lawsuits Archive

Must See: Stephen Colbert Explains Vitamin Water Lawsuit!

January 18th, 2013. By AbiK

 

Remember the Coca-Cola Vitamin Water class action lawsuit? Well, it’s still out there—and there was even a copycat class action filed in Canada. But no one can quite shed light on the allegations involved in the Vitamin Water lawsuits quite the way Stephen Colbert can—so if you missed his show on Monday (1/14/13), check out the video above.

For an additional laugh, here’s what’s on Coke’s website—on their “Coca-Cola Journey” section—in response to the initial class action filing. Hard to believe this was written by someone old enough to have working papers. Read on—and no, it’s not a joke—this is really published on the Coke website:

The glacéau vitaminwater lawsuit is a ridiculous and ludicrous lawsuit. glacéau vitaminwater is a great tasting, hydrating beverage with essential vitamins and water, with labels showing calorie content.

Filing a lawsuit is an opportunistic PR stunt. This is not about protecting the public interest. This is about grandstanding at a time when CSPI is receiving very little attention. There is no surprise that one week before the inauguration of the U.S. President, with the flurry of activity in Washington, D.C., that CSPI has chosen today to try to bring attention to themselves.

We don’t need a “healthful” alternative to sodas. All our beverages, including sparkling and diets, can be part of healthful diet. Furthermore, consumers today are aware and are looking for more from their beverages than just hydration. Products like glacéau vitaminwater provide a great tasting choice for hydration that also helps contribute to daily needs for some essential nutrients.

Consumers can readily see the nutrition facts panels on every bottle of glacéau vitaminwater, which show what’s in our product and what’s not. The success of glacéau vitaminwater is due in large part to consumers looking for a product like this to help support their healthy, active and on-the-go lifestyle.

Put simply, glacéau vitaminwater is a great complement to our often less-than-perfect diet with each of the different glacéau vitaminwater varieties providing a convenient, great-tasting way to get more of some of the vitamins and hydration we all need each day.

No joke folks.

 

Tags: Class Action Lawsuit, Coca-Cola, Coke, Consumer Fraud, false advertising, Glaceau, Stephen Colbert, Vitamin Water, VitaminWater
Posted in Class Action, Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues, lawsuits | 2 Comments »

Asbestos News Roundup: 1.17.13 – Electrician Asbestos Risk

January 17th, 2013. By LucyC

This week’s asbestos news roundup includes all the recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. An ongoing list of reported asbestos hot spots in the US from the Asbestos News Roundup archive appears on our asbestos map.

Electricians, Boiler and Furnace Technicians Asbestos Disease Risk

Electricians and electrical cable installers may not know it, but they are at risk for being exposed to asbestos through repair, demolition or installation work. This lethal, fibrous material was used in felted asbestos insulation or asbestos tape to insulate wiring. So working on old power lines, old wiring or breaker boxes would put electricians at risk for asbestos exposure. Older arc chutes also contain asbestos. It was used in circuit breakers, for example, before the mid-1980′s, when they were made of asbestos-containing plastic molding compound.

Boiler technicians, sadly, are also at risk from materials in the workplace. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), insulation blankets (the outside covering or shell), door gaskets, duct insulation, and tape at duct connections of furnaces and boilers can all contain asbestos. Technicians who worked on repairing boilers and furnaces in the past would have been at risk for asbestos exposure.

Asbestos was used between 1930 and 1972 as high-temperature insulation for oil, coal, or wood furnaces, generally found in older homes. Steam and hot water pipes were insulated with asbestos-containing material, particularly at elbows, tees, and valves. Pipes may also be wrapped in an asbestos “blanket”, or asbestos paper (which looks very much like corrugated cardboard). Asbestos-containing insulation has also been used on and inside round and rectangular furnace ducts. Sometimes the duct itself may be made of asbestos-containing materials.

Asbestos Lawsuit

Charleston, WV: 124 companies have been named as defendants in an asbestos lawsuit filed by Clarence Robert Nelson and his wife Isabell S. Nelson. The Kentucky-based couple alleges the companies are responsible for Mr. Nelson’s lung injuries: Clarence Nelson has been diagnosed with asbestosis and mesothelioma, according to the lawsuit.

