Dakota Ranchers, Businessman Settle Wayward Bison Lawsuit

December 14, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Three Dakotas ranchers and a Florida millionaire businessman have settled a lawsuit over damage allegedly caused by wayward bison, attorneys said.

Bachmeier Farms and ranchers Nick Vollmuth and Gary Sandland claimed bison from Maurice Wilder’s ranch on the North Dakota-South Dakota border trespassed on their land for years, damaging pasture, crops, hay and fences.

A trial had been scheduled for this week, but the matter was settled out of court, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

Neither Ben Pulkrabek, who represented the ranchers, all from Sioux County, N.D., nor David Bliss, who represented Wilder, would comment on the details of the settlement.

Wilder’s ranch encompasses about 35,000 acres, sprawling from Selfridge, N.D., to McLaughlin, S.D. It was the subject of complaints for years about bison running loose and causing problems for neighbors.

In February 2011, thousands of bison were rounded up in South Dakota after authorities received reports of animals starving on the ranch. A smaller number of animals reportedly were running loose on the North Dakota side of the ranch around the same time.

Wilder, of Clearwater, Fla., paid $57,000 for feed and expenses after the impoundment ended, and in March 2001, he took about 850 bison to auction in Mobridge, S.D.

Wilder sold a 12,000-acre cattle ranch located east of the bison ranch at auction in September. He still owns the bison ranch.

 

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Wife Files Lawsuit In Hawaii Police Restraint Death

January 25, 2013Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle6 Comments

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in the case of a Hawaii man who died while being restrained by police.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Michele Y.M.H. Torres, the wife of 37-year-old Aaron Torres, is suing the city of Honolulu and the three police officers who restrained her husband at their home on Feb. 20, 2012 after he called 911.

Torres died while handcuffed, shackled and held face-down.

The medical examiner has determined that Torres suffocated and has ruled the death a homicide.

The autopsy also said Torres had cocaine in his blood, and that a contributing cause and significant condition in the death was his history of chronic cocaine abuse.

The city prosecutor declined to pursue criminal charges against the officers.

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Illinois Judge Rejects Bid to Revive Cigarette Lawsuit

December 14, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

An Illinois judge has refused to reopen a class-action lawsuit that produced a $10.1 billion verdict against cigarette-maker Philip Morris, handing the plaintiffs their latest setback in legal action now more than a decade old.

It was not immediately clear whether Stephen Tillery, the St. Louis attorney who pursued the lawsuit involving so-called

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Former Idaho Probation Employee Alleges Gender Bias In Lawsuit

January 25, 2013Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle1 Comments

A former Idaho probation and parole employee is accusing her administrators of gender discrimination and creating a hostile work environment and emotional distress after her brief relationship with a co-worker turned violent.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday by Cynthia Fuller, a 43-year-old single mother of two, names Department of Corrections Director Brent Reinke and Henry Atencio, chief deputy of probation and parole.

Fuller, who lives in Nampa, began working for IDOC in 2004, but she quit in November 2011, months after her relationship with probation and parole officer Herbt Cruz ended amid her allegations of sexual assault.

In her civil lawsuit, Fuller said she was beaten and raped by Cruz on Aug. 30, 2011, the day she tried ending their romantic relationship. She reported the episode to Canyon County Sheriff’s detectives days later and obtained a restraining order against Cruz.

No criminal charges have been filed against Cruz, who has an unlisted telephone number and could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday by The Associated Press. Cruz also resigned from IDOC last January, citing personal reasons, an agency spokesman said.

IDOC officials have not yet seen the lawsuit.

Fuller’s lawsuit focuses on how IDOC administrators and her immediate supervisors responded and managed the Caldwell probation and parole office and its staff in the weeks after she claims she was assaulted.

For example, Fuller alleges she was denied a paid leave of absence after the encounter with Cruz, despite initially being told she qualified under department policy, according to the lawsuit. Instead, Fuller, seeking time away from the office to recover and seek psychological counseling, used vacation and sick time before returning to work due to financial pressure _ against the advice of her physician and counselor.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit criticizes the agency for granting paid administrative leave for Cruz, who was disciplined Aug. 15 after his supervisors learned he was the subject of a separate criminal investigation.

Then in November, after Fuller returned to work, supervisors denied her request to inform staff that Cruz was supposed to avoid entering the building because he was specifically under a restraining order.

