Pearson also called himself as a witness, saying his problems began in May 2005 when he brought in several suits for alterations. A pair of pants from a blue and maroon suit was missing when he requested it two days later. He said Soo Chung tried to give him a pair of charcoal gray pants.

As Pearson explained that those weren't the pants for the suit, he choked up and left the courtroom crying after asking Bartnoff for a break.

Pearson originally asked the cleaners for the full price of the suit, which was more than $1,000. But because the Chungs insisted the pants had been found, they refused to pay.

Manning has said the cleaners made three settlement offers to Pearson, but the judge was not satisfied and increased his demands — including asking for money to rent a car so he could drive to another business.

Since December 2005, juries in Pennsylvania and California have awarded Wal-Mart workers $251 million in pay and damages after deciding the retailer didn't properly compensate them for overtime and breaks. Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. employer with 1.9 million workers, faces more than 70 other U.S. wage-and-hour suits, including class actions.
Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., is "exploring options for appeal," in the New Mexico and Missouri cases, spokesman John Simley said. "These decisions were not on the merits of the case, but only on whether they should proceed as class actions."

"Even more courts across the country have found that cases like these are not suited for class treatment," Simley said. "An example of that came in New York today, where the court found in favor of Wal-Mart on every aspect of class certification analysis."

Individual circumstances are too varied and the group of people too broad to weigh the New York case as a group, Platkin wrote, noting that "not each and every individual who was ever an hourly employee of defendant during the relevant time period worked without pay, nor was every hourly employee deprived of premium pay for overtime hours."
Including a larger group would "result in miniscule individual awards of damages to class members," Platkin wrote.

In Missouri, Wal-Mart lost a bid to reverse class certification of a similar lawsuit when an a state appeals court upheld a lower court decision granting hourly workers in that state the right to sue as a group.

The Missouri decision expanded the lawsuit by changing the case from an opt-in action, which requires workers to ask to join the suit, to an opt-out suit, which makes hourly workers part of the litigation automatically unless they ask to be let out.

The decision means that Wal-Mart will be facing a group suit by more than 200,000 current and former hourly workers in Missouri, rather than a lawsuit by several hundred or several thousand. Typically, a small number of potential plaintiffs would opt into a suit.

"This gives these people their day in court," said attorney Steve Long, who represents the Missouri workers. He said he would be seeking a trial in 2008.
The Court of Appeals of New Mexico on Tuesday upheld a 2005 lower court's decision granting class action status to Wal-Mart hourly workers in that state who claim they worked off the clock without compensation and missed rest breaks. The New Mexico class would include about 40,000 current and former Wal-Mart hourly employees, said attorney Jerry Bader, who represents the workers.

In New York, while the workers could bring individual claims against Wal-Mart, the cost of pursuing these suits would be too high, said Jonathan Selbin, an attorney for the workers there.
"These are not claims these people could realistically bring without a class action," he said. "Obviously we're disappointed. We plan to appeal. We think the judge got it wrong."
The lawsuit claimed that Wal-Mart required its hourly employees to work off the clock and through breaks and would have covered unpaid workers as far back as August 1995, he said.

In its fight for LaSalle Bank, Bank of America [ticker: BAC] said in an appeal filing that it was “shocking” that the Dutch court would disregard fundamental European Union law.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank has accused a Dutch court of unlawful action by blocking its $21 billion purchase of Dutch banking giant ABN Amro’s U.S. unit.

In support of calls from investors, last month a Dutch commercial court froze the deal between Bank of America and LaSalle Bank in order to allow for a shareholder vote.

The Dutch Supreme Court is hearing appeals by both ABN and Bank of America over the frozen deal and will rule later this month or in early July on whether the sale can take place.

From the beginning, Scott, his family and attorneys have all insisted he is innocent. They say he had nothing to do with the murders. The court of appeals threw out his conviction, saying his right to a fair trial was violated.

