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| Plaintiffs hoping to hold third parties accountable for their role in aiding corporate fraud met stiff resistance Tuesday during arguments before the Supreme Court. Justices seemed inclined to uphold lower court rulings that dismissed lawsuits against Scientific Atlanta and Motorola for allegedly helping Charter Communications inflate stock prices. Still, the justices’ focus on the defendants' conduct in the case, assuming a positive outcome for the defense, may not protect others whose participation in fraudulent schemes was more blatant. Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times 10/10/2007 | |
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| AK Steel Holding Company agreed Monday to create a $663 million trust for retirees to settle a lawsuit over employee health benefits. The agreement allows AK Steel to divert future liability by taking an upfront financial loss, analysts said. AK Steel will be required to dole out $468 million of the settlement at the beginning of 2008, with remainder to be paid over the next three years. Terry Kinney, Yahoo News 10/08/2007 | |
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| An appellate panel upheld a $6 million award Tuesday to the widow of a man who was crushed by a hydraulic dump truck bed. The court rejected the company’s appeal which argued that errors by the trial judge and misconduct by plaintiff attorneys had prevented a fair trial. According to the original lawsuit, the manufacturer, Heil Co., failed to include a $7 safety device that could have warned the man that the bed was lowering. Staff, CantonRepository 10/10/2007 | |
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| A federal judge has approved a $7 million settlement between Canadian Pacific Railway and the residents of a North Dakota town who were affected by a 2002 derailment and chemical spill that sent a deadly cloud over the area. Several individual lawsuits are still pending against the railroad over the wreck. According to attorneys, plaintiffs could start receiving payments from the settlement as early as next month. Blake Nicholson, Forbes 10/09/2007 | |
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| The Supreme Court has declined to hear a federal lawsuit against Texas A&MUniversity over the 1999 bonfire collapse the killed 12 and injured 27. An appellate court had previously ruled that university officials could not be held liable because the concept of “state-created danger” was not an established part of law at the time of the accident. Portions of a state lawsuit are still pending against the university. Elizabeth White, Austin American Statesman 10/09/2007 | |
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| The Supreme Court certified class action status for a lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard Co. that accuses H-P subsidiary Compaq of selling defective computers. The high court’s decision will allow $1.7 million Oklahomaresidents to continue to participate in the class action. Attorneys for the company argued that the case should not be allowed to proceed because justices had declined to certify class status for a similar case filed in Texas. AP, The Washington Post 10/09/2007 | |
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| The Colorado Court of Appeals unanimously rejected State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance’s exclusive use of a computer database to calculate medical costs. The court found that the use of a computer database as the sole means of calculating medical costs was unreasonable. The court’s ruling will allow a class action lawsuit to go forward that charges the insurer with unilaterally lowering payouts to injured policyholders. Patricia-Anne Tom, Insurance Journal 09/25/2007 | |
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| Responding to privacy concerns, the Department of Veterans Affairs will no longer report information on cancer patients receiving care in their hospitals. The move comes as part of a national directive to limit access to patients’ personal data. Researchers and health officials fear that the V.A.’s withdrawal of data could skew national cancer statistics and adversely affect cancer research. Gina Kolata, The New York Times 10/10/2007 | |
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| ConAgra Foods have voluntarily stopped production of Banquet pot pies at one of their production facilities after health officials discovered that the pies may be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states. The Centers for Disease Control has followed reports of people being sickened by the pies since last week. ConAgra has advised consumers not to eat its chicken or turkey pot pies until investigations are complete. AP, The New York Times 10/10/2007 | |
TEXAS LAWYER CASE SUMMARIES |
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| A cause of action against the Trinchard defendants for legal malpractice, if cognizable, accrued to Gary Eugene Hale no later than September 2001, when the judgment against him became final and Gerald Burge's attorney suggested to Hale that he might have a viable malpractice claim. Stanley v. Trinchard, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 06-30120 consolidated with No. 06-30299, 10-4-2007. , Texas Lawyer 10/10/2007 | |
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