Security Agency without a court order.

The plaintiffs said that their work depended on confidentiality and their clients would be less likely to phone them if they think the government collects lists of the numbers they are calling. AT&T has said that it is obliged to assist government agencies responsible for protecting the public, as allowed within the law.

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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has announced that Jones Apparel Group Inc. has settled a sexual harassment suit for $600,000.  This settlement resolves a 2004 government class- action lawsuit against Jones, parent company of Nine West shoes and a maker of jeans, suits and sportswear. The lawsuit accused two vice presidents of soliciting sex from female co-workers, groping them and making disparaging remarks about Latino women.

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A Boston area couple who sued an adoption agency, claiming that they were duped into adopting severely disabled twins have been awarded $ 409,000 for the cost of caring for the boys. One of the boys has cerebral palsy and the other has Tourette's syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder and other neurological ills. The couple claimed that Elizabeth Quackenbush, the late founder of Adoptions With Love, lied about the health of their sons' biological mother, and abnormal newborn test results.

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Kimberly Kay Jackson visited a Fort Worth Salon, Angel Nails, for a pedicure last July, when her foot was cut with a pumice stone. She developed an infection that did not heal despite medication.  She died in February of a heart attack triggered by a staph infection. Now her children are suing the salon, Angel Nails and its owner for unspecified damages.  The lawsuit alleges that the salon did not follow state regulations for disinfecting the whirlpool and instruments.

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Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, a leading class-action securities law firm, and two of its partners were charged yesterday with making secret payments to the tune of $11 million to three individuals who served as plaintiffs in more than 150 lawsuits.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted the firm and two of its prominent partners, David J. Bershad and Steven G. Schulman on 20 counts.  They are accused of racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

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A federal judge has rejected a $45.7-million settlement between 75 people who have filed sex abuse claims and the bankrupt Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams urged lawyers representing the diocese, victims, parishes and other parties to enter into mediation. She decided that the settlement favored the 75 people over other alleged victims.

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Puget Sound Energy has paid a settlement of over $8 million to the family of a Bellevue woman who died from a natural gas explosion. Frances Schmitz, 68, was badly burned in the explosion and died later of her injuries. The settlement ends a lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court by her three children.

State investigators found that corrosion in a gas line caused the leak and that an electrical device designed to repel corrosion had been wired backward.

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A three-member panel of the National Association of Securities Dealers has awarded $22 million to a group of Exxon retirees against brokerage firm Securities America Inc. for improperly steering them into high-risk investments between 1996 and mid-2003.  A Securities America broker promised the 32 employees huge returns, and put their money mostly into variable annuities and Class B fund shares.

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A 107 page report that was submitted by Merck & Co. to the Food and Drug Administration shows that shows that patients were at a higher risk of heart problems and strokes soon after they started taking Vioxx. A previous study had shown that the drug doubled the chances of heart attacks and strokes after usage of at least 18 months.

Oregon's Court of Appeals has overturned a 2002 jury verdict that had ordered Philip Morris to pay $150 million in punitive damages to the estate of Michelle Schwarz, of Salem, who died of lung cancer. The case has been sent back to the circuit court to reconsider the amount of punitive damages.  Philip Morris attorneys had argued that the jury should have followed a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that recommended there should be no more than a 9-to-1 ratio between punitive damages and other compensatory damages.

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A group of Costa Rican fern farmers have been awarded approximately $ 114 million in a lawsuit against DuPont Co. for damages to crops caused by the fungicide Benlate.  A Miami jury found that Benlate had damaged the ferns' underground systems, resulting in crop losses over many years. DuPont plans to appeal the verdict.

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The leaders in antivirus software, Symantec and McAfee, have teamed up to sue five sellers who were selling pirated software on eBay.

The companies have found evidence that the sellers had completed more than 15,000 sales involving pirated software between October 2005 and December 2005, said Keith Kupferschmid, an executive with the Software & Information Industry Association. 

The lawsuits seek unspecified damages, as well as court orders to prevent future copyright and trademark infringement.  eBay or the buyers of pirated software have not been targeted at this point.

