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Leading the NewsBlack box data casts doubt on sudden Prius acceleration cases.In a column in the Washington Post (3/19), Frank Ahrens writes, "Funny how a little research can change things," noting that after "exhaustive testing" of last week's event in California in which a driver reported uncontrolled acceleration in a Prius, the company reported "'significant inconsistencies' with the driver's story. ... Today, federal investigators gave a preliminary report on the second incident, this one in New York, that led to the 2005 Prius crashing into a stone wall and causing minor injuries to the driver." NHTSA "said that the vehicle's on-board computer records show that the brakes were never applied and the throttle was wide open at the time of the crash. ... What is not known is whether the throttle was wide open because the driver had the gas pedal mashed to the floor or whether it stuck wide open on its own and, for whatever reason, the driver failed to apply the brakes." The New York Times (3/19, Bunkley) reports that NHTSA's report "that the car's computer showed no evidence of braking...raises the possibility that the [driver] mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake." However, "what is unclear is whether the woman depressed the brake after the car sped up and then took her foot off the brake just before the crash." Meanwhile, "Last week, Toyota cast doubt on the account of a California man who said his 2008 Prius took him on a 30-mile ride at up to 94 miles an hour. Toyota said evidence obtained from the car did not match the man's account and showed that the brakes, though severely worn, would have been capable of stopping the car." Toyota initiated "game plan" to resist NHTSA'S calls for 2007 recall. The Washington Post (3/19, Whoriskey) reports that though Toyota and NHTSA "dismissed" widely publicized reports last month about lobbyists having saved the automaker $100 million by forestalling a recall in 2007 as an "idle boast," "a closer look at the 2007 investigation, revealed in agency records and internal Toyota e-mails, shows that after federal investigators at the time diagnosed a number of potential dangers in Toyota cars and trucks, the automaker resisted the findings and in the end escaped a broad recall that could have cost millions of dollars." Moreover, Toyota, "which had developed a 'game plan' for handling the inquiry, ignored NHTSA's broad findings and agreed only to a minor recall of a single type of floor mat. The agency, which has the authority to order a recall, did not push for more." Toyota calls on ABC to retract report on potential electronic fault. Bloomberg News (3/19, Ohnsman, Plungis) reports that Toyota has asked ABC News "to retract and apologize for an 'irresponsible' report aired last month suggesting electronics as the cause of sudden acceleration in its cars. ... Toyota has said accelerators that stick or snag on floor mats can cause sudden acceleration, with no evidence of failures in the electronic-control systems of its cars and trucks. An ABC News report on Feb. 22 challenged that assumption, and the network defended the report in a response to the carmaker."
Civil Justice SystemNinth Circuit declines to re-hear al-Kidd v. Ashcroft.The Recorder (3/19, Levine) reports that Judge Milan Smith Jr. of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "drew a torrent of opposition from Republican-appointed colleagues over his decision last year to allow a suit against John Ashcroft to go forward." Eight of the "9th Circuit judges dissented Thursday. But Smith fought back, simultaneously issuing a rare concurrence to the denial of en banc review." Smith wrote, "However well-motivated Ashcroft's intentions may have been in creating, authorizing, supervising and enforcing the misuse of the material witness statute in contravention of the Fourth Amendment...his motivation does not presumptively immunize the policy, or himself, the nation's chief law enforcement officer, and others implementing and executing it, from complying with the rule of law." The AP (3/18) reported that dissenting judges, led by Diarmuid O'Scannlain, said that "the panel's decision essentially declared the 200-year-old material witness statute unconstitutional and 'distorts the bedrock Fourth Amendment principle that an official's subjective reasons for making an arrest are constitutionally irrelevant.'" Smith "responded to the judges' dissent, saying his earlier ruling didn't declare the material witness statute unconstitutional. Instead, Smith said, the panel found that the statute doesn't authorize arrests like the one used to detain al-Kidd." The New York Times (3/19, Schwartz) reports, "Eight of the 25 judges who voted signed dissents opposing the decision, which suggests that the United States Supreme Court might take an interest in the case if Mr. Ashcroft appeals."
