A class-action lawsuit contends that Citizens Property Insurance Corp. improperly awarded dozens of no-bid contracts worth more than $49 million.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Tallahassee seeks unspecified damages for the 1.2 million Citizens policyholders. The attorney who filed the complaint says the alleged mismanagement costs policyholders in higher rates.

Citizens is supposed to take competitive bids for all contracts above $25,000, except in emergencies or when there is one vendor. The lawsuit says 33 contracts since 2004 have violated those rules.

A Citizens statement said all 33 contracts in question were properly awarded.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has dismissed a class action suit against NVIDIA that accused the company of trying to hide its knowledge of defects in a line of graphics chips, in order to keep the stock price up.

In a strongly-worded opinion, Judge Richard Seeborg said the plaintiffs did not establish that there was any evidence that the company knew that its chips were defective. Further, the opinion notes that some of the evidence presented by witnesses was from people who did not work at the company and were not in a position to know if the chips were defective or not.

Judge Seeborg gave the plaintiffs 30 days to file an amended complaint, or have it dismissed and the plaintiffs barred from re-filing another suit.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2008, by Lisa Miller, and the class action suit eventually included two union pension funds and the retirement fund of the city of Pontiac, Mich. The suit covered those who bought NVIDIA's stock between Nov.2, 2007 and July 2, 2008.

Taking a final shot before meeting in court, lawyers for Greenwich Hospital are rejecting a claim that the hospital violated fair trade policies in their handling of a drug-addicted surgeon.

Earlier this year, the hospital asked a judge to strike the central claims of lawsuit, arguing that the class action lawsuit does not make a "cognizable claim" under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. If granted, the lawsuit will be defeated.

"Plaintiff's changing legal theories and lack of candor on the applicable law demonstrate that they are struggling to stay alive in the face of the hospital's well-founded motion to strike," states the recently filed motion.

The original complaint, filed in 2008 in state Superior Court, alleges that the hospital violated state trade laws by ignoring Dr. Ian Rubins' drug problems to maintain the profitability of their specialized breast center. Rubins, a private plastic surgeon who had privileges at the hospital, died of a heroin overdose in 2008, just months after the state medical examining board suspended his license. Rubins had a string of incidents involving substance abuse and had entered rehabilitation programs several times while at the hospital.

Five of the 11 defendants in an alleged $20.5 million mortgage fraud scheme purportedly involving former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Eugene Lockhart have pleaded guilty.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Dallas said Wednesday that four of the defendants have entered guilty pleas or are scheduled to do so this month. A fifth defendant pleaded guilty in February.

Lockhart and the remaining five defendants opted for a trial. An Oct. 18 trial date was postponed and hasn't been reset.

Lockhart and the others are accused of making 54 fraudulent loan closings for single-family homes in the Dallas area totaling about $20.5 million.

The 49-year-old Lockhart, who lives in suburban Carrollton, is on supervised released.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group said on Wednesday it will vigorously defend a class action suit by customers for recovery of bank fees.

Earlier class-action law firm Maurice Blackburn said it would file a $48 million class action suit against ANZ, with up to 11 other lenders at risk of similar suits in the future.

The suit is against exception fees, which include charges for insufficient funds, overdrawn bank or credit card accounts and late credit card payments.

"We recognised that these fees were unpopular with customers. This is why we took action to simplify fees," the CEO for its Australian operations Philip Chronican said in a statement.

A class-action lawsuit against Airbus and Northrop Grumman has been filed in the US by attorneys acting on behalf of passengers and crew injured in a serious incident involving a Qantas Airbus A330-300 in 2008.

The lawsuit is being led by a US law firm following contact from Australian law firms which will represent passengers and crew injured when A330 VH-QPA plunged over 1000ft in two uncommanded dives while on a flight from Singapore to Perth on October 7 2008, forcing the crew to make a mayday call and an emergency landing at Learmonth. The latest interim report from the ATSB suggests that the uncommanded dives may have been caused by erroneous data inputs from a faulty air data inertial reference unit (ADIRU), which was manufactured by Northrop Grumman.

Airbus has already moved an application to have the case heard in Australia rather than the US, with some commentators noting that Australian laws would not allow people to claim the same level of compensation as in the US. Currently, it appears that the trial will be heard in the US.