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Rocket manufacturer Aerojet-General Corp. reached a settlement with a group of persons who had sued over ground water contamination by rocket fuel. The plaintiffs had alleged economic damages and illness, and in some cases death, caused by groundwater contamination near the company's headquarters outside Rancho Cordova.

A jury last week had ruled against Aerojet and set damages at more than $14 million. The settlement has been reached before a second phase of the trial, which would have deliberated whether to impose punitive damages on the company.

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The United States government has filed a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF had sued AT&T for handing over  telephone and internet records of customers to the National Security Agency.  The government said that its legal briefs and affidavits are classified,  preventing even the parties to the lawsuit, EFF and AT&T, from seeing them.

A redacted version of the brief that was made public said that the case against AT&T should be immediately terminated as a judicial enquiry may reveal state secrets and harm national security.

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Eight women have sued their employer, American Building Maintenance Industries, alleging sexual harassment by their supervisors. The plaintiffs, who clean commercial buildings at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and  other Twin Cities locations,  complain that their immediate supervisors demanded sex, fondled them and, in one case, coerced a worker into having sex.  They also say that complaints to their supervisor's boss were either ignored or they were retaliated against.
All the plaintiffs are Latina and Spanish speakers, and allege that their supervisors took advantage of their limited knowledge of English. They are now seeking unspecified monetary damages and class action status for their lawsuit.

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Two New Jersey lawyers have filed a lawsuit on behalf of all Verizon subscribers, contending that the phone records collection violates the Constitutional right to privacy and federal law. The government reportedly collects information every time a call is made on a Verizon phone line. Plaintiff Carl Mayer said. "You can't turn over the records of your customers and if you do so it's $1,000 per violation. The Constitution is very clear."

At $1,000 for each of Verizon's 50 million customers, the company and government could be made to pay $50 billion dollars in a class action suit, Mayer said. The lawsuit is asking a federal court to order President Bush, the National Security Agency and Verizon to end a secret snooping program.

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Krispy Kreme employees had sued the company last year, alleging that they lost millions of dollars in retirement savings because company executives hid evidence of declining sales and profits. A settlement of $ 4.7 million has now been reached between the company and the workers.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Greensboro last year. The suit said that company executives said nothing about the company's troubles, and workers who bought stock for their 401(k) accounts, or were paid stock in bonus plans, had no way of knowing that the stock was a risky investment.

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The American Justice Partnership and Pacific Research Institute's U.S. Tort Liability Index for 2006 has recognized the positive economic results of lawsuit reform in Texas. Texas tops the index, calculated on the basis of a number of factors, including monetary tort losses, monetary caps, and procedural/structural rules and reforms. 

During the 1980s, the state's judicial system was undermined by frivolous lawsuits and exorbitant jury awards, according to the Texas Civil Justice League.  However, recent legislative action in Texas has prompted reforms in key areas, including asbestos and silica litigation, class-action cases, "forum shopping," joint and several liability, medical malpractice and punitive damages, the league says.

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Merck & Company has released study data that shows that Vioxx users were not at increased risk of heart attack or stroke in the year after stopping the drug. Merck said data from an additional year of  follow-up, did not show a statistically significant difference in the rate of heart attacks and strokes among patients who had been on Vioxx and those who had taken a placebo.

However, there was a higher rate of complications, mainly strokes, among those taking Vioxx over all four years covered in the new data: the original three years of the study and the follow-up year after patients were taken off the medicine.

Merck faces about 10,000 lawsuits over Vioxx, and has lost half of the six cases to come to trial so far.

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A number of cities, including Los Angeles, Atlanta and San Antonio are suing online travel sites to collect more lodging tax money. Now Denver is considering whether to sue Travelocity, Expedia and other online travel booking sites.  The goal of the lawsuits is to collect hotel taxes on the full amount the sites charge consumers rather than the  lower rates the sites negotiate with hotels. A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Georgia cities and counties can proceed with a class-action lawsuit.

