A $10-million class action lawsuit has been launched against Denny's restaurants in B.C., charging the family friendly diner chain wronged foreign workers by slashing hours, refusing to pay overtime and failing to pay for the workers' round-trip airfare.

The suit, filed Jan. 7, alleges Denny's restaurants in B.C. breached the contracts of more than 50 Filipino workers brought to Canada through the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, from December 2006 to the present. The program allows employers to hire foreigners to fill short-term labour shortages.

Lawyers Charles Gordon and Christopher Foy filed the lawsuit against Denny's parent companies, Northland Properties Corp. and Dencan Restaurants Inc. The lawyers say the suit is needed as foreign workers, eager to establish themselves in Canada and fearful of being sent home, are reticent to speak up when their rights are violated.

"They're put in a highly vulnerable position vis-a-vis their employers," Gordon said. "Many hope to become permanent residents but are afraid of making any waves that may jeopardize that."

The few that do typically face repercussions, Gordon said.

According to the lawsuit, a district manager threatened to send Maria Genalyn Reyes home to the Philippines if she chose to work at a competing restaurant chain once her contract ended.

Alfredo Sales was allegedly fired after demanding outstanding overtime pay and return airfare between the Philippines and Vancouver.

The employment contract signed by the workers states that it is the employer's obligation to pay for the transportation costs between the two countries.

Another worker hasn't been reimbursed for the cost of her airfare, did not consistently receive her promised hours of work and is owed overtime pay, the suit alleges.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Black has approved a previously disclosed $179 million settlement and entered a final judgment in a dispute between AK Steel and retirees at its Butler, Pa., steel plant.

The AK Steel retirees had filed a class-action lawsuit in June 2009 to stop the company from making changes to their health insurance benefits. It had started making retirees pay a portion of their premiums in January 2010.

West Chester-based AK Steel is the largest Dayton-area company, with more than $4 billion in revenue.

Under the terms of the settlement, AK Steel will continue to pay for the benefits through 2014 and also pay $91 million to two trusts to cover future benefits for hourly and salaries retirees.

In return, the company has been relieved of liability for any benefits after 2014, and the lawsuit was dismissed.

The major record labels have agreed to pay $45 million to settle claims they failed to pay songwriters and music publishers while including their works on compilation albums. Warner Music, EMI, Universal Music and Sony BMG were sued in 2008 in a class action by Canadian songwriters and music publishers.

Generally, labels had established a practice of including songs on compilations for which they had not yet secured proper rights, placing them on a "pending list" for later payment.

TorrentFreak noted that the pending list for unpaid tracks had reached 300,000 just in Canada.

In addition to the $45 million to be paid by the labels to artists, the proposed settlement "also establishes a new mechanism that will expedite future payments of mechanical royalties to music rights holders."

"This agreement with the four major labels resolves all outstanding pending list claims," said David Basskin, president and CEO the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA).

Len Gratto says there's no way he is paying a $5,200 fine to Mission, B.C., for growing cucumbers in his basement.

Gratto -- who has lived in the home for 30 years -- says he's raring to join an imminent class-action lawsuit attacking the municipality's grow-op bylaw inspections. A number of citizens, led by Stacy Gowanlock, allege their homes were illegally searched for marijuana grow ops resulting in them being slapped with fees and repair orders costing upward of $10,000 -- all on questionable evidence.

Gratto, 67, says he's never grown pot, but "laughable" evidence against him consists of pictures of some "dirt" on the basement wall and "a furnace pipe going up into the chimney, where it should be.

"It's upsetting they can do this," Gratto said. "We were growing cucumbers in the basement because they wouldn't take outside."

Gowanlock said he was searched in 2009 and hit with thousands in fees and repair orders despite never growing pot in his home.

A statewide class action in which Massachusetts homeowners accuse U.S. Bancorp and Ally Financial Inc. of faulty foreclosures will resume now that the state’s high court ruled in a similar case last week.

The litigation was on hold while the Supreme Judicial Court decided whether state law required foreclosures to be conducted by the mortgage owner. The high court ruled Jan. 7 in U.S. Bank v. Ibanez that an industry practice allowing post-foreclosure assignments violated state law.

“This is a statewide class action and it’s going to bring relief to all of the people who are dispossessed homeowners in many instances,” Kevin Costello, a lawyer for the borrowers, said in a telephone interview today. Costello today filed a motion to restart evidence gathering in the case.

Claims of wrongdoing by banks and loan servicers triggered a 50-state investigation last year into whether hundreds of thousands of foreclosures were properly documented as the housing market collapsed.

Unwinding of foreclosures may lead to loan workouts with homeowners or force originators to buy back loans that ended up in mortgage-backed securities.

A new foundation, Investor Claims against Fortis, has started legal proceedings in the Netherlands against the former bancassurer Fortis for "misleading investors", which it claims led to combined losses of €2bn.

The organisation argues that Fortis persisted in persuading investors to invest between May 2007 and October 2008 when the company was already on the ropes.

One of the foundation's claims is that Fortis failed to supply timely, accurate information about its exposure to sub-prime mortgages in the US.

The legal case – brought for the Utrecht court in the Netherlands – comes after the US high court decided that a class action by "foreign investors who have bought a stake in foreign companies on foreign stock markets" was inadmissible in a US court.

Within the EU, the legal climate in the Netherlands is ideal for shareholders wishing to reclaim damages from listed companies, according to Jay Eisenhofer, partner at law firm Grant & Eisenhofer.

Stuart Berman of law firm Barroway Topaz added: "This case offers a valuable framework for compensating duped investors outside the US."

Both law firms, as well as Alexander Reus, the foundation's director, have represented international shareholders against Shell for providing incorrect information about its oil reserves.

After Fortis became one of the three players that took over Dutch bank ABN Amro, it had to be rescued by the national governments of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Ultimately, the company was split up, with a large part of its assets being sold to third parties. The remainder of Fortis is now operating as Ageas.

Earlier, Fortis shareholders tried in vain to block the break-up of Fortis and hold its executive board accountable for the incurred losses.

The Amsterdam business court has not yet finalised a survey – conducted at the request of shareholders – into alleged mismanagement at Fortis.

The foundation said it had the support of more than 140 institutional investors, as well as 2,000 private investors worldwide.

A landmark David-versus-Goliath legal battle is unfolding in the town of Shannon, Que.

In 2007, residents of the small community northeast of Quebec City won the right to seek damages in a class-action lawsuit against the federal government over the town’s contaminated water supply.

Now, a trial is underway with the potential for billions worth of damages on the line for 2,300 current and past Shannon residents.

The lawsuit alleges munitions manufacturer Industries Valcartier Inc. and the Department of National Defence were negligent in handling and disposing of trichloroethylene, or TCE, a known carcinogenic substance used at nearby Canadian Forces base Valcartier.

For 40 years, personnel at CFB Valcartier used TCE as a cleaning agent for cannons and other military hardware at the base.

In 2000, TCE was discovered in Shannon’s water wells. For years, residents unknowingly drank and bathed in water laced with the deadly toxic substance.

Around the same time, residents started to take note of an increasingly high rate of cancer diagnoses. 500 cancer cases were documented in Shannon, 200 of which proved fatal, an alarmingly high rate of disease for a town with a population barely 4,000-strong.

While legal counsel for the government dismissed residents’ claims for a lack of scientific evidence, Charles Veilleux, the lawyer representing the people of Shannon, will attempt to prove how exposure to TCE is directly linked to the high rate of cancer and illness in Shannon.