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Washington Mutual agrees to settlement
Class Action |
2011/12/13 10:42
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Bank holding company Washington Mutual Inc. has agreed to a settlement with some creditors involved in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case and has filed a new reorganization plan.
Washington Mutual said in a statement late Monday that the settlement will allow it to distribute more than $7 billion to its creditors. The settlement must still be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
"The comprehensive settlement announced today represents a fair and reasonable recovery for the thousands of equity holders of the company who have been following this case closely for three years," Michael Willingham, chairman of the committee of equity security holders appointed in the company's Chapter 11 proceedings.
Washington Mutual's bankruptcy case is three years old and its reorganization plans have twice been rejected by Bankruptcy Court Judge Mary Walrath. The company is hoping to exit bankruptcy protection by the end of February. It has a hearing scheduled for Jan. 11, 2012 in which the bankruptcy court will consider approval of the reorganization plan's disclosure statement. The company also plans to ask the bankruptcy court for a mid-February hearing to confirm its reorganization plan. |
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Saxena White P.A. Files a Securities Fraud Class Action
Class Action |
2011/12/12 11:02
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Saxena White P.A. announces that it has filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of investors who purchased Hospira, Inc. common stock on the New York Stock Exchange between March 24, 2009, and October 17, 2011, inclusive.
The complaint charges Hospira and certain of its officers and executives with violations of the Exchange Act. Hospira is a global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company.
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, defendants issued materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business and financial results. Specifically, defendants failed to disclose that: (i) Hospira suffered from extensive quality control issues throughout the Class Period, which undermined both the viability of and the supposed financial savings that would be generated by Project Fuel, a Company program designed to optimize Hospira's operations and increase shareholder value; (ii) Hospira was unable to remedy problems identified in FDA Warning Letters related to Hospira's infusion pumps, quality control deficiencies, and manufacturing weaknesses; (iii) Hospira's revenue guidance for 2010 and 2011 was misstated and lacked a reasonable basis when made; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' statements regarding the Company's financial performance and expected earnings were false and misleading and lacked a reasonable basis when made.
On October 18, 2011, the Company announced disappointing preliminary third quarter financial results and slashed full-year guidance, pointing to a production disruption at its Rocky Mount, North Carolina manufacturing plant, which accounted for approximately 25% of the Company's sales. The Company attributed the production slowdown to the impact of an ongoing FDA investigation.
The result of the Company's negative results was a 21% drop in the price of Hospira common stock, which fell $7.85 per share to close at $29.51 per share on October 18, 2011.
You may obtain a copy of the complaint and join the class action at www.saxenawhite.com. If you purchased the shares of Hospira, Inc. between the period of March 24, 2009, and October 17, 2011, inclusive, you may contact Joe White or Greg Stone at Saxena White P.A. to discuss your rights and interests.
If you purchased Hospira, Inc. shares during the Class Period of March 24, 2009, and October 17, 2011, inclusive, and wish to apply to be the lead plaintiff in this action, a motion on your behalf must be filed with the Court no later than January 20, 2012. You may contact Saxena White P.A. to discuss your rights regarding the appointment of lead plaintiff and your interest in the class action. Please note that you may also retain counsel of your choice and need not take any action at this time to be a class member.
Saxena White P.A., which has offices in Boca Raton, Boston and Montana, specializes in prosecuting securities fraud and complex class actions on behalf of institutions and individuals. Currently serving as lead counsel in numerous securities fraud class actions nationwide, the firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of injured investors and is active in major litigation pending in federal and state courts throughout the United States.
Contact: www.saxenawhite.com
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Philippine Supreme Court chief justice impeached
Law Center |
2011/12/12 11:02
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The Philippine House of Representatives impeached the Supreme Court chief justice Monday over alleged corruption and favoritism toward the country's former president, now under hospital arrest for alleged election fraud.
A majority of the 284 members of the powerful House signed the resolution to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona, who will now be tried by the Senate in an impeachment tribunal. Corona, who became the only known Supreme Court chief to be impeached in Philippine history, vowed to fight back.
