Mark Lanier

Trial lawyer Mark Lanier was not looking for new cases when two Idaho attorneys called him earlier this year with an appeal to what he described as his “core sense of right and wrong,” according to a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing.

The Androvett post continues:

The always-busy Houston lawyer recently earned a $1 billion  product liability verdict against J&J and is gearing up for numerous other trials. But when he heard more about the case involving Antwon McDaniel, a developmentally disabled teen who was bullied and raped at a rural Idaho high school, the decision to join the legal team was an easy one.

“It’s outrageous. It’s horrible,” Mr. Lanier told the Magic Valley Times-News. “As a lawyer, if I can help in a case like this and I don’t, they ought to take away my bar card.”

The federal lawsuit, filed last year, claims that the individually named school board trustees, administrators, teachers and coaches of the Dietrich School District chose to ignore the ongoing physical and mental abuse being suffered by Antwon McDaniel, effectively depriving him of his constitutional rights. The racially motivated violence inflicted on the now 19-year-old Mr. McDaniel, who is black, included anal rape with a coat hanger by several white football teammates in 2015. Criminal cases stemming from the locker room attack have all been resolved, but the civil lawsuit seeking $10 million is ongoing, with the next hearing set for May 9. Trial dates have not yet been scheduled.

Mr. Lanier described his decision to join the lawsuit in an interview with the Times-News:

“My goal is to make sure no student in Idaho or anywhere else has this problem again,” [Mr. Lanier] said. “We need to do something to protect our children who don’t fit in, aren’t the right color, aren’t the right religion and don’t fit that model profile. There’s a chance to do something here.”

There were three main motivating factors, Mr. Lanier said. The need for the school district to be responsible; the “egregiousness of it all”; and because he “cares deeply about racial issues.”

“America is at a place where we have to find a way to be accepting of people of different race, religion, gender, or even political affiliation,” Mr. Lanier said.

Image by U.S. Coast Guard

A committee of attorneys involved in litigation arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill has made its recommendation for dividing $700 million in fees among 122 law firms involved in years of complex legal work, reports the Associated Press.

Two Louisiana law firms that steered the litigation will get the biggest payouts. Domengeaux Wright Roy & Edwards of Lafayette and Herman, Herman & Katz in New Orleans will get about $87.8 million if a federal judge approves the recommendation filed this week in U.S. District Court in New Orleans.

“Millions of barrels of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig at BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico,” writes Kevin McGill. “Eleven workers were killed and the pollution affected Gulf fisheries, delicate wetlands and recreational beaches.”

Read the AP article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

The general counsel of Dewey & LeBoeuf while the now-defunct law firm collapsed has experience with crises, so Bloomberg Law asked her to explain the likely legal ramifications of United Airlines’ botched handling of an overbooked flight and what the company may do to mitigate the fallout.

Janis Meyer, now a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, focuses her practice on professional responsibility, writes Jason Booth.

She discusses what the airline’s general counsel likely is doing this week to deal with the crisis, who he will speak to, who ultimately bears responsibility, whether apologies serve any legal purpose, and whether the incident would play out differently if phones to capture the event were not available.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

A Florida appellate court rejected Trump National Doral’s attempt to get out of paying a Miami paint store chain over $315,000 — based on an unpaid bill for $32,535, reports The Miami Herald.

“Trump’s company argued last summer and to the appellate court that The Paint Stop hadn’t followed certain Florida statutes to the letter and the Notice to Owner from The Paint Stop identified the wrong contractor. Both [the trial court] and the appellate court slapped those arguments down,” writes reporter David J. Neal.

The bill was for renovations on Donald Trump’s golf resort. Attorneys’ fees accounted for $282,949 in the judgment.

Read the Miami Herald article.

The Boston Herald is reporting that United Airlines — embroiled in controversy after it forcibly removed a doctor from an overbooked flight — could be in for a legal beatdown if the passenger takes the beleaguered carrier to court, according to legal experts.

Reporter Bob McGovern quotes Anthony Tarricone, a Boston attorney who has handled cases involving aircraft accidents and disasters: “I think they are going to have a serious legal issue on their hands. United might say they didn’t hurt him, and that it was security, but United set that situation in motion.”

“United CEO Oscar Munoz may have shot the company in the foot when he told the airline’s employees on Monday that they ‘followed established procedures,’” writes McGovern. “Instead of pegging the case on rogue security personnel, attorneys may be able to point to the statement as an acknowledgement that the company backed the behavior.”