The defendants are also charged with failing to warn the Nelsons of the dangers of asbestos products and failing to exercise reasonable care to warn Clarence Nelson of the dangers of being exposed to asbestos-containing products. Furthermore, the lawsuit claims the defendants failed to test the asbestos-containing products in order to ascertain the dangers involved and failed to test the other ingredients of their products to ascertain the dangers involved.

As a result of the defendants’ negligence, Clarence Nelson has suffered damages from medical treatment, drugs and other unknown medical measures; great pain of body and mind; embarrassment and inconvenience; loss of earning capacity; loss of enjoyment of life; and shortening of his life expectancy, the asbestos lawsuit states.

The 124 defendants named in the suit are Air & Liquid Systems Corporation; Ajax Magnethermic Corporation; Allied Glove Corporation; American Biltrite, Inc.; Ametek, Inc.; Armstrong International, Inc.; Armstrong Pumps, Inc.; Aurora Pump Company; Baltimore Aircoil Company; Borg-Warner Corporation; Brand Insulations, Inc.; Cameron International Corporation; Carver Pump Company; Cashco, Inc.; Catalytic Construction Company; CBS Corporation; Certainteed Corporation; Chevron U.S.A., Inc.; Cleaver-Brooks, Inc.; Columbia Paint Corp.; Columbus McKinnon Corporation; Cooper Industries, Inc.; Copes-Vulcan, Inc.; Crane Company, Inc.; Crown Cork & Seal USA, Inc.; CSR, Inc.; Dana Corporation; Dezurik, Inc.; Dravo Corporation; Eaton Corporation; Eichleay Corporation; F.B. Wright Company of Pittsburgh; the Fairbanks Company; Fairmont Supply Company; Flowserve U.S., Inc. and its Byron Jackson Pump Division; Flowserve U.S., Inc., f/k/a Flowserve FSD Corporation; Flowserve U.S., Inc., f/k/a Flowserve FSD Corporation, as successor to Durco International and the Duriron Company; Flowserve U.S., Inc., f/k/a Flowserve FSD Corporation, as successor to Valtek International; Fluor Constructors International a/k/a Fluor Corporation; Fluor Constructors International, Inc.; Fluor Corporation; Fluor Enterprises, Inc.; FMC Corporation; Foster Wheeler, LLC; the Gage Company; Gardner Denver, Inc.; General Electric Company; General Refractories Company; Gentex Corporation; Georgia-Pacific Corporation; the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company; Goulds Pumps, Inc.; Greene Tweed & Co.; Grinnell, LLC; Hinchliffe & Keener, Inc.; Honeywell International, Inc.; Howden North America, Inc.; IU North America, Inc.; IMO Industries, Inc.; Inductotherm Corp.; Industrial Holdings Corporation; Industrial Rubber Products; Ingersoll-Rand Company; ITT Corporation; J.H. France Refractories Company; J-M Manufacturing Company, Inc.; Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.; Joy Technologies, Inc.; Joy Technologies, Inc. a/k/a and as successor-in-interest to Joy Mining Machinery; Lennox Industries, Inc.; Lindberg; Louden Crane Corporation; M.S. Jacobs & Associates, Inc.; Magnetek, Inc.; McJunkin Redman Corporation; Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; Minnotte Contracting Corporation; Morgan Engineering Systems, Inc.; Mueller Steam Specialty; Nagle Pumps, Inc.; Nitro Industrial Coverings, Inc.; Owens-Illinois, Inc.; P&H Mining Equipment, Inc.; Pecora Corporation; Pneumo Abex Corporation; Power Piping Company; Premier Refractories, Inc.; Reading Crane; Riley Power, Inc.; Robinson Fans, Inc.; Rockwell Automation, Inc.; Rust Engineering & Construction, Inc.; Rust International Corp.; Safety First Industries, Inc.; the Sager Corporation; Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Inc.; Schneider Electric USA, Inc.; Seco/Warwick Corporation; Spirax Sarco, Inc.; SPX Cooling Technologies, Inc.; State Electric Supply Company; Sterling Fluid Systems (USA), LLC; Sullair Corporation; Sunbeam Products, Inc.; Sundyne Corporation; Surface Combustion; SVI Corporation; Swindell-Dressler International Company; Tasco Insulation, Inc.; Textron, Inc.; Trane U.S., Inc.; UB West Virginia, Inc.; Union Carbide Corporation; Velan Valve Corporation; Viking Pump, Inc.; Vimasco Corporation; Warren Pumps, Inc.; Washington Group International; Weil McLain Company; Welco Manufacturing Company; West Virginia Electric Supply Company; the William Powell Company; Yarway Corporation; and Zurn Industries, LLC. (wvrecord.com)

Asbestos Law

Kankakee, IL: Mike Pinski, a developer from Kankakee, has been sentenced to serve six months in federal prison for his participation in illegal and unsafe removal of asbestos materials from a downtown Kankakee property in August 2009.

