Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| GM Ignition Switch Lawsuit Dismissed |  | A lawsuit filed against GM over their faulty ignition switches has been dismissed. Delaware Chancery Court Judge Sam Glasscock found that the company's board "did not consciously fail to monitor" GM operations. The lawsuit was filed by shareholders and alleged that the company failed to prevent excessive damages related to the faulty ignition switches. The defective parts led to 119 deaths and 234 injuries in addition to the costly recall.
Alissa Priddle, USA Today 06/30/2015    | | Read Article: USA Today |
| Oklahoma High Court Rules Earthquake Victim Can Sue Oil Companies | | An Oklahoma woman who was injured when an earthquake rocked her home in 2011 can sue oil companies for damages, the state's highest court ruled on Tuesday, opening the door to other potential lawsuits against the state's energy companies. Oklahoma has experienced a dramatic spike in earthquakes in the last five years, and researchers have blamed the oil and gas industry's practice of injecting massive volumes of saltwater left over from oil and gas drilling. Falling rocks injured Sandra Ladra's legs when a 5.0-magnitude quake toppled her chimney in 2011. She has sued two Oklahoma oil companies, New Dominion LLC and Spess Oil Company, which operate injection wells near her home in Prague, Oklahoma. A lower court ruled that the case had to go before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the regulator overseeing oil and gas, and dismissed Ladra's case in 2014. On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court reversed that decision, ruling that the commission's authority does not extend to the power to "afford a remedy" to those harmed by the violation of its regulations. The case will return to district court to decide whether Ladra should be granted any damages.
YEGANEH TORBATI, Reuters 07/01/2015
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| GM Fund Leaves Out Scores Hurt or Killed in Cars With Switch Flaw | | Last year, GM agreed to compensate victims killed or hurt when an ignition switch shut off accidentally and cut power to the brakes and steering, a defect hidden from the public for more than a decade. But the compensation fund covers only 2.59 million vehicles with that specific flaw. GM says a similar defect subsequently detected in an additional 10 million vehicles is ineligible for compensation because the company recalled the cars immediately after discovering the flaw and because employees made no efforts to keep it under wraps.
Margaret Cronin Fisk & Jeff Green, Bloomberg 07/01/2015 | | Read Article: Bloomberg |
| BMW Sued Over Sudden Engine Failure Issues | | A lawsuit recently filed against BMW claims the automaker knew about the cause of sudden engine failure issues with their vehicles. This new lawsuit claims that water is shorting out the electronic systems in the vehicles made from 1999 to 2010 due to a design flaw. The company has recalled over 700,000 vehicles "for technical problems with the potential to cause their engines to fail" over the last five years, but has not informed consumers of the problem. This lawsuit is asking BMW to repair all affected vehicles, potentially costing them around $800 million.
Peter Cohan, Forbes 06/29/2015 | | Read Article: Forbes |
| Appeals Court Sides With Veterans in Suit Over Experiments | | The U.S. military must continue to alert veterans exposed to chemical and biological weapons experiments of any new information that may affect their health and provide them ongoing medical care, a federal appeals court said Tuesday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling in a lawsuit brought against the U.S. Department of Defense on behalf of thousands of veterans. The veterans accuse the government of failing to properly treat health problems caused by the experiments.
Associated Press, The New York Times 07/01/2015 | | Read Article: The New York Times |
| Tractor-Trailer Hitches Could Be Faulty, 6,000 May Be in Use | | On June 9, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating a potentially high rate of trailer separations for the hitch, the "Ultra LT" made by Fontaine Fifth Wheel of Trussville, Alabama. Fontaine says it is cooperating with the probe. The Ultra LT could be in use on as many as 6,000 semis across the nation.
Associated Press, The New York Times 07/01/2015 | | Read Article: The New York Times |
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