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Mars Chocolate Heir Loses Natural Gas Drilling Fight
Court Watch |
2008/01/11 09:52
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An attempt by the reclusive billionaire heir to the Mars chocolate bar fortune to ban drilling for natural gas on his Montana ranch was defeated in a court hearing late on Tuesday.
A judge ruled that Forrest Mars Jr, the former chief executive of the confectionary giant and the son of Forrest Mars Sr, the man credited with inventing M&Ms and the Mars bar, could not prevent Pinnacle Gas Resources from drilling on a 10,000-acre lease it holds for the land beneath Mars's Diamond Cross cattle ranch in south-eastern Montana.
On Monday, Mars employees at the ranch prevented Pinnacle from entering the property when it tried to force its way on to the ranch. Montana law gives companies the right to drill on private land provided they hold a valid lease. The lease expires tomorrow if the company does not commence exploration. Pinnacle said it expected to begin drilling before the end of the week.
"Who the surface owner is should not make any difference, and it didn't today," a Pinnacle attorney, Bryan Wilson, said after the ruling.
In the Diamond Cross case, Pinnacle Gas Resources and another company, Fidelity, have gas and oil leases on the ranch that predate Mars' ownership, according to public records and company officials.
Mars, who is worth an estimated $14bn, owns 82,000 acres along the Tongue river near Montana's border with Wyoming. He is opposed to the drilling because large amounts of underground water are pumped out to access the natural gas. Many farmers view that water as a precious reserve, given the extended drought in the western US.
Mars began buying land in south-eastern Montana in 2003, at the same time that natural gas exploration in the area was booming. He also has residences in Wyoming and Virginia. Since then he has joined several court actions challenging the natural gas industry.
An attorney for Mars, Loren O'Toole, said the objective was not to prevent exploration but to ensure that the water could be returned. "The point is, we can't lose all that water and at the same time have no provision to put it back," O'Toole said.
"Forrest has a lot of money, but he's in the same boat as anybody else," Beth Kaeding, chairwoman of the Northern Plains Resource Council, told the Associated Press news agency.
"If you don't own the mineral rights, it doesn't matter how huge your ranch is, how politically powerful you are, how much money you have. Mineral rights trump surface rights."
Forrest Mars Jr, who was not in court for the hearing, is in his 70s and is one of three children of Forrest Mars Sr, the son of the founder of the company.
Mars is one of the largest family-owned companies in the US, making confectionery, pet food and other products, from Snickers to Whiskas cat food, with $21bn in annual worldwide revenues and an estimated 40,000 employees. The three Mars siblings all featured in last year's top 20 list of the richest Americans, compiled by Forbes magazine.
Pinnacle sued Mars in December after the gas company's employees were told that they would be treated as trespassers if they attempted to enter the ranch.
In separate cases, Mars is suing Pinnacle over plans to develop coal-bed methane on land near his ranch, and is also seeking to block a new railway line in south-eastern Montana that will facilitate the exploitation of the area's coal reserves. |
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Domino's Pizza Founder Supports Romney
Politics |
2008/01/11 09:32
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Get the door, it's Tom Monaghan. And he's delivering family values to Mitt Romney in 30 minutes or less.
The former Domino's Pizza owner and noted anti-abortion activist today cast his lot with the struggling Romney campaign, which, using its own internal nomenclature, has yet to win a gold medal in a state larger than Wyoming.
Romney is coming of back-to-back second-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, places where he once appeared a lock to win. The good news is that he lost those states to two different candidates, Mike Huckabee and John McCain, meaning the GOP race is still relatively wide open.
Monaghan is the wealthy Michigan businessman who, among other things, launched Ava Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, which was intended to be a conservative counterweight to liberal-leaning law schools. He also runs an anti-abortion political action committee. He is building his own town in southeastern Florida to house his academic and philanthropic ventures.
Many prominent Catholic lawyers, including Mary Ann Glendon, recently nominated by the White House to serve as U.S ambassador to the Vatican, have joined up with the Romney effort because of the candidate's anti-abortion stance.
The Michigan Republican primary is Jan. 15.