Lawsuit claims Boy Scouts failed to prevent abuse.The New York Times (3/18, Yardley) reported, "Files kept secret for decades that detail hundreds of claims of child sexual abuse by troop leaders of the Boy Scouts of America are at the center of a civil court case that began here Wednesday. Lawyers for a victim say the files show a centralized national effort to conceal abuse while lawyers for the Boy Scouts say the files demonstrate proactive efforts to stop it." The case, "a lawsuit brought by a man who was abused by a scout leader in Oregon in the early 1980s, seeks $4 million in damages for the victim, who was about 12 at the time." Third Circuit upholds $24.8M verdict against cigarette makers.The Daily Business Review (3/19, Pagliery) reports, "A 9-year-old products liability case produced a major victory over tobacco companies [Philip Morris USA, Brown & Williamson and Liggett Group] Wednesday when the 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld a $24.8 million award to [John Lukacs'], a man who died of cancer shortly after trial." The unanimous opinion "by Judges Richard Suarez, Angel Cortiñas and Vance Salter is the first appellate ruling upholding a verdict since the Florida Supreme Court dismantled a smoker class action and opened the door to individual trials." Several plaintiff attorneys called "the decision a landmark that will embolden those fighting tobacco companies." Former football player alleges mishandling of concussions.The New York Times (3/19, B12, Schwarz) reports, "A former Arena Football League player filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that a team doctor mistreated his concussions two years ago, resulting in permanent injury. The lawsuit, filed in state court in Denver, is perhaps the first in which a professional football player has claimed malpractice with regard to concussion care since football head injuries gained national prominence three years ago. The player, Clay Rush, was a kicker for the Colorado Crush of the A.F.L. in 2008 when he sustained a series of hits to the head over several games - hits that were mishandled by a team physician, Dr. Saurabh Mangalik, the complaint says." Frederick County, MD, families sue gas station over groundwater contamination.The AP (3/18) reported, "Twenty Frederick County [MD] families are suing the owners of a Monrovia gas station for allegedly contaminating the area's drinking water supply with gasoline. The lawsuit filed Monday in Frederick County Circuit Court seeks $2.4 billion in damages from eight defendants, including the most recent owner, SAABA Corp. of Ellicott City." State environmental regulators "say signs of groundwater contamination from underground storage tanks surfaced in 2004." Kentucky House committee clears bill to curb prisoners' "frivolous lawsuits."The AP (3/18) reported, "A bill intended to curb frivolous lawsuits from being filed by prisoners has cleared a House committee. The House Judiciary Committee approved the legislation, which would bar inmates from filing suits against the Kentucky Department of Corrections until all administrative means have been exhausted to resolve complaints. Republican Sen. John Schickel of Union, a former jailer, said the legislation would also apply to inmates filing lawsuits against county jails and private prisons." Trucking company settles Pennsylvania car accident case for $3M.The Legal Intelligencer (3/19, Duffy) reports, "An 83-year-old Luzerne County woman will be paid $3 million in the settlement of her suit against a trucking company and one of its drivers over a March 2007 accident in which she suffered traumatic brain injury and numerous broken bones." Prior to the trial, "U.S. District Judge James M. Munley refused to dismiss claims for punitive damages" against Panther II Transportation. "Significantly, Munley ruled that if the jury found the truck driver had 'entered the intersection without even braking for an obvious red light,' it could then go on to 'reasonably decide that the defendant was recklessly indifferent to a very real danger to others in the area.'" Some Philadelphia parents oppose school webcam class-action.The AP (3/18) reported, "Some suburban Philadelphia parents are seeking to halt a potential class-action lawsuit accusing their school district of using cameras in school-issued laptops to spy on students at home." Nearly "500 district parents have signed a petition opposing the class-action suit," saying that "they are angry about the webcams but are concerned about the financial impact of a class-action settlement." In "their complaint submitted in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, they requested hiring an independent public advocate, permanently banning laptop webcam use by the district and implementing new regulations on the proper use of technologies." Texting-while-driving ban in Wisconsin may lead to punitive damages, says lawyer.In an op-ed in the Wisconsin Law Journal (3/18), Jonathan Groth of Groth Law Firm SC wrote that Wisconsin state Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) "and others have introduced, and both chambers may soon pass, a law banning texting while driving in Wisconsin. With this law the argument that punitive damages should be assessed against texting drivers will get that much easier." Groth comments, "Don't be surprised to see a slew of punitive damage causes of action soon after the texting while driving ban is passed." Congress
Democrats gain ground in effort for 216 healthcare votes.Media reports on the House vote on healthcare reform generally portray the White House and Democratic leaders as gaining ground. Even as they caution that the tally remains fluid and the votes are not yet there for the President's plan, the consensus in much of the coverage is that the bill will pass this weekend. The New York Times (3/19, Zeleny) reports that "with momentum steadily building to a Sunday vote, the party leaders are also beginning to decide which politically endangered lawmakers will be given absolution to vote no." While "there are...very few votes to spare," adds the Times, "there are some. And even most Republican leaders concede that the mystery is not so much whether Democrats will reach the magic number of 216, but rather whose names will be included as yes votes in the final count." Republican senators warn Dodd bill could be headed for party line vote.The Washington Post (3/19, Dennis) reports, "Two key Republican senators said Thursday that the bill introduced this week by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) to overhaul financial regulation is headed for a strict party-line vote in the Senate banking committee unless the measure undergoes significant amendments during debate next week." Sen. Bob Corker said, "This next week, in essence, is going to be a partisan markup." Also, "Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the banking committee...expressed little confidence Thursday that Dodd would win over Republicans next week but said a bipartisan agreement could materialize." Corker said at a Pew Financial Reform Project that Dodd "put forward a bill that 'took a left turn.'" However, he added, "One of the benefits is that I sort of know where he was willing to go, and