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• TTLA Home • Search Litigation Bank • About	September 10, 2007
-  Court Declines Appeal of Jailed Fen-Phen Attorneys -  Nursing Home Operators Found Not Guilty for Failing to Evacuate -  Teen's Family Plans to File Suit Over Brutal Attack by Parolee -  Judge Increases Damages in Lineman's Suit Against Qwest -  Bill Approved by House May Reduce Patent Infringement Cases -  NHTSA and China Sign Agreement to Cooperate on Recalls -  Disney to Test Products for Lead -  FDA & VeriChip Back Device Amid Reports of Cancer Risk     This Service Sponsored Exclusively by The James Street Group A Member Service of Texas Trial Lawyers Association
Announcements     Laws/Cases   Court Declines Appeal of Jailed Fen-Phen Attorneys The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to hear the appeal of three lawyers who were jailed on charges of fraud in a fen-phen case. Shirley Cunningham Jr., William Gallion and Melbourne Mills Jr. are accused of stealing $46 million from their clients' $200 million settlement. The three judge panel found that the attorneys should not be released on bond because of the risk that they would transfer the missing money abroad.  Andrew Wolfson,Louisville Courier Journal  09/08/2007 Read Article: Louisville Courier Journal       Nursing Home Operators Found Not Guilty for Failing to Evacuate A couple who operated St. Rita's nursing home was acquitted of 35 negligent homicide charges and 24 counts of cruelty. Jurors believed the couple's mistake of staying in the nursing home during Hurricane Katrina should not be singled out and defense attorneys argued it was the government that did not do their job. A doctor and two nurses at New Orlean's Memorial Medical Centeralso escaped similar charges after 34 people died during the storm.  Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News  09/10/2007 Read Article: The Dallas Morning News       Teen's Family Plans to File Suit Over Brutal Attack by Parolee A fifteen year old girl was stabbed several times in a San Francisco bakery by a parolee who was released without proper supervision. The man was an inmate at a maximum security prison in San Quentin and had spent four months in solitary confinement for having battered a guard. The teen's family plans to file suit in the next few weeks against the CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.  Julian Guthrie, San Francisco Chronicle  09/09/2007 Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle       Judge Increases Damages in Lineman's Suit Against Qwest Judge Sheila Ann Rappaport increased a $40 million verdict against Qwest to $84 million because they did not stop the behavior that prompted the original award. The suit focused on the company's safety practices and was filed after a lineman fell from a utility pole that had rotted. Qwest plans to appeal the court's ruling and is arguing that the increase in punitive damages is unconstitutional.  David Milstead, Rocky Mountain News  09/07/2007 Read Article: Rocky Mountain News       Bill Approved by House May Reduce Patent Infringement Cases A patent reform bill passed by the House could bring about several changes in how patents are awarded and challenged. The bill would allow judges to instruct juries to award damages only for the value of a component and creates stricter standards for determining whether a patent has been infringed upon. Some argue that the bill will make it easier and less costly to infringe patents, which may hurt small inventors and drug manufacturers.  Catherine Rampell, The Washington Post  09/08/2007 Read Article: The Washington Post       Issues   NHTSA and China Sign Agreement to Cooperate on Recalls Chinese regulators and the NHTSA have signed a "memorandum of cooperation" that will make it easier to recall defective products. The agreement was spurred by a recent tire recall that was delayed because a Chinese manufacturer refused to hand over data that would pinpoint the problem. The CPSC also has a similar agreement but has been under fire for failing to protect consumers from unsafe toys imported from China.  Jayne O'Donnell and Sharon Silke Carty, USA Today  09/10/2007 Read Article: USA Today       Products   Disney to Test Products for Lead Walt Disney Company said on Friday that it will begin randomly testing toys produced by the company for lead. The move is considered unusual because companies such as Disney typically outsource quality checks to manufacturers. Increased testing by toy makers follows several major recalls earlier this summer.  Louise Story, The New York Times  09/10/2007 Read Article: The New York Times       FDA & VeriChip Back Device Amid Reports of Cancer Risk Several studies have found that implantable microchips in animals may have caused malignant tumors. According to VeriChip Corp., these RFID transponders have been successfully implanted in about 2,000 humans around the world. Both the FDA and VeriChip say they are not aware of any studies showing adverse effects as severe as tumors.  Todd Lewan, The WashingtonPost  09/10/2007 Read Article: The Washington Post
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