Pinski owned a five-story property at 197 S. West Ave. from which he arranged to have asbestos-containing material removed and dumped in a remote area of Pembroke Township—a violation of the Clean Air Act—by two men, Duane “Butch” O’Malley, and James A. Mikrut. Both O’Malley and Mikrut were previously sentenced for their roles in the offense. (dailyjournal.com)

 

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Exposure, asbestos law, asbestos lawsuit, Asbestos Mesothelioma
Posted in Asbestos Mesothelioma, Emerging Issues, lawsuits | No Comments »

Asbestos News Roundup: 1.10.13 – Second Hand Asbestos

January 10th, 2013. By LucyC

This week’s asbestos news roundup includes all the recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. An ongoing list of reported asbestos hot spots in the US from the Asbestos News Roundup archive appears on our asbestos map.

Second-Hand or Take Home Asbestos Exposure

Recently, it has become apparent that people can be affected by asbestos-caused diseases through secondary or passive exposure.

Also known as second-hand asbestos exposure or “take home” asbestos exposure, passive asbestos exposure refers to exposure to asbestos fibers that become embedded on a person’s clothing or in their hair—from either another person who has been in direct contact with asbestos or from indirect circumstantial exposure to asbestos.

For example, cases of second-hand asbestos exposure were recently reported by wives and children of men who worked in the shipyards in World War II. The workers were exposed to large amounts of damaged or “friable” asbestos while on the job, and their wives became came ill following exposure to asbestos fibers that had become lodged in the workers’ clothing. Over the years, the constant inhalation of these fibers resulted in the development of asbestos-related diseases. Case in point, the recently filed asbestos lawsuit concerning Gladys W. Williams, highlighted below.

And there have been asbestos lawsuits filed by children of men who worked around asbestos, and who developed asbestos-related illnesses.

Secondary asbestos exposure is also possible by living in a community or area located near an asbestos mine or a company that manufactures asbestos or products containing asbestos. Many older buildings may also contain asbestos insulation, including schools.

Asbestos Lawsuit

Jefferson County, TX: Roger Young, representing the estate of Melissa Young, has filed an asbestos lawsuit alleging Ms. Young was routinely exposed to asbestos due to her father’s employment at area facilities. The lawsuit names Chevron USA and Owens-Illinois as defendants.

According to the lawsuit, Melissa’s father worked as welder at the Chevron refinery, where he was exposed to asbestos. He then brought the asbestos home on his work clothes, exposing his daughter.

The lawsuit alleges Chevron was negligent in exposing workers to asbestos and failing to warn them of the health dangers. Young also claims Owens-Illinois was negligently manufacturing and selling asbestos products, and therefore alleges the defendants acted with malice, entitling him to exemplary damages.

St. Clair County, IL: Michael Dithmart has filed an asbestos lawsuit against 64 defendant corporations which, he alleges caused his recently deceased mother, Pauline Dithmart, to develop lung cancer after her exposure to asbestos-containing products throughout her career. Mrs. Dithmart died September 17, 2011, according the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, Pauline Dithmart worked as a presser at The Garment Company from 1962 until 1970, as a laborer at Northwest Fabric Store in the late 1960s, as a bender at Collis Company from the late 1960s until the early 1970s and as a seed counter at Burpee’s Seed Company from the late 1970s until the early 1980.

The lawsuit also states that Dithmart was also secondarily exposed to asbestos fibers through her husband, Dale Dithmart, who worked as an engineer and fireman in the US Navy from 1944 until 1946, as a farm hand at Tom Anderson’s farm in 1944, as an apprentice machinist and a lathe operator at Climax Engineering company from in 1946, as an apprentice brick mason at Don Herring Construction Company from 1946 until 1950, as a member of the Bricklayers, Masons and Plasters International Union of America from 1946 until 1985, as a brick mason and foreman for Clinton Corn from 1955 until 1982 and as a security officer at Wells Fargo from 1983 until 1989.

