“A finance manager at a used car dealership in Portland was fired by his boss during a staff meeting for questioning the company’s alleged cover-up of a coronavirus cluster, a lawsuit claims,” reports Maxine Bernstein in The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Coronavirus.

“Shawn McCrary, 41, of Portland, sued Lapin Motor Co. and owner Leo Lapin in a wrongful discharge and whistleblower suit this month, seeking $1.4 million in damages.”

“McCrary alleges Lapin berated, assaulted and fired him in an ‘alcohol and drug-induced rage’ during an all-staff meeting on July 31.”

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“Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation … announced that it has entered into a plea agreement with the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division in respect to its investigation into the sales of broiler chicken products in the United States,” posted Pilgram’s Investor Relations.

“In the plea agreement, which is subject to the approval of the United States District Court of Colorado, Pilgrim’s and the Antitrust Division agreed to a fine of $110,524,140 for restraint of competition that affected three contracts for the sale of chicken products to one customer in the United States. The agreement does not recommend a monitor, any restitution or probationary period, and provides that the Antitrust Division will bring no further charges against Pilgrim’s in this matter, provided the company complies with the terms and provisions of the agreement. Pilgrim’s expects to record the fine as a miscellaneous expense in its financial statements in the third quarter of 2020.”

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“Nissan Motor Co’s U.S. lending arm agreed on Tuesday to pay a $4 million U.S. fine to settle a government agency’s allegation that it improperly repossessed hundreds of consumers’ vehicles,” reports David Shepardson in Thomas Reuters’ Autos.

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said that between 2013 and 2019, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp (NMAC), a subsidiary of the Japanese automaker’s North American unit, ‘wrongfully repossessed hundreds of consumers’ vehicles despite the consumer having made payments’ or taken other actions. Nissan must pay up to $1 million to consumers subject to a wrongful repossession.”

“NMAC repossessed vehicles from consumers who made payments that decreased delinquency to less than 60 days past due or took other steps that should have prevented repossessions, the bureau said, adding NMAC told consumers it would not repossess vehicles if payments were less than 60 days past due.”

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“A U.S. District Court judge has ordered New Prime to send letters to 30,000 truck drivers to let them know that a $28 million settlement involving the Springfield, Mo.-based trucking company is legitimate,” report Mark Schremmer in Land Line.

“Earlier this summer, Prime and truck drivers Dominic Oliveira and Rocky Haworth reached a $28 million settlement regarding claims that Prime improperly paid drivers in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, Missouri minimum wage law, and related laws.”

“On Oct. 5, about 40,000 former and current Prime drivers and trainees were notified – an estimated 30,000 of them by email – about the website PrimeTruckingSettlement.com and their potential eligibility to receive funds from the court-approved settlement. According to court documents, on the same day a supervisor at Prime sent a message through the company’s app and Qualcomm system telling its drivers not to click on the link of the email because it was a “phishing” scam. The same supervisor sent a second Qualcomm message about an hour later retracting the previous message.”

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“Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced Monday that the generic opioid manufacturer Mallinckrodt has agreed to a $1.6 billion settlement to resolve a host of lawsuits that arose in response to tens of thousands of deadly opioid overdoses nationwide fueled, in part, by prescription drugs,” reports Nicholas Rondinone in Hartford Courant’s Breaking News.

“Exactly how the money will be distributed remains under negotiation, Tong said, but the settlement and pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic led the drug maker, one of the largest supplier of generic opioids, to file bankruptcy this week.”

“In the settlement framework, Mallinckrodt has agreed to pay the money into a trust, which will go toward response to the opioid epidemic and help address individual claims against the company for its role in the crisis, Tong’s office said.”

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“A $56 million settlement between Massachusetts and the natural gas utility found responsible for a series of explosions and fires in the state in 2018 was approved by the state Department of Public Utilities,” reported by Associated Press in The Washington Post’s Climate & Environment.

“The settlement with Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and its parent, NiSource, was agreed to in July and approved Wednesday, the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announced in a statement.”

“The explosions in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover in September 2018 killed one person, injured almost two dozen and damaged more than 100 buildings. Federal investigators blamed the explosions on overpressurized gas lines.”

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“Two Broward attorneys were arrested this week for their involvement in a nearly $750,000 fraud scheme to rip off unsuspecting victims of foreclosure surplus checks, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office,” report Brooke Baitinger Eileen Kelley in South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Crime News.