"As someone who values the importance of faith in one's life, I recognize in Mitt his deep religious convictions which will serve him well in facing the critical moral issues facing our society," Monaghan said in a statement. " I believe he will stand firm on the pro-life issues and for the traditional family values that our country was founded on and which are so critical to the future of our nation."
Romney and Monaghan met each other in 1998, when Monaghan sold Domino's to Romney's Bain Capital for $1 billion. |
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US Lawmakers Request Probe into Wealth Funds
Breaking Legal News |
2008/01/11 09:23
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U.S. Senate lawmakers have ordered federal investigators to examine foreign state-run investment funds and whether the much-needed capital infusions being provided to major U.S. banks raises any economic or security concerns.
The Government Accountability Office this week began an investigation into sovereign wealth funds, including the size and types of investments funds are making in U.S. markets, a spokeswoman said.
The probe, which was requested by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, will also examine what oversight - both international and in the U.S. - is conducted on the funds and whether the funds pose a risk to U.S. economic stability.
The state-run funds, primarily those located in Asia and Middle East, have made headlines in recent months by acquiring stakes in major banks such as Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER), Citigroup Inc. (C), and UBS AG (UBS), a major Swiss bank with extensive U.S. operations.
Both Merrill and Citi, which have already received billions in cash infusions from the funds, are currently in talks to receive even more capital from outside investors.
That has raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have aggressively scrutinized foreign investments in U.S. companies in recent years. The most notable case involved Dubai-controlled DP World. In 2006, federal approval for the firm to manage six U.S. ports sparked a firestorm of controversy and led lawmakers to pass a law overhauling the review process for foreign investments in the U.S.
The role of sovereign wealth funds has yet to reach the same level of scrutiny as the ports deal, but the GAO investigation could signal lawmakers will focus more attention on the issue when they return to Washington this month.
In addition to the Senate Banking panel, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., is also expected to have his committee conduct oversight hearings on the funds this year.
U.S. lawmakers are not alone. A number of European governments have said they are drafting proposals limiting or blocking foreign state-run investments. |
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Bank of America Buys Countrywide for $4 Billion
Mergers & Acquisitions |
2008/01/11 09:20
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Bank of America, the largest U.S. retail bank, said Friday that it will buy stumbling mortgage giant Countrywide Financial (CFC) in a $4 billion stock deal that catapults Bank of America from the No. 5 mortgage lender to No. 1.
Rumors of an acquisition have been growing since August, when Bank of America invested $2 billion for a 16% stake in Countrywide, which was reeling from losses on subprime loans and the evaporation of interest among investors for mortgage-backed bonds.
Angelo Mozilo, 69, founder and CEO of Countrywide - now a symbol of the excesses in the mortgage market that fueled the real estate bubble - is expected to step down when the deal closes this fall.
"I want him to stay until the deal gets done," said Ken Lewis, chairman and CEO of Bank of America. "Then I would guess he would want to go have some fun. I will talk to him next week about his personal desires."
Mozilo, who is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his sales of Countrywide stock, was not immediately available for comment. In a statement he said, "We believe this is the right decision for our shareholders, customers and employees."
Countrywide, based in Calabasas, Calif., laid off 20% of its employees last year as the real estate market sank into the worst downturn since World War II.
The company, however, is still the largest mortgage servicing company, with a portfolio of 9 million loans worth $1.5 trillion. Countrywide also has a sales force of 15,000 people, 1,000 field offices and some of the best technology in the industry.
Customers of both companies will see few changes before 2009, when they begin to combine operations. Lewis said Bank of America, based in Charlotte, may start offering credit cards and other products to Countrywide customers, and may put Countrywide loan officers in Bank of America branches.
Under terms of the deal, Countrywide shareholders will exchange each of their shares for 0.1822 shares of Bank of America, worth about $7.20 based on Thursday's closing price and about 7.5% below Countrywide's closing price.
But it's still "a gift" for Countrywide shareholders, says Richard Bove, a senior bank analyst at Punk Ziegel. "They will own stock in one of the nation's best banks."
The buyout comes less than five months after Bank of America invested $2 billion in Countrywide and just weeks after Lewis vowed that making a deal in the mortgage industry would require him "to eat about seven years of my words."