In 2002, prosecutors used a videotaped statement from Scott's former friend, Robert Springsteen, to help convict him of murder. At the time Scott did not have an opportunity to challenge it in court.It was a decision the Court of Criminal Appeals now says violated Scott's constitutional rights to a fair trial.

"Because the statement was introduced without Springsteen being there, Scott never had a chance to cross examine the statement,” appellate defense attorney Ariel Payan said. “It was just introduced and there was nothing that could be done about it."

Scott's wife Jeannine has spent five years trying to set him free. "I'm thrilled that they really did look at this and decide there's something wrong with this case," Jeannine said. She says it's time police investigators focus their attention on someone else. "I would like them to find the actual perpetrators and stop wasting the county's and the city's money in this particular endeavor," she said.

State prosecutors admit this latest decision is a setback. They say they don't agree with the Appeals Court ruling.

"If in fact it stays as it is now, Michael Scott would be tried again, " assistant district attorney Bryan Case said.

But until the decision is declared final, Case says they will continue weighing all of their legal options. They could appeal the reversal to the U.S. Supreme Court, or take the case back to trial all over again.

Scott also insists his confession to police was coerced. He say he only agreed to it after several days of almost non-stop interrogation.

Tai Mak's wife, Fuk Heung Li; and son, Billy Yui Mak, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the violation of the export-control laws.

Chi Mak was convicted May 10 of acting as an unregistered agent for China, giving false statements to the FBI, conspiracy to violate export-control laws and attempting to violate export-control laws. He was accused of attempting to pass information on U.S. naval technology to China, the newspaper report said. Prosecutors said he put the information on two encrypted disks and gave them to his brother to transport to China.

Chi Mak's wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday, the Times said.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found "no evidence to indicate that any of the last six inmates executed suffered any unnecessary pain," according to its ruling.

The court's decision reversed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. ordering reforms to Missouri's lethal injection procedures. He wanted the state to involve a doctor specializing in anesthesia, but the state has been unable to find a doctor willing to participate.

Missouri is among nine states that have put executions on hold as it grapples with whether lethal injection is inhumane.

Attorney General Jay Nixon said the decision "reopens the necessary legal avenue for the state of Missouri to move forward on this issue."

Margaret Phillips of the Eastern Missouri Coalition Against the Death Penalty said many questions remain unanswered and it would be unwise for the state to renew executions.

"The uncertainty of all of this is a good indication that Missouri needs a moratorium on the death penalty," she said.

A message seeking comment was left with the governor's office.

Taylor, convicted of killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City in 1989, was hours away from being put to death in February 2006 when the execution was halted. His attorney, Ginger Anders, said she would appeal Monday's ruling but declined further comment.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the trial judge and said the 9th Circuit erred by intervening.

"It is not for us to second-guess the determination" of the trial judge over whether a potential juror is willing to follow the law, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said.

He said the prosecutor and the judge had ample reason for excusing the man, referred to as Juror Z, because he had said the death penalty was appropriate only if the killer might be released and kill again.

In Washington, as in California, that was not a possibility in a case such as this one. The defendant, if convicted of aggravated murder, would be sentenced either to life in prison without parole or to death. The prosecutor asked to have Juror Z excluded, saying his comments suggested he would reject the death penalty for Brown. The defense lawyer replied, "We have no objection."

Nonetheless, the move -- seemingly minor at the time -- led to the reversal of Brown's death sentence more than 12 years later by the San Francisco-based appeals court.

The Supreme Court was sharply split along conservative-liberal lines in its decision.

Justice John Paul Stevens delivered a strong dissent in the courtroom. By allowing prosecutors to exclude jurors who have qualms about the capital punishment, the court will encourage the formation of juries "unfairly biased in favor of the death penalty," Stevens said. "Millions of Americans oppose the death penalty," and juries are supposed to represent a cross section of the community, he argued.

He said jurors who pledged to follow the law in death penalty cases should be seated, even if they expressed doubts about the use of such punishment.

Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer joined his dissent in the case of Uttecht vs. Brown.