| | Cantor Fitzgerald Settling 9-11 Suit with Airline | |  | | Financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald says it has nearly completed a deal with American Airlines and insurance carriers to settle a lawsuit it brought after the Sept. 11 attacks killed 658 of its nearly 1,000 employees. The amount of the agreement will be made public after court approval, expected sometime next year. Cantor originally sued for more than $1 billion in damages.
Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle 12/16/2013    | | Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle | | Supreme Court Will Hear 401(k) Case | | | | he U.S. Supreme Court Friday agreed to rule on when workers can sue their employer over losses to 401(k) funds containing shares of a company's own stock.The court agreed to hear an appeal brought by Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp, FITB +1.24% which is fighting a class-action suit alleging it violated a federal law on employee benefits by allowing workers to continue investing their retirement savings in the company's stock at time when the shares were allegedly too risky.
Brent Kendall , Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required 12/16/2013 | | Read Article: Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required($) | | Analysis: Tronox, Anadarko Fight Over Cleanup Costs Just Getting Started | | | | A court ruling that holds Kerr-McGee Corp liable for billions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs brought to a close a months-long trial over its spinoff of Tronox Inc, a paint materials maker that later went bankrupt. But with an appeal on the way, along with litigation over the size of damages, the real fight is just beginning, and claimants may wait years for any payout. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper on Thursday held that Kerr-McGee acted with "intent to hinder" when it spun off what became Tronox in 2005, saying it was liable for between $5.15 billion and $14.17 billion in environmental cleanup.
Nick Brown, Reuters, Yahoo News 12/16/2013 | | Read Article: Yahoo News | | Toyota to Enter Settlement Negotiations | | | | After a four-year legal battle, Toyota is entering settlement talks on nearly 400 state and federal lawsuits that allege sudden unintended acceleration problems with its vehicles led to deaths and injuries. Joint motions filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and Los Angeles County Superior Court indicated both sides would begin an "intensive settlement process" next month. Cases that don't settle after a two-stage mediation process will go back to court for trial, said plaintiffs' co-lead counsel, but most of the 375 claims will likely get resolved. Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/12/13/5416579/toyota-to-enter-settlement-negotiations.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
GILLIAN FLACCUS, AP, Star Telegram 12/16/2013 | | Read Article: Star Telegram | | Lawsuit to Stop the Release of Sex Offenders' Names | | | | The American Civil Liberties Union has brought a lawsuit which aims to stop the release of the names of level one sex offenders in the state of Washington. The plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit are two level one sex offenders who claim their lives and the lives of their families would be ruined were their names to be released to the public. Level one sex offenders, who are judged to pose the least risk of further sex crimes, are the only sex offenders whose names are not public record. There are currently 21,000 level one offenders in the state of Washington.
Levi Pulkkinen, Seattle Post-Intelligencer 12/15/2013 | | Read Article: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | | $1 Million Settlement in CA Man's Jail Death | | | | The family of a California inmate who died in 2010 will receive $1 million from Alameda County and its jail health care provider. The lawsuit alleged the 51-year-old man died after he was "beaten, repeatedly struck, kicked, brutalized, repeatedly tased and improperly restrained" by sheriff's deputies. The county has agreed to pay $500,000 as part of a settlement and the other half will be paid by Corizon Health, the county's health care provider.
Matt O'Brien, Contra Costa Times 12/14/2013 | | Read Article: Contra Costa Times | | Lockheed Martin Faces Employee Class-Action Suit | | | | The Supreme Court has denied Lockheed Martin Corp a chance to appeal a class-action lawsuit filed against them on behalf of potentially 56,000 employees. The class-action suit targets the company's employee retirement plan and alleges the company has managed it poorly. The 2006 lawsuit is scheduled to return to Illinois federal court. The lawsuit was previously denied class-action status, but the ruling was thrown out by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lawrence Hurley, Chicago Tribune 12/16/2013 | | Read Article: Chicago Tribune | | 4-Year-Old Boy Receives $166M in Abuse Lawsuit | | | | The New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services has been ordered by a jury to pay $166 million to a 4-year-old boy who suffered repeated physical abuse by his father. The boy's grandparents filed the lawsuit against the agency when it did not remove the boy from his home after a hospital cited obvious signs of abuse. After the boy was hospitalized again for severe injuries, the grandparents took legal action against the agency. The boy's father pleaded guilty to the child abuse and is now serving a six-year sentence.
Wire Report, The New York Times 12/13/2013 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | Teenager’s Sentence in Fatal Drunken-Driving Case Stirs ‘Affluenza’ Debate | | | | The implications of being rich have set off an emotional, angry debate after a TX juvenile court judge sentenced a 16-year-old from a well-off family to 10 years’ probation for killing four people in a drunken-driving crash. Judge Jean Boyd declined to give the teenager, Ethan Couch, the punishment sought by prosecutors - 20 years in prison - and instead ordered him to be placed in a long-term treatment facility while on probation. The order came after a psychologist called by the defense argued that Mr. Couch should not be sent to prison because he suffered from “affluenza” - a term that dates at least to the 1980s to describe the psychological problems that can afflict children of privilege.
MANNY FERNANDEZ and JOHN SCHWARTZ, The New York Times 12/16/2013 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | WEST EXPLOSION RETROSPECTIVE: It Could Happen Again | | | | In the weeks after the West disaster, investigators identified numerous ways it might have been prevented — or at least mitigated. Yet eight months after 15 people died and hundreds were injured, no significant measures have been adopted by state government to keep something like it from occurring again.
DOUG J. SWANSON and DAVID TARRANT | STAFF WRITERS, The Dallas Morning News 12/16/2013 | | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News | | Court Grants Lawyer’s Request to Search for More Racist Emails | | | | A South Texas court said Thursday that it will give a plaintiffs’ lawyer increased access to racist emails that might exist on the server of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. During discovery in a case over unpaid claims the lawyer who represents the Brownsville ISD, found several racist and offensive emails to and from officials with TWIA, the quasi-governmental insurer of last resort for coastal Texans. The lawyer says that race was a factor in TWIA’s denial of claims to the 98% Hispanic school district.
Tim Eaton, Austin American Statesman 12/16/2013 | | Read Article: Austin American Statesman | | |