Read the Boston Herald article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

BlackBerry said Wednesday it has been awarded a preliminary $814.9 million in royalty overpayments made to Qualcomm, according to a CNBC report.

“BlackBerry argued that it was overpaying Qualcomm in royalty payments,” writes Todd Haselton. “Last April, BlackBerry and Qualcomm entered discussions to settle the dispute and analyze an existing ‘agreement to cap certain royalties applied to payments made by BlackBerry under a license agreement between the two parties.'”

Apple also has a suit pending against Qualcomm, claiming the company is “withholding nearly $1 billion in payments from Apple as retaliation for responding truthfully to law enforcement agencies investigating them.”

Read the CNBC article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

A Dallas County jury found there was clear and convincing evidence that Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Dickson’s employer for 38 years, was “grossly negligent” in exposing the longtime mechanical engineer to asbestos, according to a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media and Marketing.

Dickson, a resident of Hurst, Texas, died at the age of 74 on Dec. 13, 2013.

The jury awarded Dickson’s survivors $8.8 million, according to the website of his law firm, Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett.

“There was not a company-based respiratory protection policy in place during the time of Billy’s exposure,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Darren McDowell of Dallas-based Simon Greenstone.

Read the article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

Twitter, Yelp, Instagram, Foursquare and a few other apps are agreeing to a $5.3 million settlement to an invasion-of-privacy class action in which the companies’ apps were accused of accessing the address books of iOS users without their knowledge or consent, reports Arstechnica.com.

Fees for the lawyers who brought the suit on behalf of an estimated 7 million members of the class will be about $1.59 million. Individual class members are in for a payday of about 53 cents each.

Class members in a suit against Dunkin’ Donuts won’t even get money. They’re in for a payoff of free buttered treats, according to the Associated Press. Their lawyers, however, will collect $90,000 in fees in the settlement.

Thomas Shapiro, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said it wasn’t a profitable case for his firm.

Read the stories in Arstechnica and the AP.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

An East Texas jury has awarded Whirlpool Corp. $7.6 million, finding that a California company willfully infringed the patent protecting Whirlpool’s replacement water filters for refrigerators.

The jury delivered the verdict against TST Water, LLC, on March 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall. The finding that the patent infringement was “willful” means the award total could be tripled, a decision to be made by Judge Rodney Gilstrap, according to a release from the firm.

Longview, Texas-based Ward, Smith & Hill founder Johnny Ward represented Whirlpool as lead counsel alongside attorneys from the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster LLP.

“The evidence clearly showed that TST Water willfully infringed Whirlpool’s patent,” said Ward. “The jury rightfully discounted TST’s claims that the patent was invalid. The amount the jury awarded demonstrates that.”

The lawsuit involved Whirlpool “Filter 3” refrigerator filters, which carry  U.S. Patent No. 7,000,894. The company claimed TST Water intentionally copied the Filter 3 design in the development of its WSW-5 and HDX FMW-5 refrigerator filters, which were sold under the brand name WaterSentinel and the label “HDX.” TST Water promoted the installation and use of the filters as an alternative to the Filter 3 in Whirlpool refrigerators.

The case is Whirlpool Corporation v. TST Water, LLC, case 2:15-cv-01528-JRG in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that a legal feud between pistol tycoon Gaston Glock and his ex-wife, Helga, has ended with a resounding victory for the legendary gunmaker.

Helga Glock had filed a racketeering lawsuit accusing her former husband of siphoning off millions of dollars from the family firearm empire.

The Austrian company Glock GmbH, through its U.S. subsidiary, supplies most American law enforcement agencies with durable, large-capacity semiautomatic pistols, according to reporter Paul Barrett.

Helga Glock sought $500 million as her share in the company for helping start the company on its profitable trajectory in the 1980s. She charged that her ex-husband used illegal methods to take money fom the international corporation.

The federal judge hearing the case said the suit was unsubstantiated and called the complaint a “shotgun pleading.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

Trying a high-profile case under the media spotlight is rare for most lawyers, but it is becoming more and more common given the number of new media outlets and the growing public appetite for legal news and information, writes Bruce Vincent of Muse Communications.

“The delicate balancing act of effectively handling a client’s case while also protecting their public reputation is far from easy, but it can be done if you recognize the potential pitfalls and what to expect from reporters,” he explains in the Muse blog.

