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Stanford exec sues for insurance to fund defense

March 19, 2009

Stanford Financial Group’s chief investment officer is suing Lloyd’s of London, alleging it failed to pay for her legal defense under terms of an insurance policy.

 

Laura Pendergest-Holt alleges in the suit, filed in state court in Dallas, that Lloyd’s has not responded to a number of requests to provide the funds through Stanford’s Directors and Officers Liability and Company Indemnity policy. Such policies are common at many companies and cover the legal defense for executives facing lawsuits by investors or other parties.

 

Pendergest-Holt was named in civil fraud charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 17 against the company and two other executives, Stanford Chairman R. Allen Stanford and Chief Financial Officer James Davis.

 

On Feb. 26 she was arrested on criminal charges of lying to SEC investigators. She has not formally entered a plea but her attorneys have said she is innocent, and she is free on $300,000 bail. She is the only person so far facing criminal charges in connection with the investigation.

 

Read Article: Houston Chronicle

 

Woman paralyzed in crash gets $45 million

A judge has awarded $45 million in damages to a San Mateo woman who was paralyzed when a wrecking and demolition company’s truck ran a red light and hit her car.

 

Tricia Roth, now 41, a former software developer for Microsoft Corp., suffered a broken neck and spinal injuries in the September 2006 accident, her lawyer said in a filing in San Mateo County Superior Court. Her doctors said she requires full-time attendant care and will never walk again.

 

The driver, Roman Pantoja, failed to see the light on East Hillsdale Boulevard in San Mateo near Highway 101 and admitted that he was at fault, his lawyer, Lee Danforth, said at a court hearing last week.

 

Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle

 

Polk Jury Awards Woman $65 Million in 2007 Crash

A jury awarded a 21-year-old Wauchula woman $65 million Wednesday for her injuries in a 2007 crash.

 

The verdict is considered to be one of the largest by a Polk County jury.Wednesday’s verdict stemmed from a traffic crash in Zolfo Springs that left Kendra Lymon in a coma and hospitalized for months. Lymon had been driving her Dodge Neon on Aug. 21, 2007, when a tractor-trailer owned by an Auburndale-based company, Bynum Transport, struck her car at State Road 35 and State Road 64, according to the lawsuit naming Bynum and the driver.

 

A telephone call Wednesday evening to Bynum Transport was not returned.

The truck’s driver, Robert Bohn, a battalion chief for Polk County Fire Services, was working part-time for the trucking company. Bohn said in a deposition that he went into the intersection because he had the green light. But at trial, Lymon’s lawyers argued their client had the green light and produced an eyewitness to testify as such.

 

Read Article: The Ledger

 

Defendants in Asbestos Suit Lose Bid for Autopsy of Plaintiff

In a case of first impression, a New Jersey appeals court on Wednesday denied a defense request for an autopsy of an asbestos-exposure plaintiff who died two days before trial.

 

The panel, in St. John v. Affinia Group, affirmed a trial judge’s finding that defendants Chrysler Corp. and Honeywell failed to show that examination of the dead man’s lung tissue would produce significant evidence.

 

The ruling means that Harold St. John, whose body has been stored at the DeMarco funeral home in Monroe Township, N.J., can now be laid to rest.

 

The Middlesex County suit claims St. John, who died on Feb. 28 at age 67, contracted mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer, by inhaling asbestos while working in a car-repair shop decades earlier.

 

Read Article: Law.com

 

City faces lawsuit over man killed in crash with cop

The family of a Jacksonville man killed in a January crash with a speeding police officer has notified the city of their intent to file a lawsuit in the case, the family’s attorney said this afternoon.

 

A letter sent from attorney Steve Pajcic to the city today said the family of Matthew Brice Ogden Jr., 86, is “prepared to take whatever legal action is necessary to exact justice” for his widow and her late husband. The city has six months to make settlement overtures or otherwise respond, said Assistant General Counsel Howard Maltz.

 

The letter requests that evidence be preserved in the case involving Officer Marcus Kilpatrick, whose speeding patrol car plowed into Ogden’s truck Jan. 14 on Merrill Road. The Florida Highway Patrol said Kilpatrick was driving about 98 mph in a 40-mph zone as he was trying to catch a car with possible excessive tint.

 

Ogden’s truck turned into the patrol car’s path and Ogden, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, was thrown through the passenger side window of his vehicle. He died at the scene.

 

Read Article: Florida Times Union

 

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