hopefully we'll get back to that." Drug SafetyAstraZeneca wins trial over Seroquel diabetes claims.The Wall Street Journal (3/19, Loftus) reports that a jury ruled in favor of AstraZeneca PLC Thursday in a case that alleged the company's antipsychotic Seroquel [quetiapine] caused a former user to develop diabetes. The AP (3/18, Johnson) reported that, in a 7 to 1 vote, a jury found "that AstraZeneca's Seroquel label provided prescribing doctors adequate warning with respect to the risk of diabetes." The decision meant "the panel, which included a lawyer, didn't answer questions about whether the drug contributed to Baker developing diabetes and how much in damages Baker deserved," Bloomberg News (3/18, Feeley, Fisk) reported. Attorneys representing the patient, who "took Seroquel for lingering effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome caused by his military service in Vietnam," argued that "AstraZeneca mishandled the medicine, ignoring or downplaying its links to diabetes and weight gain." The case "was the first of about 26,000 claims over the drug to be considered by jurors." Reuters (3/19) also covers the story. Many scientists supporting Avandia had financial ties to drugmaker, study says.Bloomberg News (3/19, Cortez) reports, "Most scientists who published articles supporting GlaxoSmithKline Plc's diabetes drug Avandia [rosiglitazone] after it was linked to heart disease in 2007 had financial ties to the company, according to a Mayo Clinic report " published March 18 in the British Medical Journal. "Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota -- one of the few US research organizations that does not rely on commercial sponsorship -- analyzed more than 200 articles published in scientific journals, including original papers, editorials, and letters, which commented on the heart attack risk associated with Avandia after 2007," the UK's Independent (3/19, Laurance) reports. The investigators "found almost half (47 percent) of the study authors had financial conflicts of interest, but almost a quarter (23 percent) did not disclose it. They were discovered by searching other publications by the same author or on the Internet." Reuters (3/19, Steenhuysen) reports that in February, internal documents and findings from the Food and Drug Administration, released by US Senators, made the recommendation that Avandia should be removed from the American market. The agency now plans to conduct a July meeting to weigh the pros and cons of the drug. Employment/Workplace SafetyVeterans Affairs to settle racial discrimination complaint filed by hospital employees.In the lead item for his Washington Post (3/19, B3) "Federal Diary" column, Joe Davidson writes, "It's been a long time coming, but a racial discrimination complaint filed by about 2,000 African American employees against" the Veterans Affairs hospital "in Richmond is finally close to resolution." According to Davidson, VA "has decided to pay $5 million to settle the allegations filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the department announced the settlement with an admission that it bungled the case." Davidson notes, however, that the admission "covers only a procedural issue," and "VA's top lawyer said it 'found no bias in the administration of the awards program,' as the employees had charged." Tennessee Commerce Bank ordered to pay whistleblower $1M.The AP (3/18) reported, "The federal labor department has ordered Tennessee Commerce Bank to reinstate a former corporate officer and pay more than $1 million in back wages and other relief. According to a news release, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found the bank had fired the individual in violation of the whistleblower protection provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002." An OSHA complaint "alleged the employee was placed on administrative leave and then fired after raising concerns about internal controls, employee accounts, insider trading and other issues." Product SafetyPlaintiffs', defendants' estimates of Chinese drywall repair costs diverge sharply.The Sarasota (FL) Herald Tribune (3/19, Kessler) reports that on Thursday, "After calling a host of scientific experts and contractors to the stand the previous day, the defense attorneys for manufacturer Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd., turned their attention to the actual cost estimate for remediation. Roy M. Carubba, the expert hired by KPT, testified that he believed the remediation was 'a very simple project' and laid out his line-by-line estimate for the cost of repairing the Mandeville, La., home of Tatum and Charlene Hernandez, the plaintiffs in this first bellwether trial." Carubba's estimate came to roughly $58,000, while "the plaintiffs' numbers expert had concluded that it would cost upwards of $160,000 just for the direct costs of the plaintiff's plan, and about $200,000, including overhead and other associated costs that contractors would charge for a typical job." Homebuilders' association releases Chinese drywall remediation guidelines. The New Orleans Times Picayune (3/18, Mowbray) reported, "While the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission dallies on instructing people how to fix homes damaged by corrosive drywall, the National Association of Home Builders has become the first major player to advance its own set of 'evolving solutions.'" Remarkably, "the repair procedures outlined by the home builders are similar to what the committee of plaintiffs attorneys has proposed in" the multidistrict litigation currently underway in New Orleans. "Rather than some cheaper air-filtration and drywall treatments that others have suggested, the home builders association advocates ripping out drywall, plumbing and possibly wiring, paying for families to temporarily relocate, and allowing homes time to air out after being gutted." Some "note that the formal assessment by the home builders...could effectively serve as a blueprint for the Safety Commission and help a diverse set of foreign manufacturers, builders, distributors, homeowners and their attorneys coalesce around a limited set of ideas." Floridian attempts to fix drywall problems himself. Florida's Treasure Coast Palm (3/18) reported on Dan Savini of Port St. Lucie, FL, who says that he "worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week" in an effort to personally remediate the Chinese drywall damage to his condominium. "Savini said he expected the CPSC to at least follow-up on his complaint. But the agency never contacted him to verify his information, never acknowledged his complaint or called him back to advise him on whether or not he should tell his tenants to vacate the condo because of metal corrosion and possible health risks associated with the toxic drywall." Manuel Comras, an attorney who "represents about a dozen homeowners at" Savini's building, The Promenade in Tradition, "who are suing Centerline Homes," said that "most of his clients saw litigation as a last resort to dealing with the Chinese drywall and they only turned to the law when they felt abandoned by builders and developers and couldn't get any answers from the state and federal government on how to handle Chinese drywall."