In his post, Vincent goes through the steps — starting with determining whether media truly are interested in the case, choosing who will communicate with reporters, being aware of which media outlets and individuals reporters are interested, and the challenges of answering questions from reporters while trying to stay focused on the trial.

Read the article.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week over whether to impose limits on the filings of patent lawsuits in a federal court in East Texas with a reputation for friendliness to plaintiffs, according to a New York Times article.

Reporter Adam Liptak writes that more than 40 percent of patent lawsuits are filed in the East Texas federal district.

“In recent years, a single judge based in Marshall, Tex., oversaw about a quarter of all patent cases nationwide, more than the number handled by all federal judges in California, Florida and New York combined,” Liptak writes.

Because the Texas court is a favorite venue of patent trolls, many tech companies filed supporting briefs in the case, TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, No. 16-341. Those companies urged the Supreme Court to limit the places where defendants in patent cases may be sued.

Read the NYT article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s former chief executive officer accused the drugmaker of failing to deliver 3 million shares promised him as part of an exit package, reports Bloomberg.

Michael Pearson resigned in May as the value of Valeant’s shares dropped and it became the subject of U.S. Justice Department and congressional investigations, write David Voreacos and Cynthia Koons.

They report that Pearson is claiming the company promised him 580,676 restricted shares and 2.46 million performance shares. Those shares would have a market value of more than $30 million, although exhibits to the lawsuit suggest the value for Pearson could be higher.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

Exterro has published a new e-discovery case law report titled “The Importance of Proportionality under the New FRCP Rules” that is now available for downloading at no charge.

On its website, Exterro says the main goal of the recent FRCP amendments is to support Rule 1’s demand for a just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution to the dispute at hand. Proportionality is at the core of that notion.

This paper’s four cases cover rulings that push parties to be more proactive in finding ways to reach that resolution while avoiding over-burdensome and expensive production requests.

Included are:

• Brief case law recaps which get to heart of the e-discovery issues quickly
• Expert analysis on what these influential court rulings mean for your
  litigation process
• Tips for meeting updated e-discovery court requirements under the the new FRCP rules

Download the report.

Image by Mike Mozart

Employees of Monsanto ghostwrote scientific reports that U.S. regulators relied on to determine that a chemical in its Roundup weed killer does not cause cancer, farmers and others suing the company claimed in court filings, according to a Reuters report.

Monsanto is involved in a mass litigation in federal court in San Francisco claiming the company failed to warn that exposure to Roundup could cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer, writes Reuters’ Brendan Pierson.

“Plaintiffs claim that Monsanto’s toxicology manager ghostwrote parts of a scientific report in 2013 that was published under the names of several academic scientists, and his boss ghostwrote parts of another in 2000,” Pierson reports.

Read the Reuters article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

Diane Sawyer
Image by David Shankbone

ABC News moved closer to a jury trial in South Dakota after a judge there moved along a lawsuit alleging that the network defamed Beef Products Inc. in its coverage of a meat product called lean, finely textured beef, which critics have dubbed “pink slime,” reports The Hollywood Reporter.

“BPI claims $1.9 billion in damage with the possibility the amount could be tripled if the plaintiff can prove ABC News knowingly lied about the safety of a food product,” writes reporter Eriq Gardner. “The plaintiff has previously scored wins in keeping the case in a state court and then prevailing against First Amendment arguments on a motion to dismiss.”

A jury “could determine that there is clear and convincing evidence that ABC Broadcasting and [reporter Jim] Avila were reckless,” the judge ruled.

The judge provided ABC News, a unit of Disney, with one piece of good news: the court dismissed claims against anchor Diane Sawyer, Gardner reports.

Read the Hollywood Reporter article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

A Texas woman is suing a railroad and a bus company for the death of her father who was killed when a freight train slammed into the tour bus carrying him and other senior citizens, according to a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing.

Kenneth Hoffman, 82, and three other people died in the March 7 accident in Biloxi, Mississippi. The bus was headed from a Bastrop, Texas, senior center to Boomtown Casino in Biloxi. The charter bus got stuck at a train crossing known to be hazardous for long vehicles and marked with a warning sign.

The lawsuit was filed March 10 in Dallas County State District Court on behalf of Hoffman’s daughter Kimberly Chapman of Lockhart, Texas. Defendants include Echo Tours and Charters and CSX Transportation Inc. among others. Representing Chapman is Houston lawyer Larry Wilson of Lanier Law Firm, one of the country’s premiere personal injury firms. Wilson, who specializes in transportation accidents, says:

“This tragedy should have never happened. It’s horrifying that a charter bus would ignore a warning sign and get high-centered on the tracks. CSX could have implemented policies relating to speed and procedures that greatly reduced the risk of a catastrophe like this.”

