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Leading the News
Obama meets with fallen rig workers' families.President Obama's meeting with the families of the 11 Deepwater Horizon workers killed April 20 is covered prominently in this morning's papers, and was reported by all three network newscasts last night. ABC World News (6/10, story 2, 1:05, Stephanopoulos) reported, "At the White House today, President Obama met with the families of the 11 men killed in the April explosion. The President promised them their loved ones would not be forgotten." Sheila Clark, widow of Donald Clark: "We don't want the government to stop until they find out exactly what happened out there, because we really don't know what happened." The CBS Evening News (6/10, story 2, 1:05, Couric) reported, "We shouldn't forget that 11 people were killed when the oil rig the 'Deepwater Horizon' exploded on April 20. Today, members of their family met with the President at the White House." CBS (Reid) added, "We're told the President talked to each family individually, offered his condolences and said he will be there for them long after the cameras are gone." According to NBC Nightly News (6/10, lead story, 3:30, Williams), the President "tried to heal the most painful wounds, meeting with the families of the men who died on the oil rig." Keith Jones, father of Gordon Jones: "I don't criticize the President in not having condemned BP or any other party that may have been at fault in the accident. Not yet." The AP (6/11, Superville) says the President and First Lady were "joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, White House energy adviser Carol Browner, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen." The AP notes, "One man who lost a son asked Obama to support efforts to update federal law limiting the amount of money the families can collect." Keith Jones, the father of a victim of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig accident, on MSNBC's the Ed Show (6/10), said his meeting with the president "went very well." Jones said, "The president was very gracious and very generous with his time. ... Well, there's no question in my mind that he's emotionally touched by this [oil disaster]." OSHA official details energy industry's recent fatal accidents. McClatchy (6/11, Blumenthal) reports, "The oil and gas industry has a troubling record on worker safety, a congressional subcommittee was told Thursday. ... In the past four months, 58 workers have died in explosions, fires and collapses at refineries, coal mines, the oil drilling rig and a natural gas-fired power plant construction site, said Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration." Sen. Patty Murray, chair of the Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee of the Senate HELP Committee, said, "To me this doesn't seem simply like a string of bad luck; it appears to be a disregard for safety regulations and precautions across an entire industry." Lawmakers hold hearings to consider health impact of oil spill. The Hill (6/11, Lillis, Pecquet) reports, "After focusing for weeks on the causes of the Gulf oil spill and its economic and environmental impact, Congress shifted its attention Thursday to the dangers it poses to human health." Notably, the "Senate Health Committee tackled proposals to protect oil industry workers, while the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Energy panel heard from experts on potential problems associated with exposure to oil, a carcinogen." Boehner blasts wave of spill hearings. The Hill (6/11, Hooper) reports House minority leader John Boehner "is ripping congressional hearings into the BP oil spill. 'This is Congress at its best,' said Boehner at the beginning of a rant on the dozens of House and Senate hearings on the oil spill. 'Why don't we get the oil stopped, figure out what the hell went wrong, and then have the hearings and get the damn law fixed,' Boehner said at his weekly press conference on Thursday." Lawyers seek potential plaintiffs in suits against BP. The New York Times (6/11, Schwartz) reports on the "tactics lawyers are using to sign up clients to sue BP," including putting up billboard ads, "running advertisements on Gulf Coast television stations, buying Internet addresses like GulfOilSpillLawFirm.com, and holding informational seminars -- with free food and drinks -- for those who feel the oil company owes them something." According to the Times, "Lawyers across the nation have filed nearly 200 lawsuits so far related to the April 20 oil disaster, including death and injury claims for those aboard the rig, claims of damage and economic loss for people whose livelihoods are threatened by the slick, and shareholder suits over BP's plunging stock. ... Lawyers also plan to file a civil racketeering action alleging a corporate conspiracy with the Bush administration." Global shareholder lawsuit filed against BP. The National Law Journal (6/10, Baldas) reported, "Another shareholder lawsuit has been filed against BP PLC over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, this one potentially involving plaintiffs from all around the world. The suit, filed Tuesday by New York's Zwerling, Schachter & Zwerling in the Eastern District of Louisiana, seeks to represent not just American investors but also those who bought shares in London-based BP in the United Kingdom and throughout the rest of the world." Experts unsure of extent of BP's liability. The Wall Street Journal (6/9, Catan, Searcey) reports that on Thursday, the White House said it might seek new laws to force BP to compensate workers idled by halted deepwater drilling. But legal experts have disagreed on whether such a move would be possible, as well as on whether BP can be ordered to halt dividend payments. CNN (6/10, Segal) reported that Transocean has invoked the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 "to limit its liability to $26.76 million, a fraction of what the" families of workers killed in the rig explosion "are likely to seek." The "pre-emptive strike is part of the legal thicket confronting victims, where a patchwork of arcane and sometimes inconsistent laws will most likely make the ensuing litigation one of the most complex cases in American history." Lawyers for the victims "will argue that Transocean officials had enough of what the 1851 law calls "privity or knowledge" to hold the company responsible for the full value of the death and injury claims." Liability arguments explored. In an