It also puts Lewis, an aggressive dealmaker, in the position of a market savior. By buying Countrywide, he's keeping the industry and regulators from the messy task of figuring out who would take responsibility for collecting payments from the millions of U.S. home loans serviced by the lender.
"There's still plenty of risk involved," says Bart Narter, senior analyst at Celent, a financial research and consulting firm. "He's brave to do it. But I think that it's very likely down the road to be profitable, maybe not immediately, but long-term."
The deal is expected to be neutral to Bank of America earnings per share in 2008 and lift earnings in 2009, excluding buyout and restructuring costs.
Bank of America expects $670 million in after-tax cost savings in the transaction, or 11% of the expense base of the two companies' mortgage operations.
Countrywide shares hit record lows in recent days on persistent rumors that a bankruptcy was imminent, a condition brought on by the widespread spike in mortgage defaults and foreclosures, especially in subprime loans - those made to borrowers with weak credit.
Countrywide shares plunged more than 14%, or $1.08, to $6.66 in morning trading after soaring $2.63, or 51.4%, to close at $7.75 Thursday on reports of a possible deal. Bank of America shares fell 1.2%, or 45 cents, to $38.85.
Lewis' bank has $1.5 trillion in assets and is the nation's largest bank by market capitalization.
"Their balance sheet can take a shock much better than Countrywide," said CreditSights senior analyst David Hendler. "When you take the shocks at Countrywide, they have a big, busting consequence that's negative."
While Lewis downplayed the prospect of a major deal last month, it fits with a pattern of building Bank of America through acquisition. In the past few years, Lewis has expanded the bank's retail operation with multibillion purchases of FleetBoston Financial, bolted on a credit card business by adding MBNA and grabbed a wealth-management business in U.S. Trust Co.
The result of all the dealmaking is a widely diversified financial services company that does business with nearly one out of every two U.S. households.
In the past year, Bank of America has boosted its market share of prime mortgages, those offered to borrowers with a solid credit history, and was the top retail mortgage originator in the U.S. the first nine months of 2007.
"We are aware of the issues within the housing and mortgage industries," Lewis said. "The transaction reflects those challenges. Mortgages will continue to be an important relationship product, and we now will have an opportunity to better serve our customers and to enhance future profitability."
In Countrywide, Lewis gets the "best, total mortgage-banking company in the U.S. by far," Hendler said. Countrywide's sophisticated back office is a valuable asset that makes Bank of America a much bigger competitor with Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual and others, he said. In 2007, Countrywide had $408 billion in mortgage originations and has a servicing portfolio of about $1.5 trillion with 9 million loans.
"The technology platform, the people who run it, the hedging, the facilities, the mortgage servicing rights, the origination platform, you know, they are all state of the art," Hendler said.
While there are some regulator hurdles to close the deal, they are hardly insurmountable. The buyout would require approval from the Federal Reserve, and possibly other agencies, but analysts believe regulators are more concerned about a Countrywide collapse than industry consolidation.
A Countrywide failure would be a huge blow to government-sponsored mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been major buyers of Countrywide's loans.
Federal law also bars banks from acquisitions that would increase market share above 10% of U.S. deposits, a limit Bank of America is nearing. Experts disagree about whether deposits held by Countrywide's federally regulated savings bank would count toward that limit, and Hendler said Bank of America could also get a waiver from regulators.
Banking industry experts also say Bank of America could easily lower the total amount of money held in deposits by lowering interest rates and shedding deposits. |
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AZ Law Firm Hired to Handle UT Ski Bus Case
Law Firm News |
2008/01/11 09:16
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A Scottsdale law firm announced Thursday that it is representing two families who suffered injuries and one death Jan. 6 after a ski bus rolled 41 feet down an embankment in southern Utah.
Nine died and 23 were injured in the accident near Mexican Hat, Utah.
The Rasmussen and Torres families have hired Scott A. Maasenand Jeffry R.Gill of M.G. Law Group, a personal injury firm specializing in trucking and bus cases.
Marc Rasmussen, an 18-year-old Deer Valley High School senior, died in the wreckage. His mother, Kim, and four other family members, including a 5-year-old boy, were injured.
Some family members have been released, but Kim remains hospitalized in the San Juan Regional Hospital in Farmington, N.M.
