Business Cases
Texaco Discrimination Case
Texaco settles the largest ever racial discrimination suit, agreeing to pay $115 million to approximately 1,400 class members, $26.1 million in raises over the next five years to minority workers, and $35 million to fund a Task Force to implement changes in the company's human resources programs. Also read related documents.
Tobacco Litigation Library
Check here for the documents pertaining to the various lawsuits between states and the tobacco industry, as well as other items of related interest.
General Motors Sues United Auto Workers to Force Arbitration
In an unusual maneuver, General Motors Corp. filed suit against the United Auto Workers union in hopes of ending the more than month-long strike by auto workers. The suit, filed July 14, 1998, asked the U.S. District Court in Detroit to force arbitration on the issue of whether the union is violating a no-strike clause as designated in the 1996 GM-UAW National Agreement. Under the Agreement auto workers are only allowed to strike over health, safety and production standards. GM also asked the court for an injunction that would effectively end the strikes. The following are excerpts from the lawsuit.
Dow Corning Settles Breast Implant Suit
Dow Corning agreed to settle a class action suit brought forth by women claiming injury from the company's silicone breast implants. The settlement, reached on July 8, 1998, for $3.2 billion dollars is contingent upon the approval by a two-thirds vote of the 170,000 women who filed claims against Dow Corning.
Growers Sue to Legalize Industrial Hemp
A group of Kentucky hemp farmers are suing the Drug Enforcement Agency to legalize the growing of industrial hemp. The growers are disputing the notion that marijuana and hemp are both illegal since they derive from the same plant species. Instead, they argue, hemp has "a wide variety of legitimate industrial and commercial uses" and marijuana "is derived from different strains of the plant than those utilized for the production of hemp."
NBA Loses Bid to Control Transmission of Scores
A federal appeals court threw out an injunction Jan. 30, 1997 that blocked Motorola Inc. and STATS, Inc. from transmitting updated scores and statistics from National Basketball Association games in progress over handheld pagers. The NBA claimed it owned the rights to scores and statistics until games were over.
Reebok v. Tristar
In this Dec. 26, 1996 complaint, Reebok International claims Tristar Pictures broke a product placement deal to promote the athletic shoe manufacturer's products in the film, "Jerry Maguire." An uplifting Reebok commercial was supposed to be part of the film's ending, the suit maintains. The filmmakers included a disparaging reference to Reebok.
Flight Attendants Sue Delta for Weight Discrimination
Several Pan-Am flight attendants claim that Delta Airline, which entered into an assets purchasing agreement with Pan-Am after they declared bankruptcy, didn't hire them because they weighed too much. In this Dec. 31, 1996 ruling, the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division held that Delta's use of weight standards in deciding not to hire the flight attendants did not constitute disability, age and/or gender discrimination.
Johnson v. TWA
Aviation attorney Lee Kreindler filed this suit against TWA, seeking damages resulting from the July 17th explosion of Flight 800, a Paris-bound jetliner. Kreindler, who represented families in the explosion of a passenger airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, alleged a "limited explosion of the center fuel cell of the aircraft followed by a chain reaction structural failure and fire caus[ed] the plane to break up in midair."
Time Warner Cable v. New York City
Time Warner Cable of New York City is suing New York City to prevent it from putting Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Network on the Time Warner cable channels set aside for public access programming. Time Warner vice chairman and CNN founder Ted Turner was deposed in the case October 18, 1996. During the course of his testimony, he called Murdoch a "pretty slimy character" and, under questioning, elaborated on his comparison of the News Corp. chief to "the late Fuhrer" and "all dictators." [Editor's Note: Court TV is an affiliate of Time Warner.]
Archer Daniels Midland Admits to Price-Fixing
On October 15, 1996 Archer Daniels Midland agreed to pay $100 million in fines for participating from 1992 through 1995 in a conspiracy to fix the prices of its lysine and ciric acid products. In exchange, the Justice Department has agreed not to bring criminal charges against any current director, officer, or employee of Archer Daniels Midland in relation to the price-fixing charges.
Davis Tree Farms v. DuPont (Company Settles Florida Benlate Cases)
Three days after a Florida trial court judge signed this order in which she concluded that DuPont had acted in bad faith, abused the judicial process and "purposefully set upon a course of conduct that has served as a complete denial of plaintiffs' right to have its day in court," DuPont settled 20 Florida cases against it in which growers claimed the company's fungicide Benlate caused crop damage.
Washington Man Sues Pepsi for Harrier Jet
A disappointed TV viewer had sued Pepsico for failure to provide the Harrier jet he thought he had won in the soft drink company's "Pepsi Stuff" ad campaign. The TV commercials in the campaign featured various apparel and leisure items that could be obtained in exchange for Pepsi Points. The close of one commercial showed a teenager arriving at school in a Harrier Jet with a Pepsi logo on it and offered the jet for 7,000,000 Pepsi Points. Leonard accumulated 15 actual Pepsi Points and submitted them with a check for $700,008.50 to purchase the balance of Pepsi Points he needed for the Harrier Jet. But, he did not receive the jet. He's now suing Pepsi for fraud, deceptive advertising and breach of contract. Pepsi says the lawsuit is frivolous.
