Vested Interest - Tort Briefs - March 2006 Issue

Bottled Water Mandated by Suit is Tainted

Bottled water provided to residents whose tap water was tainted with a chemical used to make Teflon has tested positive for trace amounts of the same substance. The chemical traces were discovered by a rural southeastern Ohio water system whose customers were among about 1,000 people receiving the bottled water under a 2004 lawsuit settlement with DuPont Co. The class-action suit accused DuPont of hiding and lying about the health threat posed by perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts, known as C8, from a plant in West Virginia. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 20, 2006)

Payless ShoeSource Employees File Suit Over Pay

Payless ShoeSource is being sued by a group of employees for violating wage provisions under the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act. The complaint alleges that Payless has a policy and practice of requiring so-called "managerial" employees to work 60-90 hours a week for a salaried amount without proper overtime compensation. The employees performed managerial duties approximately 5 to 10 hours a week with the remainder of their time spent on other functions, including running registers, stocking merchandise and janitorial duties. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 27, 2006)

Allstate Gets Reprieve in Rita Expenses Case

Allstate Insurance will not have to pay temporary living expenses for Texas policyholders who could not return to their homes after Hurricane Rita because of power outages, impassable roads and other conditions. A state district judge in Austin rejected a request by the Texas Department of Insurance for a court order that would have compelled Allstate to pay for temporary housing and other serious expenses of policyholders affected by the hurricane. Allstate paid expenses for those whose homes were seriously damaged. The judge said homeowner policies sold by the state’s second-largest insurer stated that the company was not responsible for expenses stemming from the loss of use of a home unless the structure was damaged. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 27, 2006)

FL Supreme Court Rules Against Non-Residents

The Florida State Supreme Court has ruled that only Florida residents can sue insurers in state courts when companies are unauthorized to do business in Florida. State law prohibits nonresidents from filing such suits. The justices denied an appeal by a Honduras resident who had tried to sue Alfa Insurance PLC for the loss of a fishing boat insured with the Russian company. Alfa denied the coverage through a series of brokers in Florida, Britain and Turkey, sued under a section of the state’s Unauthorized Insurers Process Law that applies to "any other transaction of insurance." (ATLA Law News Digest – January 27, 2006)

Ford Owners Not Told Ways to Reduce Fuel-Tank Fire Risk

The parents of three sisters burned to death in a rear-end crash are asking Ford Motor Co. to install the same gas tank protective devices in regular models as it did for its police cars. The sisters, ages 29, 24 and 16, died inside a Lincoln Town Car limousine that burst into flames after it was caught in a traffic jam and hit from behind by a speeding pick-up. Ford settled out-of-court with the families. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 27, 2006)

Breast Implant Cases Face Delays

Fourteen years after federal regulators banned silicone breast implants from commercial use, thousands of women still haven’t received a penny for legal claims that the implants damaged their health. And starting today, processing of the cases will slow evne more for two months while the court-appointed Settlement Facility-Dow Corning Trust installs a new computer system. The administrator of the facility, appointed last May, promises that the new computer system, plus a few additional employees, will allow most claims to be reviewed, but not necessarily paid, by September. (ATLA Law News Digest – February 17, 2006)

Merrill Lynch Settles 23 Class Action Suits

Merrill Lynch & Co. will pay $164 million to settle 23 class action lawsuits related to its analysts’ activities and research coverage of Internet companies during the boom and bust of the dot-com era, the company said in a regulatory filing. In a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the settlements are subject to further negotiations on the terms and conditions, and must still be approved by the courts. The plaintiffs in 11 of those cases agreed to drop appeals that were filed to reverse previous motions to dismiss granted by lower courts. (ATLA Law News Digest – February 24, 2006)

Justices Curb Postal Service’s Immunity From Lawsuits

The Postal Service may be sued by people who trip over packages or other mail that letter carriers have carelessly left in their path, the Supreme Court ruled. The 7-1 decision rejected the government’s argument that the service, which delivers some 660 million pieces of mail a day, is immune from lawsuits for negligent delivery. The ruling permits a woman who tripped and fell over packages left on the porch of her home to proceed with her suit for serious injuries to her wrists, chest and spine. (ATLA Law News Digest – February 24, 2006)

Jury Holds Former Apartment Owners Liable in Sexual Assault Case

A Texas jury has sent a strong message to North Texas apartment owners: Hiring criminals who may endanger residents will cost them. The jury hit the former owners of an apartment complex with a damage award for a mother who sued after her 4-year-old daughter was sexually molested by a maintenance worker in 2001. The jury deliberated for about six hours before deciding that the apartment owners cold be held liable. This wasn’t the first time that a worker at that complex was accused of sexually assaulting a resident. (ATLA Law News Digest – February 24, 2006)