Fuller told her boss she was fearful of Cruz and that his veteran status and relationship with colleagues would ensure him easy access to the building and her office, located just inside the main entrance.

An administrator agreed to notify staff that Cruz was prohibited from the office, but not because he was the subject of a restraining order involving another employee.

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Brees California Lawsuit Claims His Charity Was Cheated

December 14, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his foundation are suing one of the former organizers of his celebrity golf tournament in southern California, saying the organizer cheated benefactors of the foundation out of thousands of dollars he kept for his own marketing firm.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday against David Miller and Integrated Sports Marketing in San Diego Superior Court, says Miller negotiated a favorable hotel rate for celebrity guests at the La Costa Resort earlier this year, then collected higher room rates, keeping the difference.

Now Brees wants his representatives to audit ISM’s books from the past three tournaments to which he lent his name.

Miller said he has not seen Brees’ lawsuit and cannot comment other than to point out that Brees failed to uphold his end of their marketing deal and that counter-claims are forthcoming.

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Lawsuit Focuses on Flood Insurance Claims, Classification of Basement

December 21, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A recently filed class action lawsuit in New Jersey is alleging “improper handling” of certain flood insurance claims arising out of Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The lawsuit focuses on the classification of the lowest floor of the buildings and whether classifying such floors as

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Planned USD Student Center Upgrade Sparks Copyright Lawsuit

September 25, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A Massachusetts architectural firm has sued a competitor in South Dakota, accusing it of using the firm’s copyrighted designs in a planned upgrade to the University of South Dakota’s student center.

Charles Rose Architects of Somerville, Mass., contends that RSA Architects of Sioux Falls used its drawings and building plans for the Muenster University Center in Vermillion as a template for a 30,000-square-foot cafeteria addition that was scheduled to break ground this summer.

The Massachusetts firm filed a lawsuit last week in federal court in South Dakota. The lawsuit asks a jury to find that RSA Architects used the template in violation of federal copyright law. The firm seeks damages as well as any money paid to RSA for design work on the addition.

USD spokesman Phil Carter told the Argus Leader that no major work has commenced on the addition. He said the area has been fenced off, but nothing further has been done.

Carter declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Officials with RSA Architects did not immediately return messages to the newspaper for comment.

Sioux Falls lawyer Steve Johnson, who’s representing Charles Rose Architects, said there is little precedent in copyright law for infringement on a design, which makes the case unique. Few lawsuits of this nature have been opened and resolved, Johnson said.

He said this lawsuit could provide guidance in future architecture copyright disputes.

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ACLU of Pennsylvania Files Brief in Support of City of Philadelphia in Boy Scouts Lawsuit

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Friend-of-the-Court Brief Argues Government Is Not Obligated to Fund Discrimination by Private Organizations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media

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Male Cook Files Bias Lawsuit Against Idaho School District

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A former cook in the Nampa School District in Idaho filed a federal discrimination lawsuit, claiming he suffered bias in the kitchen at the hands of a female boss and female colleagues.

In U.S. District Court documents filed Wednesday, Todd Young says he was wrongfully fired in May.

Young says sexual harassment from female colleagues escalated after he complained in 2011 the district was improperly disposing of Styrofoam trays, when it should have been recycling.

He says his boss told him “maybe I’m having staff problems because you’re a man.”

The four-year Nampa employee also complains he was routinely excluded from new menu sampling and creation, with only kitchens with female supervisors being allowed to participate.

Young wants a jury trial where he’s seeking lost wages, damages and legal fees.

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Lawsuit Targets Assets of Officers of Pharmacy Tied to Meningitis Outbreak

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle1 CommentsThe officers behind New England Compounding Center have been targeted in a lawsuit that seeks to freeze their personal assets, the latest fallout for the pharmacy linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak.

Peter McGrath, a former federal prosecutor, said he was spearheading a civil case that alleges NECC and company officers Barry and Lisa Cadden and Greg Conigliaro are responsible for the tainted steroid injections that have killed 20 people so far. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an unnamed plaintiff in Middlesex County Superior Court in suburban Boston, court records show.

“We want to pierce the corporate veil and go after the individuals,” McGrath said Friday in a telephone interview. “My clients are in a lot of pain.” His firm, based in Concord, New Hampshire, is representing several people injured in the meningitis outbreak.

NECC’s public relations firm did not return a call seeking comment.

