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Family plans lawsuit in Wash. state ice fatality
Headline News |
2011/12/29 10:46
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A law firm has announced a lawsuit in the death of a Washington state girl killed by huge chunk of falling ice in July 2010 at the Big Four Ice Caves, a popular hiking destination in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
The 11-year-old Marysville girl was on a family outing when a block of ice the size of a pickup truck broke loose and slid into where she was sitting with her mother, some distance from the caves.
The Daily Herald reports the family said it heeded warning signs and stayed off the ice at the caves, east of Granite Falls.
Mount Baker-Snoqualmie spokesman Kelly Sprute says the forest doesn't comment on ongoing litigation.
The lawsuit is being handled by the Tacoma law firm of Messina Bulzomi Christensen. The firm announced the suit at a news conference Tuesday. |
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Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Files Class Action Suit
Law Firm News |
2011/12/28 18:26
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Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP today announced that a class action has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of purchasers of Veolia Environnement S.A. American Depositary Shares during the period between April 27, 2007 and August 4, 2011.
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Samuel H. Rudman or David A. Rosenfeld of Robbins Geller at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@rgrdlaw.com. If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed or join this class action online at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/veolia/. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.
The complaint charges Veolia and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Veolia operates utility and public transportation businesses. The Company supplies drinking water, provides waste management services, manages and maintains heating and air conditioning systems, and operates rail and road passenger transportation systems.
The complaint alleges that, during the Class Period, defendants issued materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business and prospects. Specifically, defendants misrepresented and/or failed to disclose the following adverse facts: (a) that Veolia was materially overstating its financial results by engaging in improper accounting practices; (b) that the Company lacked adequate internal controls and was therefore unable to ascertain its true financial condition; (c) that Veolia failed to timely record an impairment charge for its Transport business in Morocco, Environmental Services businesses in Egypt, Marine Services business in the United States, and for Southern Europe; (d) that the Company’s revenues were being hampered by the renewal of some of its major concession contracts; and (e) that, as a result of the foregoing, defendants lacked a reasonable basis for their positive statements about the Company and its prospects.
Robbins Geller, a 180-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Atlanta, is active in major litigations pending in federal and state courts throughout the United States and has taken a leading role in many important actions on behalf of defrauded investors, consumers, and companies, as well as victims of human rights violations.
http://www.rgrdlaw.com |
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Court: Ark. can't stop desegregation funds
Court Feed News |
2011/12/28 18:26
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A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Arkansas can't cut off funding for desegregation programs in Little Rock-area school districts without a separate hearing and judge's order.
The ruling from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes months after U.S. District Judge Brian Miller ordered an end to most of the payments, calling them counterproductive. The appeals court heard the case in September.
The state has been spending about $38 million per year to help finance magnet schools that help keep a racial balance in the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County school districts, according to Wednesday's ruling, which keeps the money flowing until the matter is resolved in a separate court proceeding.
The state is required by a 1989 settlement to fund magnet schools, transfers between districts and other programs to support desegregation. Lawmakers have long wanted to end the payments, but the districts say they're still necessary.
Battles over school desegregation in Little Rock date back to 1957, when nine black children needed the protection of federal troops to integrate Central High School. Little Rock sued the state and its two neighboring districts in 1982. Two years later, a judge agreed that the districts hadn't done enough to help the city schools desegregate. |
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Request by WVU to dismiss Big East suit denied
Legal Career News |
2011/12/28 18:26
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A Rhode Island judge on Tuesday denied a request by West Virginia University to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Big East Conference over the university's bid to make a quick exit for the Big 12.
Providence County Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein rejected all of the university's arguments for dismissal.
The school had argued the Rhode Island courts did not have the authority to decide the matter and should defer to the courts in West Virginia, where the first civil suit was filed in this dispute.
The university also claimed it can't be sued in Rhode Island because it has sovereign immunity as an agency of the state of West Virginia and was not properly notified by the Big East of its lawsuit.
Court spokesman Craig Berke said the timetable for future legal proceedings in Rhode Island has not been determined.
The Big East's lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an order that West Virginia stay in the conference for 27 months.
West Virginia accepted an invitation from the Big 12 in October and hopes to join in time for the 2012 football season.
Since then the school and Big East have each sued the other and filed motions to dismiss the other's lawsuits. A West Virginia judge earlier this month refused to dismiss a university lawsuit against the Big East. |
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Suit in Mass. bullying case was settled for $225K
Headline News |
2011/12/28 08:20
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A lawsuit brought by the parents of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old Irish immigrant in Massachusetts who committed suicide after relentless bullying, was settled for $225,000, according to documents made public Tuesday. The settlement with the town of South Hadley and its school department was reached more than a year ago, but the details were kept under wraps until a journalist won a court order for the release of the information. The documents show that Prince's parents settled claims against the town and its school department for $225,000. In return, the parents promised to release the plaintiffs from any further claims. The documents were released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which represented Slate reporter Emily Bazelon in her bid to for the disclosure of the settlement. "This is a victory for the public's right to know and for transparency in government," said Bill Newman, an attorney with the ACLU's legal office in western Massachusetts. Prince hanged herself in January 2010 after classmates taunted her after she dated a popular boy. She had recently moved from Ireland to South Hadley, a rural town about 100 miles west of Boston. Five students later accepted plea deals in criminal cases connected with bullying that preceded her death. None involved prison time. Prince's death drew international attention and was among several high-profile teen suicides that prompted new laws aimed at cracking down on bullying in schools. All school districts in Massachusetts are now required to develop bullying prevention plans. |
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Appeals court says Anschutz owes $17.3M in taxes
Legal Career News |
2011/12/27 19:19
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A federal appeals on Tuesday agreed with a tax court that determined Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz owed at least $17.3 million in taxes.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld the tax court's 2010 ruling. The court said the Anschutz Co., which Anschutz owns, is also liable for at least $77 million in taxes.
Anschutz spokesman Jim Monaghan said Anschutz already paid the taxes but appealed that he owed them. Anschutz's wife, Nancy, was also named in the case because they file tax returns jointly.
The taxes are from stock transactions in 2000 and 2001.
At issue were stock deals that were structured to spread the tax liability out over several years. Judges agreed with tax regulators that that the transactions were sales, and not pending transactions as Anschutz argued.
Such transactions executed through so called variable prepaid forward contracts and share-lending agreements are a fairly common practice by large shareholders hoping to raise money while deferring taxes, according to Robert Willens, a former Lehman Brothers director who now heads a Wall Street tax and accounting firm.
According to the court documents, the Internal Revenue Service in 2003 issued guidance on how the transactions should be structured to avoid taxes, but Willens said the IRS in 2006 issued another letter warning that the arrangements could result in taxable income. In a friend-of-the-court filing in the case, Liberty Media Corp. argued the transactions amount to loans, not sales, and that they provide an important way for companies to raise money and create jobs. |
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