Vested Interest - Tort Briefs- January/February 2006 Issue

Grace to Pay for Cleanup

W.R. Grace, the Columbia chemical maker that was forced into bankruptcy protection by asbestos claims, must pay $54.5 million to clean up asbestos contamination in Montana, a federal appeals court ruled. The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a 2003 district ruling that Grace must reimburse the federal government for the cost of cleaning soil contamination with asbestos near a vermiculite mine the company once operated in Libby, Montana. The ruling also holds Grace liable for future cleanup costs. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 8, 2005)

NYC Wins Bid to Sue Gun Manufacturers over Marketing

Broad federal legislation designed to shield gun manufacturers from civil lawsuits does not apply to New York City’s claim against the industry, a federal judge ruled. In a 111-page opinion, the court found that an exception to the legislation, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, spared the city’s suit from outright dismissal. However, the judge also concluded that the act was constitutional and noted that his ruling, the first in the country to interpret the act, would provoke disagreement. He stayed his decision so gun manufacturers could appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 8, 2005)

Trucker Wins Obesity Discrimination Case

In a rare obesity discrimination trial, a 550-pound trucker recently won a landmark case against his Oregon employer. A jury ordered the employer to pay the trucker $109,000 for unfairly suspending him over job performance. Although doctors agreed he was morbidly obese, the trucker was able to perform his job duties without a problem. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 8, 2005)

DuPont Fined Over Teflon

DuPont Co. has agreed to pay $10.25 million in fines and $6.25 million for environmental projects to settle allegations by the EPA that the company hid information about the dangers of a toxic chemical used to make the non-stick coating Teflon. EPA officials said the settlement represents the largest civil administrative penalty the agency has ever obtained under any federal environmental statute. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 15, 2005)

Doctors and Lawyers Join to Protect Medical Whistleblowers

In an extraordinary collaboration of parties more likely to be adversaries in a courtroom, doctors and trial lawyers have teamed with famed attorney Alan Dershowitz to urge the Supreme Court to consider a case that would protect physician whistleblowers and expose secret hospital abuses of power. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has been joined by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America in filing a "friend of the court" brief asking that the Supreme Court hear the case of Gil Mileikowsky, M.D. of California, who was ousted from a hospital after agreeing to testify on behalf of a patient against the facility, owned by industry giant Tenet Healthsystem. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 15, 2005)

Ford Reaches Settlement on Plastic Intake Manifolds

Ford Motor Co. reached a final settlement that requires the automaker to pay sedan owners who had to replace a plastic intake manifold. Ford is also extending warranty coverage on the plastic part to seven years to cover vehicle owners who haven’t replaced the manifold. The class-action lawsuit covered a total of 1.8 million vehicle owners. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 15, 2005)

Bus Manufacturer Held Liable for Not Installing Seatbelts

In the first verdict of its kind in the country, a Texas jury recently ordered Motor Coach Industries to pay $17.5 million for selling a tour bus without seatbelts, despite the fact that the company is not required to do so. The bus was involved in a fatal 2003 accident in Texas. Seven people died. (ATLA Law News Digest- December 15, 2005)

Trooper’s Widow Sues Makers, Sellers of Cold Drug

The widow of an Oklahoma highway patrol trooper filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against several manufacturers and sellers of pseudoephedrine. The trooper was gunned down by a man high on methamphetamine. The widow claims in the lawsuit that drug companies and suppliers knew that meth addicts were buying the drug to get high and not to treat a cold. Among those named in the suit are Pfizer, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Dollar General and United Supermarkets. She also charges that companies knew how to make the pseudoephedrine tablets without allowing drug addicts to extract the ingredients needed to make meth. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 6, 2006)

Judge Allows Others to Join Local Starbucks Suit

A U.S. district judge in Houston has ruled that more than 11,000 former and current assistant managers who work at Starbucks around the county can join a lawsuit filed in Houston seeking unpaid overtime wages. Two Houston-area Starbucks employees filed the suit, claiming the chain required its assistant store managers to work "off the clock." They spend most of their time waiting on customers, making coffee and keeping the store tidy. But the assistant store managers were told they wouldn’t be paid for more than 40 hours a week although their jobs required them to regularly put in more time. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 13, 2006)

Federal Judge Says Vioxx Cases May be Sent Back to States

The judge overseeing federal lawsuits over Merck & Co. Inc.’s Vioxx painkiller said he might end his effort to combine the cases for a possible settlement because of delays in getting some claims to trial. U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in New Orleans said he was having trouble getting jury trials scheduled after Hurricane Katrina displaced thousands of residents and shut the city’s courthouses for months. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are pressing ahead with similar Vioxx suits in state courts around the U.S. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 13, 2006)