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• TTLA Home • Search Litigation Bank • About	September 14, 2007
-  Government Ordered to Pay for Injuries to Nine-Year-Old -  Corrections Officers File Suit Over Asbestos Exposure -  Countrywide Employees Seek Damages for Stock Collapse -  State Court to Decide on Flood Polices -  Judge Rejects Insurer's Move to Bar Attorney -  Employees Allege Bias at Data Storage Firm -  BP Executive Says Safer Trailers Were Available -  Honeywell Slapped with Criminal Fine in Worker's Death -  Sprint Settles Accusations that it Overcharged Customers -  California Bans Cell Phone Use for Teen Drivers -  Some Fear Abuse in Transplant Harvesting -  Nurses Question Medical System After Sister’s Death -  Prepayment Penalties Trap Many Borrowers -  Officials Confirm Asbestos in Pipe Explosion -  Mattel CEO Promises Tougher Safety Standards -  FDA Monitoring Prescription Following Deaths -  Experts Dispute Link Between Suicides and Prescriptions     This Service Sponsored Exclusively by The James Street Group A Member Service of Texas Trial Lawyers Association
Announcements   Laws/Cases   Government Ordered to Pay for Injuries to Nine-Year-Old The United States government has been ordered to pay $55 million to a nine-year-old girl who was paralyzed after an Army official’s vehicle slammed into the car in which she was riding. The 2002 collision left the girl confined to a wheelchair in need of 24-hour care for the rest of her life. The girl’s mother will also receive $1 million in damages resulting from the accident.  Christine Hanley, LA Times  09/12/2007 Read Article: LA Times       Corrections Officers File Suit Over Asbestos Exposure Two New York corrections officers claim that they and six prison workers were exposed to dangerous amounts of asbestos during overhaul an of a building on Staten Island. In court papers filed Monday, the officers say that tiles from the floor they were removing was found to contain more than four times the amount of asbestos licensed to be handled by professional contractors. Inmates involved in the overhaul have also expressed interest in joining the lawsuit.  Andy Newman, The New York Times  09/12/2007 Read Article: The New York Times       Countrywide Employees Seek Damages for Stock Collapse Countrywide Financial Corp. employees participating in the company’s pension plan have filed a class action lawsuit alleging that illegal actions caused participants to lose millions of dollars during a recent stock collapse. According to the lawsuit, administrators should have warned employees of the company’s shaky financial health. Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, has seen its stock drop almost 60 percent this year.  Carlyn Kolker, Bloomberg  09/12/2007 Read Article: Bloomberg       State Court to Decide on Flood Polices A Louisiana state appellate court is expected to decide a case that could determine whether private insurers are forced to pay for flood damages caused by New Orleans’ failed levee system. A five-judge panel heard arguments Wednesday from attorneys for a 91-year-old man who claims that his insurance company’s policies imply that the word "flood" is an "act of God" and therefore shouldn't include levee failure stemming from human error. Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti has extended the man’s lawsuit to all 168 insurance companies in the state, saying insurers needed to explicitly exclude water damage stemming from levee failure if they aren't going to pay those claims.  David Hammer, New Orleans Times-Picayune  09/13/2007 Read Article: New Orleans Times-Picayune       Judge Rejects Insurer's Move to Bar Attorney A federal judge has refused to disqualify attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs from representing plaintiffs who claim that State Farm Fire & Casualty wrongly denied their claims after Hurricane Katrina. The insurance company had accused Scruggs of ethics violations for obtaining company documents from two former employees. The judge scolded the insurer for waiting until it was tactically advantageous to attempt to disqualify the attorney.  Michael Kunzelman, Biloxi Sun Herald  09/13/2007 Read Article: Biloxi Sun Herald       Employees Allege Bias at Data Storage Firm A judge is expected to rule Monday whether a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by two former employees of EMC Corp. should be granted class action status. The two women, who worked in sales for the data storage company, allege widespread discrimination against female employees in conduct, pay and promotion. According to an attorney for the plaintiffs, the potential class in the case could cover nearly 500 current and former employees.  Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe  09/13/2007 Read Article: Boston Globe       BP Executive Says Safer Trailers Were Available An executive for BP acknowledged Thursday that the company had the opportunity to purchase blast-proof trailers for its Texas City refinery that could have saved 15 workers who died in a 2005 explosion. Regional Vice President of BP North America Pat Gower also testified that trailers destroyed in the blast were placed closer to processing units than they should have been. However, BP executives have rejected notions that the company sacrificed safety at the plant in favor of profits.  Kristen Hays, HoustonChronicle  09/14/2007 Read Article: Houston Chronicle       Honeywell Slapped with Criminal Fine in Worker's Death A federal judge has ordered Honeywell International to pay $12 million in the 2003 death of an employee at the company’s Baton Rouge, La. plant. The criminal fine comes after the company pleaded guilty to Justice Department charges that it violated the Federal Clean Air Act. The incident occurred after the employee opened a mislabeled container filled with a highly toxic and corrosive material. A portion of the fine has been awarded to the employee’s children.  