The case is Kimberly Kay Chapman v. Echo Tours and Charters, LT DBA Echo Transportation; TBL Group Inc.; Diamond Tours Inc. and CSX Transportation, Inc., Case DC-17-02924, filed in Dallas County District Court.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

A Travis County jury has returned a verdict against Chicago Title of Texas, LLC and other real estate-related businesses, finding they defrauded a young Danish woman of all proceeds from the sale of her $1.35 million condominium at the exclusive Residences at W Austin, according to a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing.

The scheme involved a falsified power of attorney to execute contracts and closing documents in the sale of the condo, and a forgery in connection with a subsequent sale of a promissory note.

The Androvett post continues:

Mari-Louise Larsen, a Danish citizen, filed the breach of fiduciary duty and fraud claim in 2013 against her estranged husband, Andre Jones, an Austin-area resident, as well as Chicago Title and the other firms. Larsen, now 30, first met Jones in Austin’s Sixth Street entertainment district while visiting the area in 2007. After a long-distance courtship, the couple married in Denmark in 2009.

While in Denmark and waiting to move to Austin, Larsen testified she agreed to buy the luxury high-rise condo in Austin with funds from a family inheritance. However, Jones convinced her that Texas law required the names of both spouses to be on the title, despite the fact it was her separate property. Larsen and Jones later decided to divorce and sell the property. Jones then convinced Chicago Title’s contracted fee attorney, Wally Tingley, to use falsely notarized documents to close the sale without his wife’s knowledge. Jones pocketed all of the profits as the marriage deteriorated.

“This is a case of a con artist taking advantage of a wealthy young woman and actively working with others to violate the law and professional standards in the real estate industry,” said Larsen’s lawyer, Brian N. Hail of Gruber Elrod Johansen Hail Shank LLP in Dallas. “As acknowledged by Chicago Title and its fee attorney, this was one of the worst real estate transactions anyone has ever seen.”

Hail believes the jury’s finding that Chicago Title is responsible for the actions of its fee attorneys may have significant implications on future litigation involving the real estate industry.

“The jury finding that Chicago Title is vicariously liable for its fee attorney, due to the control it exerted throughout the entire transaction, may call into question the company’s entire business model of attempting to delegate closing and escrow responsibilities in the Texas market, and perhaps nationwide.”

In addition to Chicago Title and Jones, the Austin firm of Wally Tingley & Associates, P.C., and Austin-based JTREO, Inc. were found liable in the scheme.

Hail plans to file a proposed final judgment order of more than $3.7 million in Travis County’s 419th District Court. The order will be based on a request for all proceeds from the condo sale, in addition to pre-judgment interest and costs. Punitive damages were assessed against Jones in the amount of $2 million.

The case is Larsen v. Jones, et al., No. D-1-GN-13-004321. Ms. Larsen is represented by Brian N. Hail, Brian E. Mason, and Gaby Gutierrez Rawlings.

With Donald Trump in the White House, pro-business groups see an opening for a series of bills moving through the House that would discourage class actions and generally make it harder to sue businesses, reports Bloomberg Businessweek.

One bill would restrict plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees to a percentage of the amount actually distributed to the class, writes Paul Barrett. “That could effectively kill off suits that seek a change in corporate behavior and pay class members little or nothing in damages.”

Professor John Coffee Jr. of Columbia Law School wrote on his Blue Sky Blog that a proposed restriction barring plaintiffs’ firms from repeatedly representing the same client in class actions “seems either a death sentence for the large plaintiffs’ firm or the end of large public pension funds serving as lead plaintiff.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group

The House is poised to pass three bills this week championed by industry that may tilt the civil litigation process in favor of business in thousands of cases each year, reports Bloomberg BNA.

The far-reaching bills address class actions, asbestos cases and attorneys who file “frivolous” suits, writes Bruce Kaufman.

The fast-track approach is deemed essential to give the bills time to advance in the more-deliberative Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome an almost certain filibuster.

The bill rewrites class-action practice, aids defendants striving to keep cases out of plaintiff-friendly state courts, punishes attorneys who file dubious claims, and seek to put new limits on settlements entered into by the Department of Justice and the EPA. They also would require more disclosures by asbestos victims who seek compensation from bankruptcy trusts.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Join Our LinkedIn Group