Lawyers representing three victims of a fire at Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay Refinery earlier this week plan to/filed claims alleging gross negligence against the oil company. One employee was killed and two injured when carrying out maintenance on an octane-boosting unit at the plant. The other two injured workers, both contractors, have also sought compensation, which is likely to exceed the $2.4m awarded two years ago to a man who was injured in an acid leak at a BP plant in Texas City. Marathon has not yet commented on the allegations.
Mark Cuban, Dallas Maverick’s owner, has filed two motions with a federal court in Miami, accusing lawyers attempting to sue him for allegedly breaching securities laws by inducing investors to open interest-bearing accounts at a now-bankrupt crypto lending firm Voyager Digital. Cuban’s lawyers at Brown Rudnick and Fowler White Burnett asked U.S. District Judge Roy Altman of Miami to deny a request by lawyers at The Moskowitz Law Firm and Boies Schiller Flexner to file a second amended class action complaint, arguing that plaintiffs and their counsel have engaged in bad-faith litigation. They believe the assertion includes “manufactured” allegations already proven to be false. In a separate motion for sanctions for allegedly prolonging frivolous litigation, Cuban argues that the Moskowitz firm and name partner Adam Moskowitz knew or should have known that neither of their Florida class representatives had a viable claim.
Deutsche Bank has settled a proposed class-action lawsuit for $75 million alleging it facilitated Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking ring. The lawsuit was filed in New York last year by an anonymous woman on behalf of herself and other accusers, alleging the bank did business with Epstein for five years knowing he was engaged in sex-trafficking activity. Deutsche Bank has not yet commented on the settlement.
WestJet, the Canadian airline, will cancel flights in anticipation of a pilots' strike amid a disagreement over pay. Pilots gave notice that could allow for strike action as early as 19 May, during Canada's Victoria Day holiday. North American pilots are pressing for higher salaries and better scheduling following a recent deal with Delta Air Lines, which saw pilots receive a 34% pay increase over four years. WestJet plans to park the majority of its 737 and 787 fleet, but some 737 flights will continue to operate.
Republican-controlled states across the US have introduced more than 500 bills affecting LGBTQ+ people, of which 48 have passed, in the first five months of this year alone. The majority target transgender people, with the bills touching every aspect of the community’s public life. Many of the measures aim to prevent transgender girls from participating in female sports, require trans people to use the bathroom that matches their gender assigned at birth, or restrict trans people from changing their gender on their identity documents. LGBTQ+ rights activists are pushing back, with protests in Texas leading state lawmakers to send back a bill seeking to ban gender-affirming care. Meanwhile, many Republicans in the five states to have passed bills arguing that it is a mistake to let gender-affirming care occur. They distrust the medical consensus endorsing gender-affirming care, branding it dangerous and experimental.
An uphill battle awaits the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its attempt to block Amgen's $27.8bn acquisition of Horizon, industry experts have warned. Those in the sector had not been overly worried about the potential for hedging by regulators as there was limited business overlap, but with Amgen described as leveraging its existing drug sales to force insurers and pharmacies to favour Horizon's own medications, the FTC is attempting to put a new theory before a Trump-appointed judge, one analyst warned.
Pilots for WestJet Airlines have given notice that they could strike on 19 May, as negotiations fail to agree on increased pay, raising the possibility of the first major pilots’ strike in Canada in 23 years. Now estimated to have around 4,500 Canada-based pilots joining its ranks, the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents WestJet pilots, is demanding wage increases commensurate with US pilots' salaries. Canada's largest carrier, Air Canada, which recently joined the ALPA, will face negotiations over pilot pay this summer, during which pay levels are likely to be a key topic.
JPMorgan is seeking documents from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as part of a lawsuit against the bank by women who say they were abused by Jeffrey Epstein. It is not clear why Bragg took part in a conference in the case, but U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff instructed him to provide JPMorgan with a privilege log by Friday. The bank's request became known after Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75m to settle a lawsuit by women who accuse it of facilitating Epstein's sex trafficking.
Twitter cannot be held liable for allowing an attack on an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39, according to the Supreme Court. Twitter was accused of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act because it gave ISIS a platform to release propaganda that spark the attack. A group of Americans who were relatives of a Jordanian killed in the attack filed a suit against Twitter, which a court of appeal had revived in 2021 but the US Supreme Court has ruled cannot proceed. The ruling shows that social media companies cannot be held responsible for user-generated content, a decision widely welcomed by other internet giants.
The US Supreme Court has avoided challenging federal protections for internet and social media companies which prevent them from being held liable for content posted by users in a case concerning the practices of Alphabet-owned video-sharing platform YouTube. The family of 23-year-old Nohemi Gonzalez, who was fatally shot in an attack by ISIS militants in Paris, had brought the lawsuit against Google seeking compensation. However, in an unsigned ruling, the Supreme Court judges demanded that the lower court take another look at the case.
