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Calif. court reverses $6.2M firefighter judgment
Court Watch News |
2010/02/18 10:01
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| pA California appellate court on Thursday reversed a $6.2 million verdict against the city of Los Angeles in a discrimination lawsuit filed by a black lesbian firefighter. /ppThe 2nd District Court of Appeal issued its decision in the case brought by Brenda Lee of Mission Hills, who sued the city alleging the fire department discriminated against her based on her race, gender and sexual orientation and refused to transfer her after she complained of harassment. /ppLee claimed her superiors yelled and made derogatory comments about her and put her through grueling drills without proper safety precautions. She also claimed someone put urine in her mouthwash. /ppThe 2007 jury payout was the largest in a string of settlements in cases that alleged discrimination and retaliation against women and minorities within the Los Angeles Fire Department. The cases have cost taxpayers more than $15 million since 2005. /p |
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Alabama court sides with governor on casino raid
Court Watch News |
2010/02/06 18:30
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pGov. Bob Riley's gambling task force won another victory Thursday when the Alabama Supreme Court tossed out a court order blocking a raid on the state's largest casino./ppIn a 7-2 decision, the court said a Macon County judge lacked jurisdiction to halt the pre-dawn raid Jan. 29./ppThis is another victory for the rule of law, Gov. Bob Riley said Thursday night./ppVictoryLand, 15 miles east of Montgomery, closed its casino Monday night. Shortly before the Supreme Court's ruling came out Thursday, the company closed all other facilities, including its dog track, restaurants and new luxury hotel. The closure was designed to keep the Governor's Task Force on Illegal Gambling from returning without getting a judge to approve a search warrant./ppTask force commander John Tyson said last week a search warrant was not needed for the thwarted raid because the casino was open and undercover officers were inside observing the gambling machines. He declined to reveal his next step Thursday night, but said he was reviewing the complete closure of VictoryLand.
/p |
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WaMu shareholders get their voice in bankruptcy
Court Watch News |
2010/01/29 10:51
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pShareholders of Washington Mutual Inc will have a voice in the company's bankruptcy after a judge refused on Thursday to disband their committee, which Washington Mutual said would complicate the case./ppThe U.S. Trustee, who plays an oversight role in bankruptcy, appointed the committee earlier this month after being petitioned by 3,500 shareholders. The company immediately asked the court to disband it./ppThe committee will be able to speak with a unified voice and hire professionals, who would be paid by the company./ppWashington Mutual has said since it filed for bankruptcy in 2008 that it is hopelessly insolvent, and therefore there is no need for an official committees of shareholders.
/p |
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Lahore High Court extends Rehman Malik's bail
Court Watch News |
2010/01/26 04:55
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The court, however, has extended Rehman Malik’s interim bail until February 25.
On December 23, 2009, a division bench of the Lahore High Court had stayed execution of a three-year sentence, awarded by an accountability court to Malik, in two National Accountability Bureau cases, and granted him bail until January 26.
The petitioner, through his counsel, Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, had contended his prosecution was political victimisation and he was sentenced in absentia without fulfilling legal requirements.
Earlier, the Lahore High Court had dismissed Malik's application to waive his sentence in two references in the yellow cab scam and directed his counsel to file a written petition under Article 199 of the Peoples' Representatives Act.
These two references had been filed against the then Director FIA Rehman Malik for committing fraud in the yellow cab scheme. |
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Hall of Famer Bruce Smith pleads guilty to DUI
Court Watch News |
2010/01/14 04:07
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| pNFL Hall of Famer Bruce Smith pleaded guilty today in Circuit Court to a charge of drunken driving. Prosecutors dropped the charges of speeding and refusing to submit to a blood or breath alcohol test but retained the right to refile them./ppSmith was fined $1,000 and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, all of which was suspended. His license was suspended for one year./ppAfter the hearing, Smith said he thought he had a 50/50 chance of beating the DUI charge but then still would have had to face the charge of refusal to take a breath test. “The risk versus the reward was not in our favor,” he said./p |
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Supreme Court reverses Sixth Circuit in federal habeas case
Court Watch News |
2010/01/12 09:37
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pThe US Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously in Smith v. Spisak that the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit contravened the directives of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) by extending Mills v. Marylandnbsp; to resolve in a habeas petitioner's favor questions that were not decided or addressed in Mills. The Sixth Circuit ruled that the jury instructions in defendant John Spisak, Jr's trial violated Mills by requiring unanimity in the finding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating factors. In reversing the decision below, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote:
The Court of Appeals held the sentencing instructions unconstitutional because, in its view, the instructions, taken together with the forms, required juror unanimity as to the presence of a mitigating factor - contrary to this Court's holding in Mills v. Maryland. Since the parties do not dispute that the Ohio courts adjudicated this claim, i.e., they considered and rejected it on the merits, the law permits a federal court to reach a contrary decision only if the state-court decision was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States. Unlike the Court of Appeals, we conclude that Spisak's claim does not satisfy this standard.
/p |
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Smoker’s Lawsuit Results in $300M Verdict Against Tobacco Company
Court Watch News |
2009/11/23 10:11
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| pIn what is believed to be the largest single plaintiff award to dateagainst a tobacco company, a Florida jury awarded $300 million incompensatory and punitive damages to a former smoker who filed alawsuit against Philip Morris USA over her emphysema. span id=more-7058/span/ppCindy Naugle, 61, was awarded $56.6 million for past and futuremedical expenses, as well as pain and suffering. The jury from BrowardCounty Circuit Court also levied a $244 million punitive damage awardagainst the tobacco company. /ppNaugle, who said that she began smoking in 1968 to make herself lookolder, alleged that she would have never started smoking if she hadknown of the potential health effects. The smoker’s lawsuit claimedthat the tobacco companies knew smoking caused a variety of lungdiseases, but kept those side effects hidden./ppAs a result of smoking for about 25 years, Naugle claimed that shesuffers from emphysema, requires around-the-clock oxygen and isconfined to a wheelchair due to how easily she is winded. 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