The firm also represents the family of Daniel Torres, 18, Willow Canyon High School student in Surprise.
Maasen said friends of the victims contacted his firm this week. He began interviewing them Tuesday.
He said it is too early to say whether the families will file a lawsuit against Arrow Stage Lines, the Nebraska-based motor coach company contracted to take 17 busloads of skiers to and from Telluride, Colo., for a three-day ski trip Jan.3-6.
"That is the last thing on the victim's minds," Maasen said of a lawsuit. "What is on their minds is getting better and healing."
The National Transportation Safety Board and Utah Highway Patrol are conducting an investigation into the cause of the Jan. 6 accident on State Route 163, near Mexican Hat in southern Utah.
The investigation includes analysis of a "data collector" on board the bus that logs speed at the time of the accident, its exact position on the high desert highway, and records video of the driver.
A Utah Highway patrolman who investigated the accident said the driver, Walland Lotan, 71, was driving at the 65 mph speed limit when he rounded a tight curve, plunging the 52 passengers into the embankment. But Sgt. Rick Eldredge said the driver should have slowed by several miles an hour as he approached the curve.
Maasen said his firm is doing its own probe of the deadly wreck.
"There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle," he said. "We want to know why this happened." |
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Appeals court allows SF to enforce health care law
Health Care |
2008/01/10 09:54
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| A city program that provides health care to the uninsured and is partly funded by businesses can continue at least until a lawsuit challenging the program is resolved, a federal appeals court ruled. A lower court in December struck down key provisions of the program, dubbed Healthy San Francisco, which requires companies with at least 20 workers to provide health coverage or pay the city a fee to help offset the program's estimated $200 million price tag. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a powerful lobby, sued the city, arguing that the mandatory contributions the city sought placed a costly burden on members already struggling to make a profit. But a three-judge panel for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday it appeared the program would ultimately prevail. "There may be better ways to provide health care than to require private employers to foot the bill," Judge William Fletcher wrote in a unanimous ruling. But he wrote that it wasn't up to the court to "evaluate the wisdom" of the plan, only its legality. Fletcher wrote that the city and the labor unions that joined San Francisco in defending the lawsuit "have a probability, even a strong likelihood of success." City officials hope the program, the first of its kind in the nation, will eventually cover about 80,000 people. Mayor Gavin Newsom said that nearly 8,000 people have already signed up and that the city hopes to enlist about 40,000 more people by the end of the year. The "ruling is an important victory for uninsured San Franciscans," Newsom said Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White in December knocked out the business fee when he agreed with the restaurant owners and ruled that the program violated federal law. A telephone message left Wednesday for an attorney representing the restaurant owners was not immediately returned. |
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Not Guilty Plea in Nev. Sex Tape Case
Court Watch |
2008/01/10 08:55
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| A man accused of raping a little girl after a videotape of the child being assaulted was found in the Nevada desert pleaded not guilty Wednesday, and a judge set a trial date for April. Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, stood next to his appointed lawyers and stared at the floor, saying little during his four-minute arraignment in Clark County District Court. Stiles is accused of sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl in September 2003, and a 6-year-old girl that December. Authorities say the videotape is of the first attack. Stiles faces 22 felony charges including lewdness with a child under 14, sexual assault with a child under 14 and attempted sexual assault with a child under 14. If convicted, he could face multiple life terms in prison. The judge set trial for April 14. Stiles was returned to jail, where he has been held since his Oct. 15 arrest in what authorities have called protective isolation. Stiles' lawyer Jeff Banks said he intends to seek bail. Stiles became the object of a nationwide manhunt after a Nye County man turned the videotape over to sheriff's investigators in Pahrump, a town some 60 miles west of Las Vegas. Authorities released images from the tape and pleaded for public help to find the girl and her alleged attacker. The girl was found safe with her mother in Las Vegas on Sept. 28. Stiles was arrested after police in the suburb of Henderson stopped him driving a car with no license plates. The man who turned the tape over, 27-year-old Darrin Tuck, remained jailed Wednesday in Pahrump on a probation violation. Tuck said he found the tape in the desert, and his lawyer has said Tuck had no involvement with Stiles. Tuck has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of possession of child pornography, which carries a possible penalty of one to six years in state prison. No trial date has been set. |
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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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