| | Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| GM Does Not Have to Turn Over Notes to Ignition-Flaw Plaintiffs | | 
| | A U.S. judge on Thursday refused to let plaintiffs' lawyers suing GM access notes from lawyers the company hired to prepare an internal report on the automaker's decade-long mishandling of a deadly ignition-switch flaw. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said interview notes from the "Valukas report" - named for Anton Valukas, chairman of law firm Jenner & Block, who GM hired to spearhead the investigation - were protected by attorney-client privilege.
JESSICA DYE, Reuters 01/16/2015    | | Read Article: Reuters |
| Judge Rules BP’s Macondo Well Spilled 3.19M Barrels of Oil | |
| | U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled Thursday that BP’s runaway oil well in 2010 spewed 3.19 million barrels of crude in in the Gulf of Mexico. The count falls in between estimates by BP, which had said 2.45 million barrels of crude spilled into the ocean in the disaster five years ago, and the Justice Department, which estimated around 4.1 million barrels were released. The judge said BP was not grossly negligent in its source control planning and preparation, the focal points of the second phase of BP’s trial that wrapped up in late 2013.
Collin Eaton, Houston Chronicle 01/16/2015 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle |
| Lawsuit to be Filed Over Washington Metro Incident | |
| | A lawsuit is expected to soon be filed against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority over an incident on the metro on Monday in which passengers were trapped in a smoke-filled train. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday morning over the incident which included the death of one 61-year-old woman and the hospitalization of 83 others from smoke exposure. The lawsuit alleges negligent maintenance, negligent inspection and a negligent response to an emergency situation and is to be filed in D.C. Superior Court.
Paul Duggan, The Washington Post 01/15/2015 | | Read Article: The Washington Post |
| GM Accused of Misleading Investors Over Recalls | |
| | GM managers misled investors and regulators for years about issues connected to vehicle ignition switch defects, shareholders said in a lawsuit accusing the company of inflating the stock’s value. The consolidated complaint filed Thursday in U.S. district court in Flint, Mich., combines claims by investors that the automaker’s handling of the recalls cheated them.
Margaret Cronin Fisk , Bloomberg 01/16/2015 | | Read Article: Bloomberg |
| Jury Awards $10.9M in Malpractice Suit | |
| | A jury in Lucas County Common Pleas Court awarded more than $10.9 million in damages to a Toledo man and his wife who suffered a stroke during her pregnancy after consulting with a physician who told her she didn’t need to go to the hospital. The verdict was handed up Wednesday afternoon following a jury trial before Judge Gary Cook and about four hours of deliberations.
JENNIFER FEEHAN , Toledo Blade 01/16/2015 | | Read Article: Toledo Blade |
| VA Destroyed Records, Punished Whistleblower in Patient Death, Complaint Alleges | |
| | Staff at the VA’s Cleveland medical center destroyed records into the death of a patient to avoid unwanted publicity, then punished a whistleblower and put her under surveillance after she revealed lapses in the patient’s care, the woman charged in a recent complaint. Patricia Leligdon said superiors began retaliating against her in 2010 after she reported that VA medical staff could have done more to prevent the death of a veteran who died after an “altercation” with another veteran at a VA outpatient mental health clinic, according to a federal whistleblower lawsuit she recently filed against the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Jim McElhatton , Washington Times 01/16/2015 | | Read Article: Washington Times |
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