Federal authorities are investigating how NECC supplied hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers with large orders of compounded drugs and whether it violated state laws regulating pharmacies. U.S. authorities say Framingham, Massachusetts-based NECC distributed thousands of vials of a contaminated steroid that has put 14,000 people at risk of contracting meningitis.

In the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court, the John Doe plaintiff is seeking a court order on Nov. 6 to freeze the assets of the company and the named officers. Such a “prejudgment remedy” is allowed in Massachusetts state courts during pending litigation.

Members of the Boston-area family whose own the pharmacy and related companies spent several million dollars on luxury homes in the months before U.S. authorities shut down their operations. Greg Conigliaro is a recycling entrepreneur who joined forces with his pharmacist brother-in-law, Barry Cadden, and other family members to start NECC in 1998. His sister Lisa, also a pharmacist is married to Cadden.

The real estate transactions, disclosed in publicly available deeds filed in March and April, provide a glimpse into the Conigliaro family’s fortune before authorities moved in and shut down the pharmacy operations of NECC and Ameridose LLC, a related, but larger drug manufacturer and compounder.

In March and April, Greg Conigliaro paid $2.4 million for a beachfront home on Cape Cod, while his brother Doug Conigliaro paid $4.2 million for a penthouse condo on Beacon Street in Boston’s tony Back Bay neighborhood, the deeds show.

About the same time, a real estate venture owned and managed by the two brothers paid $4.6 million to buy the state-of-the-art facility that Ameridose used to win new customers and to rapidly expand its business, real estate records show. Ameridose previously leased the building.

Doug Conigliaro, who is president of Medical Sales Management, the sales arm for NECC and Ameridose, is not named in the lawsuit filed in Middlesex County.

The Caddens, Greg Conigliaro and Doug Conigliaro did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

(Additional reporting by Aaron Pressman and Toni Clarke; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Lisa Von Ahn)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GM Wins Dismissal Of Lawsuit Over Einstein Image

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A federal judge in California has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the use of Albert Einstein’s image in a magazine ad by General Motors.

The 2009 ad for GM’s Terrain vehicle had Einstein’s face on top of a fit, muscular man with the line,

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Lawsuit Over NFL Concussions Filed in Mississippi

September 21, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A federal lawsuit filed in Mississippi on behalf of more than 50 former NFL players claims the league conspired to hide the dangers of concussions and brain trauma associated with professional football.

The lawsuit was filed Aug. 28 in U.S. District Court in Jackson. Some of the players named in the lawsuit are from Mississippi, but others are not. More than 140 similar lawsuits have been filed around the country on behalf of 3,377 former players.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said  the “NFL has long made player safety a priority” and that any “allegation that the NFL intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit.”

Among other things, the lawsuit claims the NFL created “false scientific studies” and spread misinformation about the long-term consequences of concussions and other brain injuries.

 

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Civil Lawsuit Filed in Tulsa Skyscraper Death

September 21, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

An Oklahoma woman accused of pushing her husband to his death from their high-rise apartment has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the building’s owner.

Amber Hilberling, 20, filed the lawsuit against University Club Tower. Hilberling remained jailed on a second-degree murder charge in last year’s death of Joshua Hilberling, 23, who fell from their 25th-floor apartment.

The lawsuit says Joshua Hilberling

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Coloradoan Wins $7 Million In Popcorn Lung Lawsuit

September 21, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle6 Comments

A suburban Denver man who was diagnosed with “popcorn lung,” possibly from inhaling the artificial butter smell of the microwave popcorn he regularly ate, has won a $7.2 million verdict against various food companies.

Wayne Watson’s attorney, Ken McClain, said a federal jury granted the award Wednesday against Gilster-Mary Lee Corp., The Kroger Co. and Dillon Companies Inc. after he developed respiratory problems in 2007.

Watson previously settled claims against the flavor developer FONA International Inc., formerly Flavors of North America Inc.

Watson argued the companies failed to warn consumers that inhaling the buttery aroma could put them at risk of lung injury.

KCNC-TV in Denver reports defense attorneys had argued Watson’s health problems stemmed not from popcorn but from his years of working with carpet-cleaning chemicals.

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WSU To Pay $650K To Settle Discrimination Lawsuit

June 7, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Washington State University has agreed to pay $650,000 to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by two former employees of Chinese descent.

The settlement will pay $325,000 each to Dr. Ying Li and her husband, Lizhong Yang. It also calls on the Pullman, Wash., school to enact policies to prevent future discrimination.