Among its allegations, the impeachment complaint accuses the Corona-led court of ruling improperly in ex-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's favor when she sought to leave the country last month before she was arrested.
The surprise move is the latest twist in the Philippine political drama pitting Arroyo against her popular, reformist successor Benigno Aquino III, who has blamed her for a decade of corruption scandals that eroded public trust in government and held back foreign investors. |
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High court to look at state immigration laws
Breaking Legal News |
2011/12/12 11:01
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The Supreme Court has agreed to rule on Arizona’s controversial law targeting illegal immigrants.
The justices said Monday they will review a federal appeals court ruling that blocked several tough provisions in the Arizona law. One of those requires that police, while enforcing other laws, question a person’s immigration status if officers suspect he is in the country illegally.
The Obama administration challenged the Arizona law by arguing that regulating immigration is the job of the federal government, not states. Similar laws in Alabama, South Carolina and Utah also are facing administration lawsuits.
The court now has three politically charged cases on its election-year calendar. The other two are President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and new electoral maps for Texas’ legislature and congressional delegation. |
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Court: Can lawsuit against casino go forward?
Court Watch |
2011/12/11 11:02
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The Supreme Court will decide whether a lawsuit attempting to shut down a new tribal casino in southwestern Michigan can move forward.
The justices on Monday agreed to hear from the government and the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe.
The tribe opened a casino earlier this year in Wayland Township, 20 miles south of Grand Rapids. But casino foe David Patchak sued to close the casino down, challenging how the government placed the land in trust for the tribe. A federal judge threw out his lawsuit, but the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit said it could move forward. The justices will hear arguments next year. |
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CA same-sex marriage ban gets another day in court
Breaking Legal News |
2011/12/09 13:15
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The sponsors of California's gay marriage ban renewed their effort Thursday to disqualify a federal judge because of his same-sex relationship, but they met a skeptical audience in an appeals court panel.
It's the first time an American jurist's sexual orientation has been cited as grounds for overturning a court decision.
Lawyers for a coalition of religious conservative groups told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have revealed he had a long-term male partner before he presided over a trial on the measure's constitutionality. He also should have stated whether he had any interest in getting married, the lawyers said.
Because he did not, Walker's impartiality stands in doubt and the decision he ultimately made to strike down Proposition 8 as a violation of Californians' civil rights must be reversed, said Charles Cooper, an attorney for the ban's backers.
"In May 2009, when Judge Walker read the allegations of the complaint, he knew something the litigants and the public did not know: He knew that he, too, like the plaintiffs, was a gay resident of California who was involved in a long-term, serious relationship with an individual of the same sex," Cooper said. "The litigants did not have any knowledge of these facts, and it appears that Judge Walker made the deliberate decision not to disclose these facts." |
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Appeals court affirms Petters conviction, sentence
Court Watch |
2011/12/08 13:16
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A federal appeals court Friday upheld the 2009 conviction and 50-year prison sentence of Minnesota businessman Tom Petters, who was found guilty of orchestrating a $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme.
The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Petters got a fair trial.
A three-judge panel rejected defense claims that the U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle prevented his attorneys from presenting a complete defense by restricting their ability to question a key prosecution witness, Larry Reynolds, a convicted felon and disbarred lawyer who was in the witness protection program, about his links to organized crime.
The panel also said the judge acted properly when he rejected proposed jury instructions that would have highlighted Petters' claims that he was an unwitting participant in a fraud conceived by others, and that he acted in good faith on advice from his attorney.
It ruled that the judge did not err by denying a change in venue due to the extensive media coverage the case generated. The panel also rejected defense claims of procedural errors in Petters' sentencing.
A jury found Petters guilty of 20 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
According to testimony and documents presented at trial, Petters Co. Inc. used fake purchase orders and phony bank records to dupe investors into financing what they were told would be purchases of electronics such as big-screen televisions that PCI would resell to discount retailers such as Sam's Club and Costco. In reality, the prosecution contended, the merchandise never existed and the sales never took place.
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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