“The attorneys, Rashisa Overby and Ria Sankar-Balram, worked with Illya and Patricia Tinker, a married couple nicknamed ‘tomb raiders’ for another multimillion-dollar scheme in which they stole properties across South Florida, some of which belonged to the dead.”

“The Broward Sheriff’s Office arrested Overby and Sankar-Balram Monday. Balram was released from jail after posting a $57,000 bond. Overby who faces significantly more charges — 29 counts of fraud, money laundering and grand theft among other charges, had bond set at $140,000.”

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“The Ohio Supreme Court today suspended a Lucas County attorney for two years, with six months stayed, for levying false and inflammatory accusations against opposing attorneys, a magistrate, parties in two of his cases, and disciplinary officials hearing the complaints against him,” reports Dan Trevas in Court News Ohio’s Cases.

“In a unanimous per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court suspended Thomas A. Yoder of Holland for violating several of the rules governing the professional conduct of Ohio lawyers. The offenses included calling a magistrate’s decision ‘insane,’ and not what ‘a normal, competent magistrate would have done.'”

“The Toledo Bar Association filed a complaint against Yoder with the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct in 2019 based on allegedly false statements by Yoder and for threatening letters he sent to two witnesses he intended to call during his disciplinary hearings.”

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“Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and a proposed class of 371 patients it treated for motor vehicle accident injuries received preliminary approval of a settlement involving claims the health-care provider overcharged them, a federal court in Florida said,” reports Mary Anne Pazanowski in Bloomberg Law’s The United States Law Week.

“The class was reasonably defined and met all the prerequisites for class certification, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida said Tuesday.”

“Additionally, the total settlement amount of just over $1 million appeared to be adequate, except for the amounts allocated to an incentive fee for the named plaintiff and for class counsel’s attorneys’ fees, the court said.”

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“Johnson & Johnson will pay out over $100 million to settle more than 1000 lawsuits that claim the pharmaceutical giant’s baby powder caused cancer,” reports Daniel Cassady in Forbes’ Breaking News.

“The settlement is the first in four years of litigation and nearly 20,000 lawsuits that allege Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder and talc products caused cancer due to asbestos contamination, according to the report.”

“In 2018, a New York Times investigation found Johnson & Johnson had for at least 50 years been aware of possible asbestos contamination in its talc products without telling consumers. Test results detected no greater than 0.00002% of “chrysotile asbestos” in the talc products that were recalled in October. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the company by people who claim to have developed mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, both of which are linked to asbestos exposure, after using the company’s talc products.”

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“A federal grand jury has indicted Stephen L. Snyder, age 72, of Miami Beach, Florida, on the federal charges of attempted extortion and interstate travel and use of an interstate facility to carry on unlawful activity, also known as the Travel Act. Snyder was the senior partner at a Baltimore-based law firm specializing in plaintiff-side medical malpractice litigation,” released in the The United States Attorney’s Office District of Maryland.

According to the indictment “between January and October 2018, Snyder attempted to obtain $25 million from the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) for himself, separate and apart from any claim by one of his clients, by using threats of economic and reputational harm to UMMS and its organ transplant program. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Snyder threatened that if UMMS did not pay him $25 million, Snyder would launch a public relations campaign against UMMS that alleged, among other things, that UMMS transplanted diseased organs into unsophisticated patients without informing them of the quality of the organs they were receiving in order to generate revenue. According to the indictment, Snyder told UMMS officials that the campaign would include: a front-page article in the Baltimore Sun; other national news stories; a press conference; advertisements on the Internet, including one that would run every time someone accessed the UMMS transplant site; and at least two videos Snyder produced and would air if his demand for a $25 million payment were not met.”

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A $411.7 million verdict was returned for a veteran paralyzed in a 45-vehicle interstate pileup in 2018, reports a staff reporter in Tallahassee Democrat’s News.

“It’s a record verdict in what appears to be the area’s first ever trial conducted by video-conferencing.”

“Duane Washington, a former career Army sergeant and Gadsden County resident, was traveling home on his motorcycle via I-10 near Tallahassee in July 2018” when “He came upon a pileup of more than 45 vehicles, caused by a wreck. ”

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“A Florida attorney and former outside counsel for 1 Global Capital LLC (1 Global), has been charged today with conspiring to commit wire fraud and securities fraud in connection with an investment fraud scheme that, as alleged, impacted more than 3,600 investors in 42 different states, and involved him personally and fraudulently raising more than $100 million from investors,” released the Department of Justice in The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

“Andrew Dale Ledbetter, 78, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is charged in an information with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles of the Southern District of Florida.”