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New Lawsuit For Southern California Officer In Homeless Death Case

June 7, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A disabled man has filed a lawsuit against Fullerton police, saying he was abused by the same officer charged in the beating death of a homeless man.

The Orange County Register reported Tuesday that Mark Edwin Walker says he was thrown to the ground and stomped during an arrest last year and his injuries included a broken hand.

Police audio recordings captured a 20-minute encounter between Mark Edwin Walker and two officers.

One of the officers, Manuel Ramos, can be heard trying to get Walker to stand to be handcuffed and threatening to break his arm.

Acting police chief Dan Hughes says the recording contains no evidence of abuse and calls the allegations “fabricated lies.”

Ramos has been charged in the death of Kelly Thomas, a Fullerton homeless man.

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Bozeman Museum Awarded $2.3M in Donation Lawsuit

May 14, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A jury awarded $2.3 million to the Museum of the Rockies Inc. in a lawsuit against a Bozeman-area developer who failed to pay a promised endowment and research gift after using the museum and paleontologist Jack Horner in promotional materials for a proposed upscale housing development.

The jury on Thursday found Wade Dokken’s company, Ameya Preserve, liable for negligent misrepresentation, fraud and constructive fraud, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.

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Billings Settles Lawsuit Over Chase, Fatal Crash

May 8, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The family of a Billings, Mont. nurse who was killed by a drunken driver while he was fleeing police has settled its wrongful death lawsuit against the city and Yellowstone County for $400,000.

Billings attorney Chris Edwards says the settlement with the family of Lillian Stahl was reached Friday. The Billings Gazette reports the city and county will each give the family $200,000.

The lawsuit, filed by Lillian’s brother, Arnie Stahl, argued that police officers and sheriff’s deputies violated their own pursuit policies in chasing Brian Houston after an off-duty officer saw him hit a garbage can and a pickup truck.

Houston is serving a 20-year prison term for negligent vehicular homicide for the April 2008 crash.

City and county officials said neither admitted liability in the settlements.

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Arkansas Doctor Convicted in Bombing Loses Lawsuit

April 23, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

An Arkansas doctor convicted in a bombing that nearly killed the head of the state medical board lost a separate wrongful death case on April 20 and was ordered to pay $300,000 to family members of a former patient who died.

Randeep Mann, who ran a pain clinic in Russellville, had his license to prescribe narcotics suspended by the Arkansas State Medical Board after several of his patients suffered fatal overdoses. Jurors in the criminal case found him responsible for the 2009 bombing outside the home of Dr. Trent Pierce, the board chairman, who prosecutors said Mann targeted in retaliation for the board’s decision.

In the separate wrongful death case, Mann was sued on behalf of the estate of Robin Dee Woodall. The trial began April 16 in Dardanelle, The Courier in Russellville reported.

The lawsuit alleged that Mann prescribed Woodall at least 10 different medications before she died in 2003. An autopsy report showed she died of multiple drug intoxication, according to the lawsuit, which sought more than $75,000.

Attorneys pointed to incidents in 2003 and 2006 when Mann was sanctioned by the medical board for violating the state’s medical practices law.

Mann’s lawyers had said they were prepared to defend his care of Woodall. They also argued in court filings that the civil case should have focused only on Woodall’s case, not Mann’s entire medical career.

Mann is incarcerated at federal prison in Pennsylvania, according to the Bureau of Prisons website. He was sentenced to life in prison last year after he was convicted of a weapon of mass destruction count and other charges. Mann is appealing those convictions.

Investigators said they found nearly 100 grenades and a cache of machine guns at or near Mann’s home, though almost all of the firearms were legally registered.

 

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Montana Jury Awards Damages In Landslide Lawsuit

April 9, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A Gallatin County jury has awarded over $1 million in damages to two couples who unknowingly purchased property on an active landslide at a private ski resort and golf community in southwestern Montana in 2005.

Last summer, a judge found two companies that sold lots at Spanish Peaks guilty of breach of several consumer protection laws for failing to tell the couples about the landslide.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported a jury heard six days of testimony before deciding Thursday to award Donald and Darla Harbaugh nearly $565,000 and Mel and Charline Harbaugh $545,000 in damages from Spanish Peaks Holdings.

Spanish Peaks Holdings II LLC filed for bankruptcy protection in October claiming $10 million to $50 million in assets and $100 million to $500 million in liabilities.

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