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Bengal's Founder's Kids Lose 4 Year Battle
Court Feed News |
2007/12/06 18:18
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Two children of one of the founders of the Cincinnati Bengals have lost their four-year court battle over his estate, which includes about 30 percent of the shares in a team that Forbes estimated is worth $912 million this year.
A Hamilton County Probate Court jury on Tuesday rejected their claims that Austin E. "Dutch" Knowlton's will was a forgery. They sued after Knowlton died in 2003, at age 93, and they discovered they were left out of his will, which was dated February 1996 and left the bulk of his estate to the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation.
Knowlton, who owned a construction company, founded the Bengals in 1967 with Paul Brown and other investors. Two of his three children, Peter Knowlton and P. Valerie Knowlton, challenged the will.
Peter Knowlton has since died, but his claim remains. |
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Supreme Court Rules for Railroads in GA Case
Court Feed News |
2007/12/04 17:10
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| The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that railroads may challenge state methods for determining the value of their property, a decision that could lower some railroad tax bills. The court sided with CSX Transportation Inc. in a case from Georgia in which the railroad argued that the state improperly instituted a new way of calculating its property tax that resulted in a nearly 50 percent increase in its tax bill from one year to the next. The court reversed a ruling from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that prohibited the railroad, a subsidiary of CSX Corp., from challenging the method the state used to determine the value of the railroad's property. A federal law bars states from discriminating against railroads by taxing their property more heavily than other commercial property. Chief Justice John Roberts said the law allows a railroad to go to court to try to show that the state's way of calculating market value is unfair. |
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Court clears way for casino groundbreaking
Court Feed News |
2007/12/04 12:13
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SugarHouse Casino is planning to break ground on its Philadelphia project in a matter of weeks, aided by a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision on Monday. The court ordered the city of Philadelphia to process permits needed to begin construction on the $550 million slots casino on the site of the former Jack Frost sugar refinery. The lack of permits has held up the project. SugarHouse's parent company, HSP Gaming LP, sued the city last month in an effort to move the project along. The casino, to be located on Delaware Avenue, north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, is one of two casinos awarded slots gaming licenses in the city by state regulators last December. Foxwoods Casino, which has also not been able to get its project under way, plans to construct a $560 million casino on a 16-acre parcel on South Columbus Boulevard near Reed Street. "We are gratified by this decision and excited about the opportunities ahead," SugarHouse President Bob Sheldon said. "We remain committed to working with our neighbors to reach agreement on a community benefits agreement and look forward to creating thousands of new jobs and generating millions of dollars in new tax revenues for the city and commonwealth." |
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Court to Hear Case Over Marcos-Era Funds
Court Feed News |
2007/12/03 17:14
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| The Supreme Court on Monday stepped into a dispute over who owns money misappropriated by Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, a case in which the United States supports the government of the Philippines. The Republic of the Philippines claims ownership of the $35 million at issue and asked the justices to take the case after two U.S. courts awarded the stolen funds to 10,000 victims of the Marcos regime. The lawsuit stems from an account set up with a $2 million deposit by Marcos in 1972 at Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. in New York. Merrill Lynch went to court in 2000 to determine who the money belonged to. The Philippines government asserted sovereign immunity and said the case could not proceed in U.S. courts. The willingness of lower U.S. courts to nonetheless get involved "raises significant concerns," the U.S. solicitor general said in a filing with the Supreme Court. The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco prejudices cases in the Philippines on the same issue, the solicitor general said in court papers. |
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Accused Sniper Set to Plead Guilty
Court Feed News |
2007/12/03 12:58
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A teenager accused of killing one man and wounding another in a series of highway sniper shootings is expected to plead guilty to two felonies as part of a plea agreement, his lawyer said.
Zachariah Blanton, 18, is expected to appear in Jackson Circuit Court today, where Judge William Vance could approve the plea agreement.
Blanton, Gaston, was scheduled to stand trial Dec. 11 on charges of murder, attempted murder and criminal recklessness. His defense attorney, Bruce MacTavish, said his client will plead guilty to two amended felony charges, voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon and criminal recklessness.
A plea document was filed in Jackson Circuit Court on Friday, MacTavish said, but the agreement would not be final unless it is accepted by a judge.
Blanton is accused of firing his hunting rifle into I-65 traffic from an overpass on a Jackson County road near Seymour about 60 miles south of Indianapolis on July 23, 2006. One of those shots went through a pickup truck's windshield and killed a passenger, Jerry L. Ross, 40, New Albany. An Iowa man traveling in another pickup truck also was injured.
Blanton, who was 17 at the time, was arrested at his home two days later.
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Arsonist pleads not guilty in SoCal blazes
Court Feed News |
2007/12/01 17:19
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| A convicted arsonist has pleaded not guilty to setting eight fires in the Angeles National Forest. Prosecutors contend 52-year-old Rickey Jimenez was behind the tiny fires that erupted last month in the Lake Hughes area. The largest burned about an acre and all were contained without property damage. Jimenez is from Lake Hughes. He pleaded not guilty yesterday to eight felony arson counts that carry a maximum life sentence. Jimenez was sent to prison in 1988 for a series of nail salon fires in the San Fernando Valley. He also has a 1979 arson conviction for a school fire.
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