An Atlanta homebuilder has agreed to a $378,500 settlement in a lawsuit that accused the company of racial discrimination. The lawsuit claimed that John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods Inc. intentionally steered African-American sales agents to lower-priced subdivisions, which prevented them from earning similar commissions as their white counterparts in higher-cost…
Merck & Co. lost the second trial to reach a verdict over claims its osteoporosis drug Fosamax causes so-called jaw death. The jury set damages at $8 million. A jury in New York ruled against Merck today in the case of Shirley Boles, 72, of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Boles…
A former cruise ship trumpet player was awarded $1.7 million from a Miami jury after he slipped and fell while on stage on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Steven Pavone claimed that the fall injured his shoulder and ended his trumpet-playing career. The accident was caused by a bit of…
Camden County, Penn., has agreed to a $15 million settlement with a man who lost his leg and part of his arm when his car crashed into a guardrail and the railing snapped off, cutting through the vehicle. In 2004, Nicholas Anderson was driving on Raritan Road when he was…
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman has agreed to settle a whistleblower lawsuit brought against them by a former quality assurance manager in 2006. The lawsuit claimed that the company failed to test electronic parts supplied to the government that would placed in military aircraft and spacecraft and be required to withstand…
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is investigating a company that installed a gas pipeline through the site of an old landfill in northeast Fort Worth without proper permission. Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners is installing a 30-inch pipeline that runs from just north of Arlington to a network of interstate…
The AP (6/18) reports officials investigating a string of birth defects in rural Kettleman City, CA, “started taking samples of the air, water and soil” while “grieving parents” testified before state legislators about “infant deaths and birth defects in an impoverished farm town next to the biggest hazardous waste landfill…
The Legal Intelligencer (6/23, Elliott-Engel) reports, “Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to settle almost 200 cases in which plaintiffs allege the use of the antidepressant Paxil caused birth defects.” GSK “decided to settle Kilker v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline along with another 190 cases, according to an order signed by…
American professional soccer player Nate Jaqua has settled a sexual battery lawsuit with a female University of Oregon soccer player. The lawsuit, filed by Leigh Quinlan last summer, claimed that Jaqua “subjected her to a brutal, forcible sexual assault” outside a bar on the Oregon campus in 2007. Quinlan had…
The city of Fresno, Calif., has reached a $3.35 million settlement with a local woman who claims she was forced out of the Fresno Fire Department’s training academy because of her gender. Michelle Maher stated in her lawsuit that she was set up to fail by fire training academy supervisors…