Louisiana lawmakers ask Fire Administrator for Chinese drywall assistance.The Houma (LA) Courier (3/18, DeSantis) reported, "Louisiana elected officials are asking the federal government for help educating homeowners and providing other assistance related to the threat of fire from Chinese drywall. Rep. Charlie Melancon D-Napoleonville and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu D-La. are among those who wrote to U.S. Fire Administrator Kevin Cochran today, noting that the corrosion of electrical wiring caused by Chinese today poses a hazard." The letters "sent out Thursday ask that federal fire officials expand and continue research on Chinese drywall fire hazards and provide guidance for homeowners, outlining steps they can take to make their homes safer." FDA rules to restrict tobacco advertising.The Washington Post (3/19, Layton) reports that on Thursday, the FDA announced rules "that will severely restrict the way the tobacco industry can advertise and sell cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products, especially marketing efforts designed to appeal to children and teenagers." Howard Koh, HHS' assistant secretary for health, said, "This is truly a historic announcement in our country's public health history. ... This is designed to prevent our children from becoming the next generation of Americans to die early from tobacco-related illnesses." HHS Secretary Sebelius echoed that, saying, "The historic rule we're issuing today will help our kids to stay healthy," the New York Times (3/19, A14, Harris) reports. The rule will bar "sponsorship of sporting or entertainment events by tobacco companies," and "would not allow non-tobacco products to have the same names as those on tobacco products and it restricts outdoor advertisements near schools." The FDA "will ensure compliance" efforts which agency commissioner Margaret Hamburg said "are all important new activities that will make a real difference." High chairs recalled for fall hazard.The AP (3/18) reported that the government is announcing a recall of 1.2 million high chairs it says pose a fall hazard to children. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the voluntary recall Thursday involving the product made by Graco Children's Products Inc., of Atlanta." Chair tip-overs have "resulted in 24 reports of injuries including bumps and bruises to the head, a hairline fracture to the arm and cuts, bumps and bruises and scratches to the body.'" Children's bicycle bells recalled.The AP (3/18) reported, "The hardware store chain Do It Best Corp. is recalling a series of children's bicycle bells because the paint on the products contains too much lead. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Do It Best announced the voluntary recall on Thursday." Also in the NewsLerach to speak on securities litigation.Law.com (3/19, Bronstad) reports, "Fresh out of prison, disgraced securities plaintiffs' attorney Bill Lerach has returned to the public light. On April 12, Lerach is scheduled to speak at a University of San Diego School of Law panel titled 'Where is Corporate and Securities Litigation Headed Post-Crisis?'" The event "will address trends in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis, including changes in state court filings in Delaware and strategies used in securities class actions against financial institutions in federal courts." Bloomberg News (3/19, Kolker) reports, "The four lawyers who ran Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, the firm that got investors $45 billion from securities lawsuits against publicly traded companies, are reacquainting themselves with life on the outside now that they've left prison." NYTimes endorses West Virginia's initiative to publicly finance judicial elections.The New York Times (3/19, A24) editorializes that the West Virginia State Legislature "has approved a pilot program of voluntary public financing for two State Supreme Court elections in 2012. Under this promising initiative, candidates who raise a reasonable threshold of small contributions will qualify to receive $200,000 for a contested primary and up to $350,000 for a contested general election." West Virginia, "which will join North Carolina, New Mexico and Wisconsin in adopting public financing of judicial races, is setting a good example at a time when judicial neutrality and the appearance of neutrality is under severe threat across the country from escalating special-interest spending on judicial campaigns." | ||||||||||
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