op-ed in the National Law Journal (6/14), Brian B. O'Neill of Faegre & Benson writes, "Various commentators, public officials and BP PLC representatives have stated repeatedly that there is a $75 million damages cap for the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Nothing could be further from the truth." O'Neill discusses exceptions to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, as well as counterarguments to potential BP defenses involving the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 and "the Robins Dry Dock doctrine." O'Neill also observes that "state law punitive damages still exist for all Gulf Coast states other than Louisiana and plaintiffs should sue under state law for punitives." BP pledges to expedite claims process. USA Today (6/11) notes the Administration "announced" BP "agreed to speed up payments" after officials "raised a 'pressing concern' with BP officials during a Wednesday meeting about the time the company is taking to provide relief payments." The Washington Post (6/11, Branigin, Hedgpeth) reports BP "has agreed to implement a more transparent and expedited claims process to pay individuals and businesses harmed by the disaster." Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen "told reporters that he and other administration officials met with BP representatives Wednesday at his request to talk about claims issues." Tracy Wareing, "a top DHS official," said BP "promised to 'implement a more expedited claims process' that takes into account the ability of businesses to pay expenses for the upcoming month and the issue of seasonal earnings." According to the Washington Post (6/11, Stephens, Flaherty), "State officials in Louisiana, which accounts for more than half of the claims to date, say they also have been unimpressed with BP's assertions in national ads that it will pay 'all legitimate claims.' They complain that BP executives have refused to give details of payments and instead have provided only a brief daily 'event summary.' Last week, Louisiana Attorney General James D. 'Buddy' Caldwell resorted to legal action, demanding details in a lawsuit." In a separate article, USA Today (6/11, Schmit) also reports that Louisiana and Florida officials "say the payouts, so far, have been small and often too slow and that BP hasn't given them the data they need to adequately monitor the process. The Obama administration has also stepped up pressure on BP to make the process faster and more transparent, and to make more data available to public officials so they can monitor claims." Pete Spotts, writing for the Christian Science Monitor (6/11), says, "Business owners in the Gulf are increasingly unhappy with what many see as a claims process tripping over its own red tape. ... BP appears to be learning about regionwide claims management on the fly, just as it was learning about containing oil flowing from its ruptured undersea well on the fly." BP's ability to survive disaster in question. ABC World News (6/10, lead story, 3:40, Stephanopoulos) reported, "And with these troubling new numbers today come new questions about whether BP will be able to pay for it all. The company's stock fluctuating wildly. BP shareholders worry that the company will drown in claims, by some estimates, owing $14 billion to the people of the Gulf." New estimate: as many as 40K barrels of oil leaking daily. ABC World News (6/10, lead story, 3:40, Stephanopoulos) reported, "The Federal body President Obama charged with figuring out how big the oil spill is now has an official estimate, and it is stunning. Government scientists now say between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil have been gushing out every day. That's 40 times the original estimate, and independent experts say it could go even higher." Report suggests spill estimates were intentionally lowballed. NBC Nightly News (6/10, lead story, 3:30, Williams) reported, "There are also new questions being raised tonight about what some government officials knew early on about this blowout and the potential for massive amounts of oil in the water as compared to what was said and understood at the time." NBC Nightly News (6/10, story 9, 3:40, Williams) went on to report that the new disclosures "raise questions about whether some in the government leveled with the public about the possible worst-case scenario." NBC's Lisa Myers added, "Within hours after the Deepwater Horizon rig sank into the ocean on April 22nd, this behind-the-scenes video captured" NOAA scientists "participating in a conference call," and "clearly written on this board was what the White House now says was a worst-case scenario at that time, that 64,000 to 110,000 barrels of oil a day could leak into the gulf." However, "Initially, the Coast Guard official in charge," Rear Adm. Mary Landry, "quoted BP's estimate that the well was leaking 1,000 barrels a day." Timothy Crone, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: "It certainly seems that there might have been an effort to minimize these numbers." NBC noted that the White House "emphatically denies there was ever any attempt to minimize the size of the leak." Wildlife fatality reports spike. ABC World News (6/10, story 3, 2:10, Gutman) reported, "Just over the past week, there have been twice as many birds brought to this wildlife refuge in Louisiana as in the past six weeks combined. Today, twice as many dead birds to that same refuge as in the past day." Top BP officials to meet with Obama next Wednesday. Politico (6/11, Gerstein) reports, "Ending days of speculation and criticism about why the president has not met or spoken with top officials of the company responsible for the oil spill off the Gulf Coast, the White House Thursday invited BP's chairman of the board and other senior managers to meet with Barack Obama in Washington next week. ... The invitation for the meeting...comes after repeated questions from reporters this month about why, more than 50 days after the spill began, Obama hasn't had a face-to-face encounter or phone conversation with the company's top leaders." BP pressured to withhold dividend payment. The CBS Evening News (6/10, story 4, 2:00, Phillips) reported, "The cost to BP of trying to cap the spill and clean up the mess have driven its share price down by about $90 billion, a loss of about 47% of its pre-spill total value. And now BP, which accounts for 12% of all British stock dividends is being pressured not to pay its next dividend until the spill is stopped."
