Vested Interest - Tort Briefs - September 2005 Issue

Boston Scientific to Pay in Stent Case

Boston Scientific has agreed to pay $74 million to settle a civil complaint by the Justice Department that it illegally continued to make and sell systems for implanting stents in 1998 even after learning that a significant percentage of them were defective. The settlement, which was announced by the Justice Department in Boston, did not require the company to admit that it acted improperly. (ATLA Law News Digest – June 23, 2005)

Microsoft to Pay IBM $775 Million in Antitrust Settlement

IBM Corp will receive $775 million in cash and $75 million in credit for software from Microsoft Corp to settle claims that resulted from the federal government’s antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s. The payout is one of the largest that Microsoft has made since a U.S. district judge ruled in 2000 that Microsoft engaged in anti-competitive practices. (ATLA Law News Digest – July 7, 2005)

Settlement in Defective Bulletproof Vests

Toyobo is paying $29 million to settle class-action litigation in the U.S. that sought damages from the Japanese textile manufacturer for bulletproof vests suspected of defects. The pact covers suits in Oklahoma, West Virginia, Missouri, Louisiana, New Jersey, California and Michigan. Members of the class potentially include individuals, municipalities and police agencies across the country who wore or paid for the 150,000 vests. (ATLA Law News Digest – July 14, 2005)

Insurer Agrees to Pay Doctors $198 Million

The nation’s largest health insurer with nearly 29 million members, WellPoint Inc., has agreed to pay a $198 million settlement with physicians and medical societies designed to reduce the number of disputes over what care is medically necessary and alleged unfair reductions in payments to doctors. The agreement, the largest of its kind, will mean a modest back payment to about 700,000 doctors and significant changes in the way the managed-care company pays medical claims in the future. Physicians hailed the settlement as one of the first real victories in their decades-long struggle with managed-care companies over who decided what tests, therapies and surgeries a patient received. (ATLA Law News Digest – July 14, 2005)

Plaintiffs Win in Welding Fumes Case

A federal court in Ohio will allow plaintiffs’ lawyers to argue that welding fumes cause Parkinson’s disease, which will allow the argument to be made in thousands of lawsuits brought on behalf of workers across the U.S., bringing closer a wave of potentially crippling litigation for the industry that makes and distributes welding materials. In a draft order distributed to lawyers in the case, the U.S. district judge denied a defense motion to exclude testimony that welding fume exposure causes the neurological disorder. The move doesn’t address the underlying question of whether welding fumes can in fact cause Parkinson’s but will help shape an avalanche of litigation now poised to move forward in a host of other courts. (ATLA Law News Digest – July 28, 2005)

Judge OK’s Tenet Class-Action

A judge has approved an agreement by Tenet Healthcare Corp to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing its hospitals of overcharging uninsured and underinsured patients. The settlement covers plaintiffs in California, Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana. Tenet has agreed not to charge uninsured patients a managed care rate at any of the hospitals it runs for a four-year period. It will follow a uniform credit and collection policy, including a commitment not to pursue legal action for nonpayment of bills against unemployed patients or to place a lien on a patient’s home. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – August 10, 2005)

Philip Morris Loses Class-Action Ruling

A Missouri appeals court has ruled that a lower court appropriately certified as a class-action case a lawsuit accusing Philip Morris USA of misleading smokers about the health risks of its "light" cigarettes. The ruling essentially found a class-action format appropriate in dealing with claims that Philip Morris misled smokers into thinking light cigarettes were less harmful than regular ones, violating Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act. The number of people eligible to make a claim in the case hasn’t been determined. (Chicago Tribune –August 18, 2005)

Settlements OK’d in 544 Malpractice Cases

A judge has approved a $185 million settlement of 544 cases by the MIIX Group, a beleaguered medical malpractice company. There was no opposition to the agreement worked out by the New Jersey State Department of Banking and Insurance and approved by a Superior Court judge. Once the seventh-largest medical malpractice insurer in America, MIIX is in insolvent runoff, or rehabilitation, an insurance industry equivalent of bankruptcy in which some percentage of debts is paid. (ATLA Law News Digest – August 18, 2005)

Residents Reach Settlement Over Toxic Ash

Residents in Jacksonville, Florida, who were exposed to toxic ash by municipal trash incinerators and buried in predominantly black neighborhoods, have reached a $75 million settlement with the city. As part of the settlement, some residents from the most polluted sites will be relocated. Roughly 4,500 residentsjoined the class-action lawsuit and will receive settlements. (ATLA Law News Digest - August 25, 2005)