The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that a home healthcare company had no right to access e-mails sent from former employer to her attorney. In a unanimous ruling, the high court upheld an appellate decision that the Loving Care Agency had no need to read communications sent on company laptop from a password-protected Yahoo e-mail account. The case is Stengart v. Loving Care Agency.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 7-2 to further restrict the grounds on which whistle-blower lawsuits can be brought on behalf of the U.S. government. The ruling revolved around a portion of the False Claims Act, which allows ordinary citizens to help the government uncover and fight fraudulent contracts. One portion of the law prohibits whistle-blower suits brought on by information already public “in a congressional, administrative or Government Accounting Office report, hearing, audit or investigation.” The Department of Justice argued that that stipulation only covered federal reports, not reports at the state or local level, but the Supreme Court disagreed. The majority justices ruled that “administrative” reports covered state and local audits as well as federal audits
An Ohio judge has awarded $2.8 million in a wrongful death lawsuit to the family of a high school student who was murdered in July 2007. Jacob Feichtner and two others were shot and killed by former Cleveland firefighter Terrance Hough Jr. during an argument about fireworks in their neighborhood. Hough was convicted of three counts of aggravated murder and is serving life in prison with no chance for parole.
A U.S. District Court Judge in St. Louis has ordered Renal Care Group, a kidney dialysis company, to pay $19.4 million back to Medicare in a whistle-blower lawsuit. The suit claimed that the firm created a shell company to earn an extra 30 percent on dialysis supplies ?? money that is supposed to go only to independent companies. The judge wrote in his ruling that the relationship between the two companies “showed a reckless disregard for Medicare statutes and regulations.”
The cap on noneconomic damages in Georgia was unanimously struck down by the Georgia Supreme Court, who stated in their opinion that caps are ??violative of the right to trial by jury.? The issue was brought before the court in a case involving a woman whose face was permanently disfigured after a face-lift operation. The jury awarded $1.15 million in noneconomic damages; however, the 2005 tort reform law limited the award to $350,000. As a result of the decision, the initial award will stand.
Three judges ruled last week against families in three separate cases that claimed a vaccine preservative caused autism in their children. The judges ruled in all three cases that there was little or no chance that the children??s autism were caused by the vaccines, and one judge wrote that the families ??relied upon practitioners and researchers who peddled hope, not opinions grounded in science and medicine.? The anti-vaccine group lost three similar cases in early 2009. The three rulings are the second step in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding begun in 2002 in the United States Court of Federal Claims.
A California judge ruled that a family’s lawsuit against the Oakland police department for the beating and eventual death of their son could continue. According to Judge William Alsup, the family of Jerry Amaro was discouraged from filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the department “by affirmative and misleading statements and conduct by Oakland police.” The lawsuit claims that Amaro was severely beaten by police officers in 2000 and died a month after the encounter.
A Colorado judge awarded $18.5 million to a man who suffered severe injuries after being hit by a drunk driver while he was working in his driveway. According to the lawsuit, Paul Savage was changing his wife’s car’s oil when Kevin Ruszkowski drove his car off the road and onto Savage’s property, striking him. Savage suffered injuries to his spine and is now a functioning paraplegic, the Denver Post reports. Ruszkowski was driving with a suspended license.
A federal appeals court in Ohio this week gave the green light to a man’s lawsuit against a Cincinnati community pool. In the lawsuit, Robert Kennedy alleges he was thrown out of the pool without refund because pool staffers claimed he was “creeping out” other patrons. The judge ruled that because he had not broken any rules, Kennedy had a “constitutionally-protected liberty interest to use municipal property” and that refusing him that right was unconstitutional.
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday handed down a major victory for consumers injured by products made by foreign manufacturers. Ruling on an appeal briefed on behalf of the New Jersey Association for Justice by Jonathan Miller and Michael Galpern, of the Locks Law Firm, the court held that J. McIntyre Machinery Ltd. of Nottingham, U.K. may be held liable in New Jersey courts for defective products sold as part of a national distribution scheme. “This is a significant ruling in favor of the New Jersey residents and businesses because it ensures foreign companies must face their share of responsibility for injuries in the state stemming from their goods,” the firm stated in a release. The case is Nicastro v. McIntyre Machinery America Ltd, A-29-08.