Civil Justice SystemGround Zero workers reach settlement with New York City.The CBS Evening News (6/10, story 8, 0:20, Couric) reported, "Some peace of mind for nearly 10,000 first responders and construction workers who suffered health problems after working at Ground Zero. They reached a $712 million settlement today with the City of New York, the money to come from a Federal insurance fund." The New York Times (6/11, A1, Sulzberger, Navarro) reports on its front page that "the new pact drew a vigorous endorsement from the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of United States District Court in Manhattan, who had said the previous one, amounting to $657 million, was too small." Hellerstein "has emerged as a passionate advocate for firefighters, police officers and other workers and volunteers who have suffered ailments they attribute to the toxic debris of the World Trade Center." The Times adds, "The settlement must be approved by 95 percent of the plaintiffs in the case by Sept. 30 to take effect. If that target is reached, workers could begin receiving compensation within weeks, lawyers for both sides said." The AP (6/11, Caruso) also reports the story. In an editorial, the New York Times (6/11) notes that "Kenneth Feinberg, the former special master of the federal compensation fund for families of 9/11 victims, is part of the appeals process for this case. He promised to encourage workers to agree. He made the case in court this week that the payout is not perfect, but it is better than more time in court." Feinberg and Judge Hellerstein "are right, bearing in mind that it's impossible to fully compensate people who were harmed in their selfless efforts to help out after 9/11." Dole lawyers urge swift conclusion to Nicaragua banana case to protect witnesses.The AP (6/10) reported, "Lawyers for Dole Foods urged a judge Thursday to quickly conclude hearings in a case involving purported banana workers in Nicaragua to protect those who blew the whistle on an alleged multimillion dollar fraud. In documents filed with Judge Victoria Chaney, the lawyers said a manhunt was being conducted in Nicaragua for the so-called John Doe witnesses, who were being threatened with reprisals unless they recanted their testimony." The lawyers "cited purported statements by Nicaraguan lawyer Antonio Hernandez Ordenana during a march and news conference last month in which he declared his investigators were working to identify the John Does and bring them before Nicaraguan courts." CongressGovernment to begin disbursing funds for med-mal lawsuit reduction projects.The Wall Street Journal (6/11, Adamy) reports that on Friday, the government will begin disbursing $25 million in grants to fund demonstration projects intended to reduce the number of medical malpractice lawsuits. Drug SafetyStudy by FDA drug-safety official links Avandia to increased heart risks.The Wall Street Journal (6/11, B4, Whalen, Mundy) reports that David Graham, an FDA drug-safety official argues in a new study that the diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) may have led to thousands of heart problems that could have been prevented if patients had been using a different medication. The agency is already scheduled next month to evaluate the Avandia's safety. Graham, along with other experts, has said that drug should be removed from the market. Lawmaker says J&J has been uncooperative regarding recalled medicines investigation.The New York Times (6/11, B1, Singer) reports on the front page of its Business Day section, "A Congressional investigation into a recent recall of children's Tylenol and other pediatric medicines has been stymied by the manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, investigators say, raising the prospect that new measures -- like issuing of subpoenas to compel cooperation -- could be invoked." Employment/Workplace SafetyCharter Communications settles wage-and-hour class action for $18M.The St. Louis Business Journal (6/11, Volkmann) reports, "Charter Communications agreed to pay $18 million to 8,000 current and former employees to settle a 2008 class-action lawsuit alleging that workers were not paid overtime and back pay." Workers "claimed that Charter failed to compensate field technicians for a variety of tasks, including loading and unloading the company vehicle, travel time and uncompensated pre-work activities such as gathering and stocking." The case was Marc Goodell v. Charter Communications. Texas jury orders Exterran Energy to pay $82.5M for worker's death in gas explosion.The AP (6/11) reports, "Lawyers say a Texas jury has awarded $82.5 million in damages to the family of a man who died in a 2007 explosion at a natural gas processing plant in Hood County. Ammons Law Firm says Houston-based Hanover Compressions L.P., which has since been renamed Exterran Energy Solutions L.P., constructed, engineered and installed the natural gas processing plant. The law firm said in a Thursday news release that the jury found the company grossly negligent in the death of 27-year-old Joshua Wade Petrie, an employee of Fort Worth, Texas-based