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Windstorm insurer seeks immunity in lawsuits

November 17, 2009

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, facing hundreds of lawsuits stemming from hurricanes Ike, Dolly and Rita, wants to limit how much it pays if it loses in court.

 

In two separate cases, the state-created insurer has filed motions seeking immunity from paying penalties, policyholder attorneys’ fees and other expenses arising from litigation against it.

 

TWIA argues it’s an instrument of a government agency, and as such is entitled to sovereign immunity that protects governments from some legal liability.

 

But lawyers for policyholders say the association is effectively a private company, and that immunity would let the insurer escape consumer protection laws. More than 900 lawsuits against TWIA could hinge on how courts rule on the immunity question.

 

Read Article: Houston Chronicle

 

Posted By: Phoenix Arizona Phoenix Catastrophic Injury Attorney

Drug firms settle lawsuit alleging inflated prices

Iowa has successfully forced recovery of $4.3 million that pharmaceutical companies have overcharged taxpayers for medications, the attorney general said Friday.

The state will pocket about $1.2 million after lawyer fees and the split to the federal government.

Eight of 78 companies the state sued in federal court two years ago are paying to settle allegations that they intentionally scammed the Iowa Medicaid program by charging inflated drug prices.

 

The recovery is Iowa’s first major victory in the case, Attorney General Tom Miller said.

The drug companies that settled are among the smallest of the ones sued by Iowa, and all deny wrongdoing. And so far, the lawsuit hasn’t prevented drug companies from inflating prices, “a grotesque abuse” that has cost Iowa taxpayers millions of dollars in overcharges, Miller has said.

 

Read Article: DesMoines Register

 

Posted By: Arizona Phoenix Personal Injury Attorneys 

Jury awards $5.25M in Aichs death

An Albemarle County jury awarded $5.25 million on Friday to the parents and sibling of a 16-year-old county girl who was killed in a car accident in 2008.

 

The jury found that Don B. Swisher Trucking Corp., McCann Delivery Service and Kenneth Barbour were negligent when Barbour hit Sydney Aichs’ 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier with a tractor-trailer while running a red light on May 9, 2008, at the intersection of U.S. 29 and Ashwood Boulevard. The verdict came after a two-day civil trial in Albemarle Circuit Court.

 

Barbour pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving earlier this year and was sentenced to a two-year active prison sentence. Aichs’ parents, Clinton and Michele Aichs, filed a $15 million lawsuit against all of the defendants in October 2008 that accused them of negligence and requested punitive damages.

 

Three hours passed before the jury reached a decision Friday evening. From his seat at the plaintiff’s table, Clinton Aichs began to sob when Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins read off the verdict — $1.75 million each for him, his wife and son Kyle.

 

Read Article: Charlottesville Daily Progress

 

Posted By: Arizona Phoenix Construction Site Accident Attorney

Massey Energy Gets $50 Million Jury Verdict Overturned Again

Massey Energy Co., the fifth-largest U.S. coal company, succeeded for a second time in getting a $50 million jury verdict thrown out five months after the U.S. Supreme Court said West Virginia’s highest court had to re-hear the case because one justice should have recused himself.

 

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia again reversed the jury verdict and dismissed the case in an opinion filed yesterday. In November 2007, it first overturned the award won by a competing coal supplier. In June this year, the U.S. Supreme Court said West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin shouldn’t have taken part in two 3-2 decisions that blocked the award. Massey’s chairman, Donald Blankenship, had spent $3 million to get Benjamin elected.

 

The jury concluded that Massey, based in Richmond, Virginia, drove Harman Mining Corp. out of business by acquiring the sole buyer of Harman’s coal and then sharply reducing purchases. It awarded the money to Harman and owner Hugh Caperton. In its ruling yesterday, the West Virginia high court reiterated its earlier finding that Virginia courts were the proper forum for the dispute.

 

Read Article: Bloomberg

 

Posted By: Phoenix Arizona Phoenix Personal Injury Attorneys

Two Kentuckians join Halliburton lawsuit over ‘toxic’ burn pits

Two Kentuckians have followed dozens of other plaintiffs in suing Halliburton and other military contractors, alleging they were exposed to toxic fumes from “burn pits” in Iraq and Afghanistan in which the companies disposed of everything from human corpses and medical waste to lithium batteries and plastic water bottles.

 

The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Louisville by former Air Force Sgt. Sean Alexander Stough of Stanton and contract employee Charles Hicks of Bellevue, alleges they were exposed to harmful ash and smoke that damaged their health.

 

The complaint, which names Halliburton, KBR and a Turkish company, ERKA Ltd., is one of 32 suits over burn pits that have been filed in as many states against the Houston-based contractor and other companies, according to the Washington, D.C., law firm that represents the two men.

 

Read Article: Louisville Courier Journal

 

Posted By: Arizona Phoenix Construction Site Accident Lawyer

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