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Mary Stewart, 72, had to have her foot amputated after an 18-day-stay at Renova Health Center resulted in maggot infestation.  Stewart sued the nursing home and its parent company, Universal Health Management. A Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury awarded her about $1.3 million in damages.

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A Harvard University study has found that 40 percent of the medical malpractice cases filed in the U.S. are groundless. The report said that many of the lawsuits analyzed contained no evidence that a medical error was committed or that the patient suffered any injury.  While most of these dubious cases were dismissed with no payout to the patient, groundless lawsuits still accounted for 15 percent of the money paid out in settlements or verdicts.

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What do you think of Chicago Personal Injury Lawyers?

Legal Radar will provide comprehensive coverage of major tort and civil action cases.

A former Google advertiser, Joseph Kinney, is suing  to block a proposed $ 90 million class-action settlement in the click-fraud case. In his complaint Kinney claims that the proposed  amount grossly understates how much the online search engine leader has benefited from the scam.

The class action suit alleged that Google and its advertising partners have improperly profited from click fraud.  This fraud resulted in merchants being billed for traffic generated by  repeated clicks on Web links by non-genuine viewers.

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The Senate will soon be deliberating on two bills that would cap the damages juries can award in medical malpractice cases.

One of the bills seeks to limit damages on all types of medical malpractice litigation and another would apply only to cases brought against obstetrician-gynecologists.

Sen. John Ensign's bill would cap judgments against a physician or health care professional at $250,000. It also would allow patients to be awarded up to $250,000 against one health care institution. Judgments against more than one institution would be capped at $750,000.

The other bill, sponsored by Sen. Rick Santorum, would impose similar caps on awards against doctors and institutions providing gynecological and obstetric care. The cap on awards from multiple defendants would be $500,000.

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Ellen Reasonover of St. Louis, who was convicted of murder and put in jail for 16 years until proved innocent, and later awarded $ 7.5 million damages, has lost a case suing several police agencies involved in the investigation.  The lawsuit alleged that prosecutors withheld a jailhouse recording in which Reasonover denied the murder. The suit also claimed false arrest, malicious prosecution and use of unreliable and fraudulent investigatory techniques.

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A jury awarded damages of $ 2.9 million to a woman for the wrongful death of her son.  Tabatha Smith's 21-month-old son died in January from severe brain injuries suffered during birth.  The obstetrician, Dr. Brett Zimmerman, the hospital, Bay Park Women's Health, and ProMedica Health System were the defendants.  Ms Smith's attorney, Robin Smith, said the baby was deprived of oxygen for nearly six minutes during delivery and that the hospital could have prepared for a safe delivery if a thorough diagnosis and examination of her client had been done.

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Three former workers who sued the LIRR for exposing them to dangerous substances in hellish conditions without any warning or protection have been awarded $ 16.4 million in damages. The three men suffer from asbestosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They said they had unknowingly breathed air contaminated by asbestos fibers for years.

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A jury has ruled that a police investigator fabricated a rape and murder confession that resulted in Earl Washington Jr. being sentenced to death row, and has awarded Washington $ 2.25 million in damages. The investigator, Curtis Reese Wilmore, who died in 1994, deliberately fabricated evidence against Washington that led to his conviction and death sentence.  Washington had spent nearly 18 years in prison before it was proved by sophisticated DNA testing, that a convicted rapist had committed the crime.

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A jury has awarded $ 20 million to the estate of Loren Richards who died while in the care of Beverly Health and Rehabilitation of Frankfort.  The nursing home had "deprived or infringed upon" the patient rights of Richards to be free from mental and physical abuse and had not immediately informed relatives of a downward turn in his health. The jury awarded total compensatory damages of $200,000. Two nurses were also found culpable in the death of Richards and must pay $ 500 each in punitive damages. Richards' daughter, Wanda Delaplane, had sued the home, alleging that nurses had ignored her father's repeated complaints of abdominal pain. Richards later died of a heart attack and a blood clot in his left lung.

