A West Virginia judge has granted preliminary approval for a settlement stemming from a 2006 warehouse fire that forced thousands of residents to stay inside their homes.
Under the settlement, U.S. Tire Recovery will pay a combined $1.175 million to compensate residents whose property was damaged by the fire.
The settlement does not include personal injuries related to the fire.
A federal appellate panel reinstated a class-action securities lawsuit against drugmaker Merck & Co. on Tuesday after finding that plaintiffs had filed their claims in a timely manner.
Plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit allege that Merck concealed risks associated with the once-blockbuster drug Vioxx.
Attorneys for the drugmaker may attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed on alternative grounds.
A couple formerly represented by jailed attorney Dickie Scruggs filed a motion this week asking a judge to dismiss pending bad faith and negligence claims against State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.
Thomas and Pamela McIntosh had initially accused the insurer of altering engineering reports in order to deny claims filed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The McIntosh’s current attorney offer no comment on exactly why his clients had chosen not to pursue bad faith or negligence claims against State Farm.
Thousands of individual smokers who have filed lawsuits against Altria Group Inc. and other tobacco companies may not rely on factual findings used in a Florida class-action against cigarette makers, a federal judge has ruled.
The ruling by District Judge Harvey Schlesinger runs contrary to a Florida Supreme Court decision allowing factual evidence from the state’s massive “Engle” class action to be used in individual suits.
The case is Brown v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 07-CV-761, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Jacksonville).
In a Newsday story dated 8/29/08, James Bernstein notes ” Parents owning a popular model of bassinet should stop using the product and prepare for a recall, federal safety regulators warned Thursday. The warning from the Consumer Product Safety Commission comes after two babies died when they became trapped in the bassinet’s bars. The bassinet, produced by Simplicity Inc., was sold at retail stores including Target and Babies R Us.”
In an article written by Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronical on 8/28/2008, he notes that the “…Santa Clara County sheriff’s office and one of its deputies have been named in a lawsuit stemming from an accident that killed two bicyclists. In separate lawsuits, the parents of the cyclists say that Deputy James Council negligently caused the accident after he fell asleep at the wheel of his patrol car and subsequently struck the passing cyclists. The wrongful death lawsuits seek unspecified monetary damages.”