Quicksilver." Medical Errors/HealthcareArticle explores relationship between surgeons, orthopedic device business.Bloomberg News (6/11, Armstrong) reports that "financial ties between device makers and surgeons help explain" both the "$14 billion-a-year orthopedic device business" and "why healthcare costs in the US rose at 2.5 times the rate of inflation in the past 10 years." While "implant makers increasingly relied on surgeons to help them develop new products and train colleagues," the "system was perverted so that many consulting deals, royalty agreements and trips to conferences were intended not to develop better products, but to persuade surgeons to use a company's products." In 2009, the US government charged that key players in "the industry 'routinely violated the anti-kickback statute by paying physicians for the purpose of exclusively using their products.'" Group suing Connecticut chiropractors for failing to disclose risks.The AP (6/10) reported, "A patient advocacy group announced Thursday it would sue two Connecticut chiropractic trade groups, accusing the chiropractors of violating patients' right to know about the health risks of neck manipulations and committing hundreds of violations. Victims of Chiropractic Abuse Inc. is suing the Connecticut Chiropractic Council and the Connecticut Chiropractic Association, two trade organizations that represent most of the chiropractors in the state." Complete Immunity PreemptionSCOTUS may address preemption ruling in Mazda case.In the "On the Docket" blog at Forbes (6/10), Brendan Pierson wrote, "When the U.S. Supreme Court decides a case against Mazda Motor of America Inc. over a death allegedly caused by the lack of a shoulder strap in a minivan, it could put automakers on the hook for a wide range of state law claims that courts have long deemed preempted by federal regulation, experts say. Although the high court could choose to address only the narrow shoulder-strap issue, attorneys say that it's likely to use the case to clarify the scope of its 2000 decision in Geier v. American Honda Motor Co. Inc. - a case concerning air bags that has generally been read by courts as protecting car companies from state law claims as long as they comply with federal regulations." Kelly Savage Day, an attorney at Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold, said, "The very fact that the United States Supreme Court is taking this case when there's no underlying conflict suggests that the court is considering narrowing Geier." But Bowman and Brooke partner Mal Wheeler "said the court likely took the case in deference to the solicitor general's brief, rather than out of a desire to make a significant change to the law." Product SafetyIKEA recalls 3.36M window blinds after child's death.Bloomberg News (6/10, Plungis) reported, "IKEA, the Swedish furniture retailer, recalled 3.36 million window blinds after a child died and two others were almost strangled, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada said. The retailer is recalling roller, Roman and roll-up blinds, the agencies said in a statement today." US safety regulators "and IKEA received a report of a 1- year-old boy in Lowell, Massachusetts, who was almost strangled in February, according to the statement." GE recalls 181K washing machines.MarketWatch (6/10, Chang) reported, "General Electric Co. is recalling 181,000 front-load washing machines due to fire and shock hazards, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday. A faulty wire can lead to a fire when it comes into contact with a metal part on the washtube during operation, the CPSC said. There have been seven incidents of minor smoke damage but no injuries have been reported so far." New Jersey SC to hear appeal on time-barred product liability suit against J&J.The New Jersey Law Journal (6/9, Toutant) reported, "The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether an appellate panel improperly dismissed as time-barred a product-liability suit against Johnson & Johnson over sutures alleged to have caused post-surgical injuries. In her petition for certification, which the Court granted on June 3, Misti Blessing argued that she could not have known she had a cause of action because J&J concealed from the medical community mounting evidence of complications stemming from use of Panacryl sutures. Blessing also claimed that the Appellate Division, in affirming a trial court's dismissal of her suit, flouted the discovery rule, which is designed to mitigate harsh results from strict application of the statute of limitations." Toyota sudden-acceleration suits to be coordinated in Los Angeles.The National Law Journal (6/11, Bronstad) reports, "Dozens of sudden-acceleration lawsuits filed against Toyota Motor Corp. in California's state courts will be coordinated in Los Angeles. California Chief Justice Ronald George issued an order to that effect on Tuesday, following a hearing on May 21 when Los Angeles County, Calif., Superior Court Judge Carl West coordinated at least 21 lawsuits into a single proceeding." | ||||
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