| | Citi to Pay $110M in a Suit Over Force-Placed Insurance | |  | | Citigroup Inc has agreed to pay $110 million to thousands of homeowners who were forcibly charged expensive property insurance premiums, a court filing showed, as several U.S. banks and insurers were criticized by regulators over such practices. The class-action lawsuit filed in a New York federal court involves "force-placed insurance," which is placed by a bank or other mortgage lenders to protect their interests in a property if the homeowner's insurance lapses. The class members who were charged for force-placed hazard insurance will receive back 12.5 percent of the premium upon submitting a claim, as per an agreement between Citigroup and the plaintiffs.
Sakthi Prasad, Reuters 02/06/2014    | | Read Article: Reuters | | Settlement Reached in Suit Over Property Damage From Fire | | | | A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit over a controlled fire that destroyed a Nebraska couple's barn and property. The lawsuit sought $40,000 in damages for the loss of the plaintiffs' barn, several other outbuildings, fences and trees during a controlled fire which got out of control. The lawsuit was filed against the village of Virginia, the fire department and the man whose property the fire was started on. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
Wire Report, San Francisco Chronicle 02/06/2014 | | Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle | | Lawsuits Shine Spotlight on Railcar Safety | | | | At a time when a series of train derailments have raised alarms over rail safety, two major railroads are battling the contractors in court. They are charging that, in some cases, the contractors created hazards by failing to do repair work properly. The two sides are also fighting over who should be blamed for derailments caused by broken axles and thus bear the cost of damages. Railroad operator Union Pacific Corp. has sued both Progress Rail Services Corp and Greenbrier over what it alleges was inadequate work that led to several derailments in the past few years. BNSF RailwayCo., another big railroad, has sued Progress Rail on similar grounds over a December 2010 derailment near Jamestown, N.D.
James R. Hagerty and Bob Tita , Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required 02/06/2014 | | Read Article: Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required($) | | Katrina Trial Jury Clears Aaron Broussard, Jefferson Parish | | | | Former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's actions during Hurricane Katrina did not rise to the level of willful misconduct, a jury decided Wednesday night after 7½ hours of deliberation. The same jury found that Jefferson Parish's government acted negligently with its now-defunct doomsday plan, which sent to the drainage pump operators to Washington Parish the day before the Aug. 29, 2005, storm. However, the jury found that the parish's negligence is not to blame for the flooding. As such, the parish and Broussard are not liable, and the trial is over.
Paul Purpura, New Orleans Times-Picayune 02/06/2014 | | Read Article: New Orleans Times-Picayune | | Parents File Lawsuit Over Teen Girl's Suicide Video | | | | The parents of a 13-year-old Florida girl who committed suicide have filed separate lawsuits against the Seminole County School Board and one of the girl's teachers. Just weeks before her death, the teenage girl performed in a classroom video in which she portrayed a young woman committing suicide. The lawsuit alleges that the school board and the girl's teacher were negligent in not obtaining the parents' permission for the girl to portray her own death in a video. The young girl later hanged herself with a scarf in her bedroom after her boyfriend broke up with her.
Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel 02/05/2014 | | Read Article: Orlando Sentinel | | Vietnam Veteran's Lawsuit to Proceed | | | | The U.S. Army's request to have a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran's lawsuit dismissed has been rejected by a federal judge. The plaintiff was seriously injured while serving in Vietnam, for which he received the Purple Heart, but was later given a bad conduct discharge after allegedly going AWOL. The veteran contends that he did not realize he was going AWOL when he returned home after leaving the hospital. The plaintiff hopes that his discharge status will be changed to honorable so that he is able to receive federal benefits to help treat his post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
Wire Report, Houston Chronicle 02/06/2014 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | | Funeral Home Sued Over Wrongful Organ Removal | | | | The parents of a 17-year-old Georgia boy who was found dead in a school gym have filed a lawsuit against the funeral home which handled his body. The teenager was found rolled up inside a gymnasium mat in what officials said was a freak accident where the boy got stuck head-first in the mat reaching for his shoe. After his parents had his body exhumed and an autopsy performed under suspicion of murder, it was found that his internal organs were missing. The lawsuit alleges that the boy's internal organs were improperly discarded and replaced with newspaper in an act of fraud, negligence and intentional mishandling of a corpse.
Russ Bynum, Detroit Free Press 02/05/2014 | | Read Article: Detroit Free Press | | Study of Blood Clot Drug Pradaxa Unnerved Its Maker, Documents Suggest | | | | The makers of the blood-thinning drug Pradaxa were so worried that an internal research paper would damage drug sales that some employees not only pressured the author to revise it, but suggested it should be quashed altogether, according to newly unsealed legal documents. The documents were made public last week by a federal judge in Illinois who is overseeing thousands of lawsuits filed by patients and their families, who say that Pradaxa’s manufacturer, the German company Boehringer Ingelheim, failed to properly warn them about the risks of taking the drug.
KATIE THOMAS, The New York Times 02/06/2014 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | Doctors Tend to be Wary of Supplements | | | | Most doctors have had little formal education in alternative and complementary medicine. And truthfully, doctors tend to be wary of supplements and don’t routinely recommend them. Some of the best research hasn’t been encouraging. A large study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, for example, found that people who took fish-oil pills didn’t cut their rate of heart attacks and strokes or live longer than people who took a placebo. A similar study found no benefit from multivitamins.
Consumer Reports, The Washington Post 02/06/2014 | | Read Article: The Washington Post | | U.S. Feds Reaffirm West Virginia Water Safe for All | | | | A federal health official said Wednesday that West Virginians can use tap water however they choose after last month's chemical spill contaminated it for days. Still, public skepticism remains over its safety and some local doctors are advising some of their patients not to ingest it. The Jan. 9 spill of a coal-cleaning chemical at Freedom Industries in Charleston spurred a water-use ban for 300,000 people for up to 10 days. After officials cleared thousands to use water again, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials advised pregnant women to consider a different water source.
JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press , ABC News 02/06/2014 | | Read Article: ABC News | | |