Criticism has been levelled at the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by Republicans in Congress, who accused the body of performing inadequately under the administration of Joe Biden. At issue was the backlog of workplace discrimination complaints, which the EEOC experienced in 2021, as the US attempted to emerge from Covid-19. It also handled a larger than usual number of phone calls and emails from workers. The backlog of complaints had reduced during the administration of former president Donald Trump. Congress members have also requested data for the types of discrimination, based on sex, race and other factors.
The Simmons Bedding Company has been sued by a customer who says the company falsely marketed bedding and linens with an inflated thread count, thereby tricking customers into believing the products were of higher quality. The defendant, Loriann Staples, claims that she would not have purchased the company's bedding if she had known the actual count. The plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages as well as other relief for the alleged unfair business practices. Staples argues that an independent laboratory confirmed the actual thread count in her complaint.
Hyundai and Kia have agreed to pay a more than $200m settlement over rampant car thefts of their vehicles. The settlement covers around nine million US owners and includes up to $145m for out-of-pocket losses for consumers who had cars stolen.
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has filed lawsuits in the US against its founder and former insiders of Embed, a stock trading platform that FTX acquired for $240m shortly before collapsing in November. FTX alleges that Embed was essentially worthless and riddled with bugs, but that founder Michael Giles failed to carry out proper due diligence. The lawsuits also claim that FTX insiders misappropriated company funds to acquire stakes in Embed as part of the transaction. FTX's new management is seeking to recover assets to repay customers since the bankruptcy and has tried to sell Embed, with the highest bidder being Giles offering just $1m.
Google has agreed to pay $39.9m to the US state of Washington to resolve a lawsuit accusing the search and advertising company of misleading consumers over its location tracking practices. The case concerned allegations that Google profited from personal data despite consumers disabling tracking technologies. Google said it denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle the lawsuit. Last November, the company agreed to pay $391.5m to resolve similar allegations made by 40 US states.
US President Joe Biden's latest judicial nominee, former New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney, has appeared to be withdrawn after opposition from both Democratic and Republican senators. While Delaney's nomination had been on the Senate Judiciary Committee's agenda for a month, it never progressed to a vote due to a lack of support. Democratic concerns over a legal brief Delaney signed in defence of a repealed law requiring parents be notified before their minor child has an abortion have contributed to the opposition to his nomination.
Five TikTok users in Montana have filed a lawsuit against US state legislation set to ban the video-sharing app from 1 January 2022. The plaintiffs, all Montana residents, argue that the law violates their constitutional right to free speech under the First Amendment. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed off the legislation on 12 May. The proposed ban comes amid ongoing concerns over the potential for Chinese government influence over social media platforms. The lawsuit is assigned to Judge Donald Molloy, who was appointed by Democrat President Bill Clinton in 1995.
The Massachusetts supreme court has ruled that people can legally challenge police stops, even if law enforcement can demonstrate some reasonable suspicion for their actions. The decision means drivers stopped for traffic violations may challenge investigations if they have evidence of racial profiling and can also challenge stop-and-frisk scenarios if they have evidence they were targeted due to their race. The ruling gives clarity to the standard in these cases and will give people more of a voice in the system, according to John Warren, a Boston attorney who represented a young black man whose motion to suppress evidence was dismissed under the ruling.
The No Surprises Act, which came into effect in January 2022, aimed to eliminate surprise medical bills for patients who received non-emergency medical care at network facilities or emergency services at a hospital. The legislation barred physicians from billing patients for the cost difference between the insurer’s payment to the non-network doctor. It left the question of how much the insurer should pay the non-network doctor for such services. The Act established an untested system that mandated doctors and insurers, who have no contractual relationship with each other, to submit unresolved disputes to binding arbitration.
Federal regulatory bodies have iterated regulations and sub-regulatory guidance while defending the existing rules against legal challenges. The process has resulted in vacated critical provisions and a lack of clear standards to guide decision-making. The government’s unprecedented intrusion into the negotiations between non-contracting parties could have unforeseen consequences. While the law aimed to protect patients from surprise medical bills, it generated confusion among arbiters and regulators.
Lawmakers and economists argue that, instead of the complicated and poorly defined dispute-resolution process, the Congress should adopt a truth-in-advertising approach to enforce consumer protections. The proposed approach would protect consumers by obligating providers and insurers to represent a facility as in-network and would liberate doctors, insurers, and arbiters from a flawed system for resolving payment disputes that the disputing parties can best resolve themselves. Special interest groups who lobbied Congress developed a highly flawed system that affected patients, clinicians, hospitals, and insurers. The unprecedented government intrusion could have unforeseen and lasting consequences.
Canada’s WestJet has reached a tentative agreement with Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), thus avoiding a strike by the airline’s pilots, which would have begun on 19 May. Pilots will now begin the process of ratifying the contract in the coming days. Canada’s second biggest airline has not commented on the new contract. ALPA did not mention details of the agreement, but chair of the WestJet ALPA Master Executive Council Bernard Lewall stated that human resources issues at the company will be resolved, including retention and recruitment.