AP, Yahoo News  09/13/2007 Read Article: Yahoo News       Sprint Settles Accusations that it Overcharged Customers A federal judge has approved a $30 million settlement in a class action lawsuit that accused Sprint Nextel and AT&T of overcharging customers for assessments that help pay for subsidized phone services. Qualified business and residential customers covered by the settlement will receive $25 million in prepaid phone cards. The remainder of the settlement will cover attorneys’ fees and costs.  Dan Margolies, Kansas City Star  09/13/2007 Read Article: Kansas City Star       California Bans Cell Phone Use for Teen Drivers California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Thursday signed into law a bill that will require teen drivers to put down cell phones and other electronic devices when behind the wheel. The governors hope the new law will remove a major distraction for young, inexperienced drivers. According to state highway safety officials, car crashes are the leading causes of death for 16- to 20-year-olds. The law is scheduled to take effect next year.  Patrick McGreevy, LA Times  09/14/2007 Read Article: LA Times       Healthcare   Some Fear Abuse in Transplant Harvesting As 25-year-old Rueben Navarro neared death, an organ transplant team rushed to the hospital in hopes of harvesting his organs. However, charges that one of the transplant doctors purposely accelerated Navarro’s death by dosing him with narcotics and sedatives has some doctors, nurses and medical ethicists worried that the zeal to harvest organs has gone too far. While everyone agrees that the incident was uncommon, transplant advocates also fear that disturbing lapses may be increasingly common.  Rob Stein, TheWashington Post  09/13/2007 Read Article: The Washington Post       Nurses Question Medical System After Sister’s Death When doctors told Linda Sue Brown’s older sisters, both nurses, that the woman had died from an unpreventable pulmonary embolism during treatment at a hospital they vowed to find out what happened to their sister. After months of investigations, the two found that the death of their sister was anything but ordinary. The real story was one of missteps and questionable judgments that have the sisters questioning the medical profession.  Tracy Weber, LA Times  09/09/2007 Read Article: LA Times       Issues   Prepayment Penalties Trap Many Borrowers For many homeowners trying to shed skyrocketing interest rates on their home loans, escape is a daunting proposition. Homeowners who attempt to refinance or sell their homes face thousands of dollars in penalties for paying off their loans early. Such is the case for a multitude of borrowers lured into adjustable-rate loans that carried low introductory interest rates. State and federal lawmakers are currently considering measures that limit prepayment penalties that trap borrowers in high interest rate mortgages.  Geraldine Fabrikant, The New York Times  09/13/2007 Read Article: The New York Times       Officials Confirm Asbestos in Pipe Explosion City officials in Boston have confirmed that material released in a steam pipe explosion Wednesday contained asbestos. Four people were decontaminated following the incident that coated cars and buildings with a brown film. The city is still conducting tests to determine the extent of the contamination but officials believe it was confined to a limited area.  Martin Finucane, BostonGlobe  09/13/2007 Read Article: Boston Globe       Products   Mattel CEO Promises Tougher Safety Standards The head of toy maker Mattel promised lawmakers Wednesday that the company is doing all it can to prevent a repeat of the massive safety lapses that forced the recall of millions of toys. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Mattel CEO Robert Eckert pointed to overseas contractors as the major culprit for the tainted toys and said the company is stepping up safety initiatives to prevent future problems. In the recent outcry over recalled toys, lawmakers have faulted lax regulation standards and decreased resources for the Consumer Product Safety Commission as part of the problem.  Jonathan Peterson, LA Times  09/12/2007 Read Article: LA Times       FDA Monitoring Prescription Following Deaths The Food and Drug Administration is monitoring a recently approved painkiller following four deaths linked to the drug. The drug, Fentora, was approved in September for use only by cancer patients already taking morphine or other prescription narcotics for their pain. None of the four fatalities were cancer patients, prompting the manufacturer of the drug to warn doctors about its intended use and dosage.  AP, The Washington Post  09/13/2007 Read Article: The Washington Post       Study   Experts Dispute Link Between Suicides and Prescriptions Outside experts are disputing the results of a study released last week that linked a 2004 increase in the suicide rate for children and adolescents to a warning by the Food and Drug Administration about the use of antidepressants in minors. According to a University of Pennsylvania researcher, there doesn’t seem to be a statistically significant relationship between suicide and prescription rates in the years covered by the study. The author of the study acknowledged that data included in the study did not support a causal link but said the evidence was suggestive.  Alex Berenson and Benedict Carey, The New York Times  09/14/2007 Read Article: The New York Times
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