|
|
|
Conn. residents: Pfizer land battle unnecessary
Legal Business |
2009/11/16 09:45
|
| pAfter drug giant Pfizer Inc. announced that it was opening a new research center here, city officials aggressively moved to acquire surrounding land for an economic development project — triggering an epic fight over eminent domain that reached the U.S. Supreme Court and ended with residents being forced from their homes./ppBut the land where the homes once stood has remained undeveloped, and the community took another hit last week when Pfizer, a major economic engine in the city and its largest taxpayer, announced plans to close the $350 million research center and relocate about 1,500 jobs to nearby Groton./ppNow some angry and befuddled current and former residents, including some who lost their homes, say the drug company's announcement reaffirms their conviction that the city never needed to pick the property rights fight in the first place. If they have lost, they say, then so apparently has the city./ppWe just got so sick of hearing that we were supposed to sacrifice for the greater good, said Matthew Dery, the sales and retention manager at The Day newspaper in New London who relocated to Waterford after being forced out of a home that had been in his family for about a century. As it turns out, there was no greater good./ppPfizer's pharmaceutical research center, which opened in 2001, was a catalyst for a planned multimillion-dollar private development that was to include residential, hotel conference, research and development space and a new state park. City officials decided they needed 90 acres adjacent to the Pfizer center to complement the building./p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kimberly Area School District's investment lawsuit goes to court
Legal Business |
2009/11/02 09:41
|
KIMBERLY — An investment made by five Wisconsin school districts in 2006 would have been enough to cover more than two-thirds the cost of the 2003 Lambeau Field renovation.
Today, what's left of those dollars wouldn't be enough to cover one year of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers' salary.
It's a tough break, say attorneys for two financial firms. Still, they argue, it's not fraud as Kimberly and four other school districts allege.
A Milwaukee County judge on Tuesday will hear dismissal motions filed by the firms that argue the districts, which include the Kimberly Area School District, shouldn't be able to recoup a total $200 million through a civil lawsuit.
As of September, the investment held just 3.4 percent of its sale value. The districts filed the lawsuit in September 2008.
Tuesday's hearing, set for 9 a.m. in Judge William Brash's court, will be the first time the matter reaches a courtroom.
Terry Johnson, an attorney for the Royal Bank of Canada, argued in court documents the districts accepted the risk of their investment in collateralized debt obligations and initially benefited from strong returns.div style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 126px; left: 519px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; z-index: 99999; width: 70px; height: 46px; visibility: hidden id=rank_jit_com_maindiv style=visibility: inherit;table style=border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224) rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px; margin: 0pt; padding: 0px; width: 70px; height: 36px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; font-size: 9px; z-index: 200000; border-collapse: separate; visibility: inherit cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0tbodytr style=background-color: transparenttd style=border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 16px; background-color: transparent; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; visibility: inherit;div style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; background-color: transparent /div/tdtd style=border-style: solid none solid solid; border-color: rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224) rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 1px 0px 1px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 20px; height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; visibility: inherit colspan=2 align=centerimg id=rank_jit_pin style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline; cursor: pointer; width: 16px; height: 16px; vertical-align: bottom; visibility: inherit; background-color: transparent; src=http://www.rankjit.com/extension/img/pin.gif/td/trtr style=border-style: solid none none; border-color: rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: white; visibility: inherittd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 9px; font-weight: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; height: 10px; background-color: white; visibility: inherit; align=centerPage rank/tdtd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; border-spacing: 1px; font-size: 14px; width: 20px; height: 20px; color: white; visibility: inherit rowspan=2 align=center valign=middlediv style=border: 0px none ; margin: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 20px; height: 20px; background-color: rgb(132, 132, 132); visibility: inherit;div id=rank_jit_resultContainer style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: transparent; width: 20px; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; vertical-align: middle; color: white; visibility: inherit; text-align: center5/div/div/td/trtrtd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 10px; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; visibility: inherit align=centerdiv style=border: 1px solid rgb(224, 224, 224); margin: 0px 0px 1px 1px; padding: 0px; width: 38px; height: 4px; visibility: inherit;div id=rank_jit_gradientContainer style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 19px; height: 4px; float: left; background-color: rgb(0, 153, 51); visibility: inherit/div/div/td/tr/tbody/table/divdiv style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; overflow: hidden; z-index: 9999; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: absolute; left: auto; top: 39.5px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; visibility: inherit; width: 10px; height: 10px; right: 50pximg style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; visibility: inherit; z-index: 99999; src=http://www.rankjit.com/extension/img/pointer.gif/div/div |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Google sued for selling law firm names
Legal Business |
2009/05/29 08:58
|
| Connecticut law firm Stratton, Faxon has sued Google for US$50,000 on discovering that a competitor's name appeared in display ads when Stratton's name was typed into the Google search box It is also seeking an injunction preventing Google from selling law firm names in its Adwords business in Connecticut. According to the Connecticut Law Journal, Stratton searched its own name, only to discover that an ad for its competitor, Silver, Golub amp; Teitell, turned up in the ads. Silver, Golub said it didn't know its marketing agency had purchased the Stratton keyword to enable the advertising. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
California voters soundly reject budget measures
Legal Business |
2009/05/20 09:07
|
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers are facing the arduous task of closing a state budget gap of more than $21 billion after ballot measures aimed at bolstering the state's finances were soundly defeated by voters.