According to the lawsuit, the defendants should have known of the harmful effects of asbestos, but failed to exercise reasonable care and caution for the plaintiff’s safety.

As a result of her asbestos-related disease, Pauline Dithmart incurred medical costs and suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, the complaint says. In addition, she became prevented from pursuing her normal course of employment and, as a result, lost large sums of money that would have accrued to her, her son claims.

In his complaint, Michael Dithmart is seeking a judgment of more than $100,000, economic damages of more than $200,000, compensatory damages of more than $100,000, punitive and exemplary damages of more than $100,000 and punitive damages in an amount sufficient to punish various defendants for their wrongdoing.

Asbestos Hot Spots

Berea, OH: A criminal investigation has been launched against a small religious school following reports that several dozen teenage students and others volunteered over several weekends to gut a building containing asbestos.

Some of the students involved were as young as 13. They reportedly removed asbestos-filled materials without any protective gear at the former YWCA on Smith Road in Middleburg Heights, said Cleveland Commissioner of Air Quality George Baker, who also works with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

According to Baker, state regulations require that asbestos be removed from a building owner by certified asbestos removal contractors.

Darren Clink, who lives next door to the former YWCA, shot video footage of the illegal removal. The video shows a large cloud of dust dispersing in the air after debris was dropped into a dumpster.

“The entire site was contaminated with asbestos and the people who were doing it were all children,” said Clink. “The kids were loaded with it.”

Sterling Education, the company that oversees the school, runs 35 schools nationwide.

The Ohio EPA began investigating after receiving a complaint in early December, said Ron Fodo, an Ohio EPA criminal investigator who declined further comment because the case was in its early stages.

When regulators visited the site on Dec. 13, they found three dumpsters filled with debris believed to contain asbestos, as well as potentially contaminated material strewn about the property, according to Ohio EPA inspection reports. (wkyc.com)

 

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Exposure, asbestos law, asbestos lawsuit, Asbestos Mesothelioma
Posted in Asbestos Mesothelioma, lawsuits, Settlement | 3 Comments »

Asbestos News Roundup: 1.3.13 – Hurricane Sandy Cleanup & Asbestos

January 3rd, 2013. By LucyC

This week’s asbestos news roundup includes all the recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. An ongoing list of reported asbestos hot spots in the US from the Asbestos News Roundup archive appears on our asbestos map.

Hurricane Sandy Clean Up & Asbestos Risk

Hurricane Sandy left a path of destruction across many parts of heavily populated areas along the coasts of New Jersey and New York. Some estimates have put the total property destruction due to Hurricane Sandy at $20 billion.

Many of these damaged areas are currently in the process of demolition and rebuilding. Health expert have been warning people to be on the lookout for asbestos containing materials during this process. Many of the buildings damaged by Hurricane Sandy were constructed before the use of asbestos in building materials was banned, so they may contain asbestos in a wide variety of building materials that can be found both inside and outside of the property.

Even the process of drying out one of these damaged buildings can release asbestos fibers into the air. If not conducted properly, the drying process can result in airborne contaminants being spread throughout a property, even into areas not damaged by the storm.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Exposure to airborne friable asbestos may result in a potential health risk because persons breathing the air may breathe in asbestos fibers. Continued exposure can increase the amount of fibers that remain in the lung. Fibers embedded in lung tissue over time may cause serious lung diseases including asbestosis, lung cancer, or mesothelioma.”

Consequently, people need to be aware of possible asbestos hazards in their properties. This is especially true for homeowners who are taking on the task of fixing their properties themselves, who may not realize that they may be exposing themselves, their family, or others to dangerous asbestos fibers.

Asbestos Lawsuit

Jefferson County, TX: The executrix of the estate of the late Arlis Hall has filed an asbestos lawsuit naming AMF and 16 other companies as defendants. In her lawsuit, Sherri Hall alleges the defendants negligently exposed her benefactor to asbestos. In addition to punitive damages, the plaintiffs are suing for their mental anguish and loss of companionship.

