Toyota Motor Corp. was accused by U.S. investors of violating securities law by failing to disclose acceleration-related defects that it knew about, according to a consolidated complaint in a class-action lawsuit.

The shareholders, led by the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, said in the Oct. 4 filing in federal court in Los Angeles that internal documents show Toyota deliberately concealed unintended sudden acceleration problems in the U.S. They said the company knew about the defects as early as 2000 and “stonewalled” regulators to avoid recalls.

“As government regulators and the media began to focus on this serious safety problem in the Toyota vehicles, defendants initially denied that any unintended acceleration problem existed, despite a plethora of internal evidence to the contrary, and instead blamed driver error and media-induced publicity,” the investors said.

Toyota’s recalls related to sudden acceleration defects have erased $30 billion in market capitalization, the investors said. The Maryland pension fund seeks to represent investors who bought Toyota’s American depositary receipts from May 10, 2005, to Feb. 2, 2010.

The fund also wants to represent investors who bought the carmaker’s common stock in domestic transactions during that period as well as, through claims made under Japanese law, all investors who bought the common stock during that time, according to the complaint.

A stunning $456-million judgement has been handed down against Winnipeg-based insurance giant Great-West Lifeco in a class-action lawsuit.

An Ontario superior court judge ruled Friday that Great-West breached sections of the Insurance Companies Act by transferring money from subsidiary accounts to finance the 1997 takeover of London Insurance Group.

Nearly 2-million policy holders - mostly from Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba - joined thr class-action suit that has been winding through the courts over the past 12 years.

Great-West Lifeco has been ordered to pay $372 million to policyholders of London Life and $84 million to those of Great West Life.

Great-West Lifeco intends to launch an appeal, believing ``significant aspects'' of the decision are ``in error''.

Microsoft took legal action against Motorola on Friday, alleging Motorola's smartphones running Google's Android platform violate Microsoft patents. The suit represents the latest patent battle involving Android.

Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and Microsoft's deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing, said the patents relate to core functionalities of Motorola's Android phones, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power. Microsoft is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a permanent injunction on allegedly infringing Motorola products.

Motorola said it will "vigorously defend itself" against the charges.

"We are disappointed that Microsoft prefers to compete over old patents rather than new products," a Google spokesman told the Wall Street Journal. "While we are not a party to this lawsuit, we stand behind the Android platform and the partners who have helped us to develop it."

The suit is notable as Microsoft is preparing to introduce phones running its new Windows Phone 7 platform--which will compete against Android phones. Motorola, once a strong supporter of Microsoft's previous Windows Mobile platform, has thrown its support fully into the Android camp. According to research firm Gartner, Android had 17.2 percent of the smartphone market in the second quarter, and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS had 14.2 percent. Windows Mobile captured 5 percent of the market, down from 9.3 percent in the second quarter of 2009.

Five Maine residents have filed a complaint against GMAC Mortgage LLC on behalf of themselves and a class of Maine homeowners, alleging that the company systematically files false certifications that it has a right to foreclose, and false affidavits when asking courts to enter foreclosure judgments.

The suit comes after a court in Maine sanctioned GMAC for its flawed foreclosure process, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. Maine District Court Judge Keith Powers, in a Sept. 24 ruling, chided GMAC for its "high volume and careless approach" to affidavit signing, Reuters reports.

The Maine residents are represented by Andrea Bopp Stark from the Molleur Law Office in Biddeford, Maine; Thomas Cox, coordinator of Maine Attorneys Saving Homes in Portland; the National Consumer Law Center and the Center for Responsible Lending.

Nvidia has reached a settlement in the class action lawsuit that was brought against it by owners of laptops affected by Bumpgate.

The dodgy engineering in a number of the firm's mobile Geforce processors resulted in Nvidia forking out $200 million to replace chips all over the world. Now it has reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by owners of laptops that were brought down by Bumpgate chips. This chould mean more financial pain for the Green Goblin, given that Bumpgate affected just about all of the largest laptop manufacturers including Dell, HP and Apple.

Nvidia and the plaintiffs reached a settlement on 12 August, when the firm said, "Nvidia has denied, and continues to deny, all allegations of wrongdoing or liability whatsoever" and is only agreeing to the settlement "solely because it will eliminate burden, expense, management distraction and uncertainties of further litigation."

What it has agreed to do is pay $13 million for the plaintiffs' legal fees, deposit $2 million into a reimbursement fund in an interest bearing bank account, and undertake a programme of chip replacement remedy, or basically replace any faulty GPUs.

Hagens Berman announced today that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. in U.S. District Court in Vermont.

Investors who purchased Green Mountain common stock between July 28, 2010 and September 28, 2010, and who wish to move to be a lead plaintiff, must file a motion by November 29, 2010. You may contact our attorneys below to discuss this matter.

Green Mountain and certain of its Officers are charged with making a series of materially false and misleading statements related to the Company's business and operations in violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Complaint alleges that Green Mountain artificially inflated the Company's stock price during the Class Period by issuing inaccurate and unreliable financial statements, which were not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules.

The Complaint also alleges that Green Mountain completed a sale of 8,566,649 shares of its common stock to Luigi Lavazza on August 28, 2010, for an aggregate purchase price of $250 million, despite the fact that the Company knew its reported financial statements were untrue and that it lacked adequate internal operational and financial control systems.

Following the close of trading on September 28, 2010, shareholders learned that the SEC had launched an inquiry into Green Mountain's revenue recognition, that it had been notified by the SEC of this investigation as early as September 20, 2010, and that the Company was expected to take a restatement charge in the near term -- rendering the Company's prior reported financial statements and reports unreliable, false and materially misleading.