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An appeals court has affirmed the verdict in a medical malpractice suit involving a Caesarean delivery that caused brain-damage to the baby, but has asked the opposing sides to reduce the $ 30 million award. Regina Harris of Cleveland was in labor in 1987, when she was forced to wait for two hours for an emergency Caesarean delivery. The resultant lack of oxygen caused her son to be born with brain damage. In May 2004, a jury in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court awarded Harris and her son $15 million in economic damages and an additional $15 million for pain and suffering. After the appeals court asked the opposing sides to reduce the damages awarded, the plaintiff’s attorney predicted that the total damages would not reduce substantially, while the lawyers representing the medical center and the pediatrician said a resolution would not be easy.

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Microsoft announced a $ 70 million settlement to resolve a class action suit on behalf of cities and counties of California. The lawsuit alleged that Microsoft had engaged in anticompetitive conduct and used its market power to overcharge members of the government class. The $70 million in settlement benefits will be divided among the State of California and local government entities that can use them to purchase any brand of qualifying computer hardware and software.

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Miami based passenger cruise line, Carnival Corp. has agreed to pay $ 6.25 million to settle a class action lawsuit related to the payment of wages and overtime. Seafaring employees of Carnival had filed the lawsuit alleging that the company failed to pay full wages and overtime. Attorneys for the workers said the settlement also requires Carnival to provide additional disclosure in its contracts regarding how tips are treated as overtime compensation and to operate a grievance and arbitration procedure for wage claims.

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The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a class action lawsuit against the Taycheedah Correctional Institution for deficiencies in the medical, dental and mental care of prisoners.  The Taycheedah Correctional Institution near Fond du Lac is  the largest women's prison in the state with 700 prisoners. The lawsuit names top state officials as defendants, and has been filed on behalf of four prisoners who suffered from deficiencies in prison health care.

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Bausch & Lomb already face a number of lawsuits alleging it failed to warn the public about a contamination problem with its Renu with MoistureLoc solution. Now a 69 year old woman has filed the first lawsuit that claims the product caused the loss of an eye. Zoe Wade alleges that she developed a fungal infection within a few weeks of starting to use the product, and seven months later, had to have her eye removed. Seven other people are seeking class-action status to their suits against Bausch & Lomb.

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Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP, a Boston law firm, has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of a former Activision employee, charging the company with failure to pay overtime compensation. The plaintiff alleges that the California computer graphics employees of Activision are unlawfully classified as “exempt” from overtime pay.

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Candice Cross of St. Charles, who suffered a burn during breast augmentation surgery two years ago was awarded $127,920 by a jury in St. Louis County Circuit Court . Cross suffered burns when a hot “sizer” was placed on her breast by the surgeon, Dr Scheu. A sizer is a device placed on the breast at the start of the procedure to size the implant to be used, and is sterilized by washing and heat treatment. The jury awarded Cross $100,000 for future noneconomic damages, such as mental anguish and embarrassment, and $25,000 for past noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering. It also gave her $2,920 for past economic damages - half the cost of her surgery.

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A Jury has awarded $ 500,000 in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a six year old boy who died beneath the wheels of a school bus. John and Terri Wright, the parents, had sued the Neosho R-5 School District and the estate of bus driver Bill Hoover, seeking a compensation of $ 8 million for the death of their 6 year old son, Jacob. Jacob and his older brother, Jeremiah had got off the bus when Jacob went back towards it and fell. As the jury found Jacob 50% responsible for his death, the court reduced the compensation of $ 1 million awarded by the jury to $ 500,000.

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A Jury awarded $ 1.7 million in damages to Janet Orlando, who was spanked in front of co-workers two years ago while employed at Alarm One Inc. The company argued that this was a “camaraderie building exercise” that pitted sales teams against each other. The winners threw pies at the losers, fed them baby food, made them wear diapers and spanked their bottoms. The jury ruled that Ms Orlando was subjected to sexual harassment and sexual battery, and awarded $ 1.2 million in punitive damages, in addition to $ 500,000 for economic loss, medical costs, emotional distress, pain and suffering.

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