Specifically, the asbestos lawsuit claims that Arlis Hall was exposed to asbestos products throughout his career working at a refinery. The lawsuit alleges the defendants negligently manufactured, sold and used asbestos containing products despite having actual knowledge of the health hazards associated with the carcinogen.

The other defendants named in the suit include: B&B Engineering & Supply, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, Certainteed, Chevron U.S.A., E.I. DuPont De Nemours, Entergy Texas, ExxonMobil, Foster Wheeler Energy, Foster Wheeler USA, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Guard-Line, Gulf Oil, Huntsman Petrochemical, Texaco, Wyeth Holdings and 4520 Corp. (setexasrecord.com)

Jefferson County, TX: Nelda Humble, the widow of Keltus Humble, has filed an asbestos suit naming Goodrich Corp. and Michelin North America as defendants.

In her complaint, Mrs. Humble claims that Keltus Humble was exposed to asbestos dust and fibers while employed by B.F. Goodrich in Jefferson County. “As a result of such exposure, Herbert Carmon developed an asbestos related disease, pleural disease and mesothelioma/lung cancer, from which she died a painful and terrible death on Sept. 9, 2012,” the asbestos lawsuit states.

The lawsuit claims the defendants were negligent in their failure to warn employees of the health dangers known to be associated with asbestos. (setexasrecrord.com)

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Exposure, asbestos law, asbestos lawsuit, mesothelioma
Posted in Asbestos Mesothelioma, lawsuits, Settlement | No Comments »

Southwest Learns Not to Screw a Lawyer out of a Drink (ever) & Gets a Hefty Bar Tab

December 28th, 2012. By AbiK

Important tip: If you’re going to screw someone out of a drink, make sure he’s not a lawyer.

Southwest Airlines learned that the hard way last week when a judge approved the settlement for the recent class action lawsuit in which Southwest screwed its Business Select ticket purchasers out of some drinks.

Apparently, the way things were (where’s Barbra Streisand when you need her?) at Southwest, if a passenger purchased tickets through their premium Business Select program, the passenger would receive drink vouchers—valued at $5 each and with no expiration date—that they could then use in-flight.

Well, all fine and dandy until the fateful date of August 1, 2010. That’s when Southwest changed the rules of the game and decided that those drink vouchers could only be used on the day of travel that was printed on the ticket. Hmm…thinking of stockpiling vouchers for that red-eye flight? Not anymore you aren’t (and you may want to hold off on popping the Ambien…)

So someone raised an eyebrow at the switcheroo in policy and that someone was an attorney: Adam Levitt (of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz in Chicago).

Levitt, clearly being an ‘e pluribus unum’ kind of guy, figured he wasn’t the only one affected by the disappearing drinks act and, therefore, from the many affected one class was formed and a Southwest Airlines drink voucher class action lawsuit was filed (November 16, 2011). Levitt, it goes without saying, was the initial plaintiff in the case.

According to Business Insider, the breach of contract lawsuit settlement affects those Southwest Airlines passengers who purchased tickets prior to August 1, 2012 through the Business Select program and received drink vouchers but did not redeem them–note, the settlement does not affect passengers who earned drink vouchers via the frequent flier program Rapid Rewards.

Further, BI reports that the drink voucher settlement entitles eligible fliers to new drink vouchers—even if they no longer have the original unused vouchers—for each voucher the passenger claims they had earned but not redeemed. The settlement drink vouchers will be good for one year.

Drink voucher lawsuit class members will reportedly be notified of the settlement and how to submit a claim over the next few weeks.

Chicago attorney Joseph Siprut, who represented the ‘took the drink right out of my hands’ victims, is quoted in BI as saying, “This settlement is a grand-slam result for the class, as consumers are recovering 100 cents on the dollar.” (not a shabby recovery, btw).

It’s estimated the Southwest drink voucher settlement could cost the airline in the area of $29 million, given that there are potentially 5.8 million fliers who are part of the class, having purchased and flown Southwest via the Business Select program between October 2007 and August 2010.

 

Tags: Attorney Adam Levitt, Class Action Lawsuit, Drink Voucher Lawsuit, Joseph Siprut, Settlement, Southwest Airlines, Southwest Business Select
Posted in Airlines, Class Action, Emerging Issues, lawsuits, Settlement | 9 Comments »