|
|
|
LA lawsuit claims Deutsche Bank is 'slumlord'
Business Law Info |
2011/05/05 16:13
|
The city attorney sued Deutsche Bank on Wednesday, claiming the giant international lender illegally evicted tenants from foreclosed properties and left dozens of homes and apartments to rot, many in low-income neighborhoods.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses the bank of violating federal, state and city laws and seeks potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursements to the city and to evicted tenants.
The bank's subsidiaries, Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, are the city's largest slumlords, according to the lawsuit.
The city attorney's office contends the bank failed to act properly as trustee to more than 160 homes and other residences with owners who couldn't meet their loan obligations during and after the 2008 international financial meltdown.
"It's time to recognize that the fraud committed on Wall Street turns into blight on Main Street," City Attorney Carmen A. Trutanich said at a news conference.
He said the bank's subsidiaries acted as trustees for trusts composed of mortgage-backed securities involving at least 2,000 properties across the country.
The complaint focuses mainly on properties in low-income areas of the city, specifically South Los Angeles and the northeastern San Fernando Valley, but Trutanich said it could be amended to include more homes if further problems are found. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lawsuit over fish pedicures heads to Arizona court
Business Law Info |
2011/04/26 15:15
|
The Arizona Court of Appeals plans to hear arguments Wednesday on a civil lawsuit involving a Gilbert spa owner whose clients paid to have fish eat dead skin off their feet. The case was filed by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of spa owner Cindy Vong. A lower court dismissed the suit. The Arizona Republic reports the Arizona Board of Cosmetology threatened to pull Vong's license in early 2009 if she didn't stop offering the pedicure service. The board alleged the fish were unsafe because they could not be sterilized. Vong says the board's ruling hurt her financially. The Institute sued in December 2009, alleging the board lacked jurisdiction over the practice because it was not a cosmetic service and that it violated Vong's right to run her business. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Community Health makes all-cash bid for Tenet
Business Law Info |
2011/04/19 11:05
|
Hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc. on Monday revised its $3 billion offer for rival Tenet Healthcare Corp. to an all-cash bid.
Community Health is now offering $6 per share in cash. In December, it had gone public with a bid of $5 per share in cash and $1 per share in stock. At the time, the offer was a premium of about 40 percent to the Dallas company's shares.
But Tenet's board rejected that offer, and adopted a "poison pill" measure to fend off the bid.
Tenet's shares have recently been trading above $6.
But the company said Monday it will review the revised offer and make a recommendation. It said shareholders should take no action for now.
Tenet shares fell 26 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $6.40 in afternoon trading while Community Health shares dropped $1.74, or 5.5 percent, to $30.16 after falling as much as 14.3 percent earlier in the session.
Community Health Systems runs 130 hospitals in 29 states, and focuses on fast-growing and non-urban markets. Tenet runs 50 hospitals spread across 11 states, and most of its facilities are in urban and suburban communities. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
S&P cuts long-term outlook for US debt to negative
Business Law Info |
2011/04/17 16:17
|
Standard & Poor's Ratings Service cut its outlook Monday on the United States' sovereign debt, saying there is a one in three chance it will downgrade the rating on the debt in the next two years.
The agency lowered the long-term outlook to "Negative" from "Stable."
It reaffirmed its investment-grade credit ratings on the U.S. long- and short-term debt itself, but said the ratings are at risk from the country's growing deficit.
S&P said the U.S. has a high-income, diversified and flexible economy that has helped it to encourage growth while containing inflation.
But the country's ballooning deficit could offset those positives over the next two years.
The agency noted that the deficit grew to 11 per cent of gross domestic income in 2009. That is much higher than the average of two per cent to five per cent in the previous six years.
S&P said it has little confidence that the White House and Congress will agree on a deficit-reduction plan before the fall 2012 elections. By that time, the measures won't go into effect until the fiscal year 2014.
"We see the path to agreement as challenging because the gap between the parties remains wide," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Nikola G. Swann.
Mary Miller, assistant secretary for financial markets, said S&P "underestimates the ability of America's leaders to come together to address the difficult fiscal challenges facing the nation."
President Barack Obama and Congress are working on ways to reduce budget deficits over the long term, she said. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Attorneys for NFL players meet with judge
Business Law Info |
2011/04/12 18:21
|
Attorneys for the locked-out NFL players arrived at federal court on Tuesday to meet with the judge who will oversee court-ordered mediation with the league. The attorneys met with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan, with Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller in attendance. All declined comment. The NFL's attorneys are scheduled to meet with Boylan on Wednesday before the sides begin mediation Thursday. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered the mediation on Monday with the lockout at one month and counting. Nelson is still considering a request from the players to lift the lockout imposed by owners after the players dissolved their union, clearing the way for the court fight. The meetings will help get Boylan caught up with the arguments on both sides, setting the table for the first face-to-face negotiations between the players and the league since talks broke off March 11 in Washington and the collective bargaining agreement expired. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
IBM files court motion to depose Daniels, aide
Business Law Info |
2011/03/31 15:36
|
Gov. Mitch Daniels and his chief of staff were both deeply involved in Indiana's decision to outsource the automation of welfare intake, and they should provide depositions in lawsuits over IBM Corp.'s cancelled $1.37 billion contract in the project, a lawyer for the company argues in a brief filed this week in Marion Superior Court. The brief filed Tuesday by IBM attorney Andrew Hull notes Daniels at one point told a state employee union representative that the decision to upgrade Indiana's welfare eligibility system would "be made by me and me alone" and that Daniels personally signed the contract with Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM. It also contends Chief of Staff Earl Goode was directly involved in all stages of the project from its inception to, after Daniels fired IBM in October 2009, the creation of a hybrid system that uses both automated intake and more face-to-face contact between state case workers and clients. "Both Governor Daniels and Mr. Goode were intimately involved in all stages of the project, including key events at issue in this lawsuit," Hull wrote in the brief.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Lawyer News Updates |
|
|
Lawyer News RSS
