| Laws/Cases | | 
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| | Apple to Pay $8 Million for Patent Violations | |
| | Apple Inc. has been ordered to pay $8 million by a Texas jury for patent infringement violations. The jury found Apple violated two patents held by Personal Audio LLC for downloadable playlists. The patented technology covered "an audio player that can receive navigable playlists and can skip forward or backward through the downloaded list," Bloomberg reported. Susan Decker, Bloomberg 07/08/2011 | | Read Article: Bloomberg | | Texas Woman Loses Iraq Rape Case Against KBR | |
| | A former KBR Inc. employee who said she was drugged and raped while working in Iraq lost her lawsuit against the military contractor Friday. The jury rejected Jamie Leigh Jones' claims a day after starting deliberations in a Houston federal courthouse. Jones, 26, said she was raped in 2005 while working for KBR at Camp Hope, Baghdad. Jones said the civil trial wasn't a fair fight. She said she felt she lost because the jury wasn't allowed to hear details of her attacker's past but were allowed to hear hers. KBR and Halliburton, which split in 2007, were unsuccessful in having Jones' case settled through arbitration as stipulated in her contract. Due in part to Jones' case, federal lawmakers in 2009 approved a measure prohibiting contractors and subcontractors that receive $1 million in funds from the Department of Defense from requiring employees to resolve sexual assault allegations and other claims through arbitration. PAUL J. WEBER & MICHAEL GRACZYK , Houston Chronicle 07/09/2011 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | | Suit: Woman Fired for Not Dyeing Her Gray Hair | |
| | A Houston woman has filed a lawsuit against her former employer, Capital Title of Texas, claiming she was fired because of her gray hair. According to the lawsuit, in August of 2009 the plaintiff was asked to dye her hair to fit a more "upscale office image." She refused, and said she was fired just a few days later and replaced by a woman 10 years younger than her. L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle 07/07/2011 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | | Dow Ruled Responsible for Groundwater Pollution | |
| | The Dow Chemical Co. has been found responsible for contaminating a water source in Iberville Parish, LA. The company must clean up the Upper Plaquemine Aquifer, state District Judge Jerome Winsberg ruled in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of several thousand landowners between Bayou Plaquemine and Dow's plant in Plaquemine. The groundwater supply has tested positive for vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, several times since 1997, The Advocate reported. Associated Press, AP Wire 07/11/2011 | | Read Article: AP Wire | | Conn. Jury Finds Hartford Hospital at Fault in Doctor Abuse Scandal | |
| | A jury found a Connecticut hospital at fault Friday in a sex scandal involving a prominent doctor who preyed on young patients for decades, awarding $2.75 million to a plaintiff who said the abuse he suffered as an 8-year-old boy caused a lifetime of emotional trauma. Hartford’s St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center failed in its duty to protect its patients from Dr. George Reardon, a pedophile who is now believed to have abused hundreds of children, the six-person jury found. Reardon resigned in 1993 amid molestation accusations and died in 1998 without ever being charged. Associated Press, The Washington Post 07/11/2011 | | Read Article: The Washington Post | | Suicide Victim's Mother Wins Right to Sue Exhusband Over Daughter's Death | |
| | This week, an appellate court ruled that a woman could sue her ex-husband in civil court for allegedly causing her daughter's eventual death by suicide, based on recorded conversations between the couple and between the ex-husband and his stepdaughter. The ruling revived the wrongful death lawsuit after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed it in 2009, finding the recordings could not be used as evidence that the abuse occurred. Victoria Kim, LA Times 07/11/2011 | | Read Article: LA Times | | Country Club to Pay $1 Million for Role in DWI Crash | |
| | A Texas family has been awarded $1 million in a lawsuit filed against the Southern Oaks Country Club in Burleson, Texas over a fatal DWI car crash in 2008. The lawsuit claimed that the man who caused the accident had been served too much alcohol at the country club before getting into his car. Witnesses at the club said the man was visibly intoxicated when he arrived at the club, but was continually served drinks. Gordon Dickson, Ft. Worth Star Telegram 07/11/2011 | | Read Article: Ft. Worth Star Telegram | | Court Upholds State Whistleblower Verdict | |
| | The 3rd Court of Appeals today upheld a 2009 verdict that awarded $705,000 to a state investigator who was improperly fired from a civil rights agency for complaining about discrimination within the agency. The court, however, cut Marilou Morrison’s award to $530,000, saying a Travis County district court miscalculated compensatory damages and lost retirement benefits. After a five-day trial, jurors found that the Texas Civil Rights Commission violated the civil rights laws it was charged with protecting when it fired Morrison in 2003. The agency is now part of the Texas Workforce Commission. Chuck Lindell, Austin American Statesman 07/11/2011 | | Read Article: Austin American Statesman | | Suit: Bowling Alley Manager Assaulted Young Boys | |
| | A fourth lawsuit has been filed against AMF Bowling Centers Inc., claiming the manager of one of their bowling alleys in the 1970s and 1980s sexually abused young boys. The lawsuit claims the manager sexually abused the plaintiff countless times between 1978 and 1982 in the backrooms of the bowling alley. AMF, which owned the bowling alley at the time, has been accused of negligence and failure to investigate claims against the manager. Alaine Griffin, The Hartford Courant 07/08/2011 | | Read Article: The Hartford Courant | | Issues | |
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| | BP Wants Future Spill Claims Limited | |
| | BP wants to limit future claims related to its Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster as the region's economy recovers, the oil company said in a document made public on Friday. The Gulf economy is strong and "there is no basis to assume that claimants, with very limited exceptions, will incur a future loss related to the oil spill," BP said in a paper filed with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility Reuters, Reuters 07/11/2011 | | Read Article: Reuters | | Insurers, Investors Fight Over Death Bets | |
| | Across the U.S., hundreds of disputes are playing out in the legal wreckage caused by the collapse in what was once a booming secondary market for life-insurance policies. A key question in many, according to court records, is whether insurers did enough to vet applications. At stake are billions of dollars of insurance that older people took out on their own lives from 2004 to 2008—and then sold to investors for cash. Typically, investors pay the insured person a small percentage of the face value of the policy and then assume responsibility for the premiums, aiming to collect the death benefit. Many of the lawsuits relate to unexpectedly early deaths that triggered costly payouts for insurers. LESLIE SCISM, Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required 07/11/2011 | | Read Article: Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required($) | |
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