span id=midArticle_byline/spanspan id=midArticle_0/spanp
Results for Tuesday's special election posted on the California's secretary of state's website showed more than 60 percent of voters rejected the five fiscal measures on the ballot./pspan id=midArticle_1/spanpA sixth measure barring pay increases for state officials amid deficits was approved by about 74 percent of the voters.
Surveys in recent weeks had found little support for the fiscal measures, and Schwarzenegger all but conceded defeat by joining President Obama in Washington on Tuesday for his announcement on auto emission rules instead of campaigning for the measures through election day./p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feds appeal ruling in oil royalties case
Legal Business |
2009/03/30 09:41
|
| The federal government on Monday asked a group of appeals court judges to overturn a ruling that could prevent the U.S. Interior Department from collecting billions in royalties on oil and natural gas leases.pIn January, a smaller three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that said the Interior Department could not collect royalties from eight deepwater leases held by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in the Gulf of Mexico. The leases were obtained between 1996 and 2000 by Kerr-McGee Corp., which Anadarko later acquired./ppGovernment lawyers are now asking for an en banc review of the case, bringing it before the entire New Orleans-based 5th Circuit. A court spokesman said the circuit has 17 active judges./ppAt issue is interpretation of a 1995 federal law designed to provide a break from royalties at a time when oil and natural gas prices were extremely low. The law waived all royalty payments until a specific amount of oil and gas was produced./ppThe Interior Department has contended it had the authority to lift the royalty relief once prices reached a certain level. The law became particularly prickly as oil prices rose and oil companies began posting huge profits./p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Facebook ConnectU Settlement Figure Revealed
Legal Business |
2009/02/10 10:34
|
When the founders of ConnectU agreed last year to settle their 2004 lawsuit charging Facebook with stealing its idea for a social networking site, one of the key provisions was that the amount Facebook paid would be a secret.
And it remained secret--until ConnectU's former firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver Hedges, published the settlement figure ($65 million) in a brochure touting its litigation wins from 2008, according to this fantastic story in the Recorder, an Am Law Daily sibling publication.
Firm chair John Quinn told the Recorder that the figure's inclusion was an oversight and asked the paper not to publish the story. It's even more than an oversight, considering ConnectU fired Quinn over the firm's $13 million fee request in the Facebook case. The firm and its former client currently are in arbitration in New York over the matter, according to the Recorder. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Landis not Thrilled with Michael Jackson
Legal Business |
2009/01/29 09:08
|
Michael Jackson cheated director John Landis of his 50% share of profits from the Thriller video for the past 4 years, Landis' representative Levitsky Productions claims in Superior Court. In a separate complaint, Landis sued Jackson and Nederlander of California, which allegedly offered Jackson $400,000 for dramatic rights to the video.
Levitsky says Landis directed and co-wrote the 14-minute Thriller Video and Documentary in 1983 and is contractually entitled to a half share of the profits.
It claims Jackson and his defunct corporation, Optimum Productions, have refused to provide accounting or pay royalties for the past 4 years. The claim includes profits from Thriller video-related rights to video games, toys, comic books and DVDs.
In his complaint against Jackson, Optimum and Nederlander, Landis says Jackson did not have his permission to license the dramatic rights, for which Jackson allegedly has received, or will receive, $400,000 from Nederlander.
Landis and Levitsky are both represented by Miles Feldman with Liner Yankelevitz amp; Sunshine. |
|
|
|
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