“According to the allegations in the information, 1 Global was a commercial lending business based in Hallandale Beach, Florida, that made the equivalent of “pay day” loans with high interest rates to small businesses, termed merchant cash advance loans (MCAs). To fund these loans, 1 Global obtained funds from investors nationwide, offering short-term investment contracts that promised to “place” the investors’ money onto MCAs.”

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“The Justice Department announced a guilty plea to FCPA charges by Sargeant Marine, Inc., a privately-owned company, based in Boca Raton, Florida. Sargeant Marine, an asphalt company, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA and agreed to pay a fine of $16.6 million for bribery schemes in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador,” writes Michael Volkov in Volkov’s Blog.

“Between 2010 and 2018, Sargeant Marine paid millions of dollars in bribes to foreign officials in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador to secure contracts to purchase or sell asphalt to state-owned and state-controlled oil companies.”

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“Kentucky will receive more than $1.9 million as its share of a settlement with a company over a data security breach that compromised the personal information of 78.8 million Americans,” reports Steve Rogers in WTVQ’s Local News.

“Anthem, Inc. agreed to pay $39.5 million to 43 states and the District of Columbia. Kentucky will receive $1,929,942.02. In addition to the payment, Anthem has also agreed to a series of data security and adequate governance provisions designed to strengthen its practices going forward, according to Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who announced the settlement.”

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“AT&T and Verizon have now settled a California lawsuit started back in 2012, with either carrier agreeing to pay out amounts totaling to as much as $116 million,” reports Daniel Golightly in Android Headlines’ Smartphone Carriers News.

Verizon’s payout will equate to $68 million, “overshadowing another payout of $8 million the company is set to settle for in a similar Nevada suit. That doesn’t include attorney’s fees either. For those, Verizon will pay out an additional $23.45 million.”

“AT&T, conversely, will pay out $48 million for the settlement as compared to its $3 million pay-out in Nevada. An additional $13 million will be tacked on for attorney’s fees.”

“The figures equate to approximately $99.45 million for Verizon and around $64 million for AT&T.”

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“The son of famous stuntman Evel Knievel is suing Disney and Pixar over their Toy Story 4 character Duke Caboom,” reports Will Lavin in NME’s Film News.

“Kelly Knievel, who had publicity rights to Evel Knievel since 1978, has accused the studios of financially gaining from a character they allegedly based on his father without seeking permission.”

“Through his K and K Promotions, Knievel is seeking unspecified damages totalling more than $300,000 (£236,000) in the federal trademark infringement lawsuit, which also alleges false endorsement and unjust enrichment.”

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“More than eight years after Bonnie Winslett tore up and threw away a summons that notified her she was being sued, the Georgia Supreme Court is being asked to resolve questions of law that will determine whether GEICO Indemnity Co. must pay approximately $2.7 million of a court’s award against her,” reports Jim Sams in Claims Journal.

“The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday sent three certified questions to the state’s high court. Once answered, the federal appellate court can then rule on an appeal of a district court’s order in a bad faith case that requires GEICO to pay 70% of the nearly $2.9 million in damages awarded by the jury, plus interest.”

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“Google’s parent company has reached a $310 million settlement in a shareholder lawsuit over its treatment of allegations of executives’ sexual misconduct,” reported by Associated Press in Boston Herald’s Business.

“Alphabet Inc. said Friday that it will prohibit severance packages for anyone fired for misconduct or is the subject of a sexual misconduct investigation. A special team will investigate any allegations against executives and report to the board’s audit committee.”

“Thousands of Google employees walked out of work in protest in 2018 after The New York Times revealed Android creator Andy Rubin received $90 million in severance even though several employees had filed misconduct allegations against him. Shareholder lawsuits followed, and in 2019 Google launched a board investigation over how it handles sexual misconduct allegations.”

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“It has been six months since the initial wave of government mandated ‘stay-at-home’ orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, we have seen at least four important litigation trends emerge,” writes Tiffany Caterina in Frankfurt Kurnit Klein + Selz’ News & Press.

The four trends discussed are:

1. Force Majeure
2. Deceptive Trade Practices
3. Business Interruption
4. Workplace Safety

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