U.S. v. Nasdaq
Two dozen securities firms will randomly tape record trading conversations as part of this antitrust settlement with the Justice Department on charges they fixed prices on the Nasdaq stock market. The settlement ended a two-year civil investigation. The firms did not admit wrongdoing but pledged not to violate antitrust laws in the future. The settlement was filed in federal court on July 17, 1996.
Suit Seeks Revocation of ValuJet's Operating License
This lawsuit was filed by heirs of those killed in the ValuJet crash on May 11, 1996. The suit seeks the revocation of ValuJet's operating certificate on the grounds that the airline has and continues to violate Federal Aviation Association safety measures.
Dennis Rodman Sues To Protect Tattoos
Basketball star Dennis Rodman claims that a New Jersey company is producing and selling inferior quality T-shirts bearing "Dennis Rodman Tattoos," without his permission. Rodman contends that as a result of his licensing agreements and his having "maintain[ed] and foster[ed] an image in keeping with the high regard in which he is held throughout the sports world," that his tattoos are trademarks.
FTC v. Toys 'R' Us
The Federal Trade Commission has accused the nation's largest toy retailer of antitrust practices. The commission accuses Toys 'R' Us of illegally boosting toy prices by pressuring manufacturers into hurting discount retailers' ability to compete.
ValuJet Crash Wrongful Death Suit
The son of Laurese Perkins, one of the passengers on ValuJet Flight 592 that crashed en route to Miami, filed this May 14, 1996 wrongful death suit, claiming that the airline and its maintenance contractor were negligent.
In Context: Federal Breast Implant Litigation
U.S. District Court Judge Sam Pointer appeared Jan. 24, 1996 on Court TV's In Context With Arthur Miller to explain the proposed settlement in the federal breast implant litigation. This is a transcript of the program.
Is Victoria's Secret Padding Its Prices?
In this Jan. 2, 1996 complaint, the company that operates Victoria's Secret Catalogue is charged with discriminatory sales practices. Denise Katzman from New York claims that the lingerie company pads its discounts offered to men. At issue is a mailing that offered $25 off any purchase of $75 or more to men and $10 off the same purchase to women. She said that such pricing is considered racketeering under a federal RICO statute.
Chrysler v. Iacocca
The Chrysler Corporation says former chairman Lee Iacocca, while still on the company payroll, gave company secrets to Kirk Kerkorian. This lawsuit, filed December 4, 1995, was the latest salvo in the escalating tensions between the car maker and its former chairman. The dispute began when Iacocca supported Kerkorian's unsuccessful attempt to take over Chrysler earlier in 1995.
Frito-Lay Sues Pringle's
In this November 1, 1995 complaint, Frito-Lay Inc. claims that Procter & Gamble Co. has falsely advertised that its Pringle's potato chips "are healthier or more nutritionally beneficial than the Frito-Lay products."
Garrison v. Warner Bros.
The world of motion pictures is "a never-never land of illusion," according to this class action complaint brought against the major studios, referring not to the movie magic that has made Hollywood famous but to the bookkeeping techniques that may be unique to the Hollywood studios.
The suit was filed by the heirs of Jim Garrison, the late New Orleans District Attorney, who wrote "On the Trail of the Assassins," the book that inspired Oliver Stone's film, "JFK."
According to the Garrison estate, the film has earned over $150 million for Warner Bros., the studio that distributed the film, but has still not shown a "net profit" in which the Garrison estate is entitled to share.
This complaint goes into the history of Hollywood's allegedly "creative" bookkeeping practices, from the days of the nickelodeon through the "Golden Age" and the modern era where major stars have the clout to share in the gross revenue of a film, avoiding the studio's allegedly problematic definition of "net profit."
Silicone Implant Case Settlement
In this Oct. 13, 1995 proposed settlement, women involved in a class action suit against makers of silicone breast implants were offered substantially less than what they had received under a 1993 settlement. After thousands of women applied for relief, Dow Corning, the primary defendant, went into bankruptcy, and the available funds to pay claimants became insufficient. The awards previously ranged from $100,000 to $2 million. The new settlement grants awards of $10,000 to $250,000.
Jacoby & Myers
The law firm became famous with national TV ads urging viewers to call for legal help. Now Lenard Jacoby claims that Steven Meyers is trying to squeeze him out of the business.
NFL v. Oakland Raiders
In this complaint, The National Football League has brought suit against the Raiders for past, ongoing, and future violations of the NFL's constitution. The suit alleges that the Raider's recent move to Oakland was in violation of League rules and that the Raiders' stated intention to exclude revenues committed to their new landlords in Oakland from the League's revenue sharing pool is a breach of contract.
Wendy's Sexual Harassment Case
Seven female workers at a Wendy's fast-food restaurant say they were sexually harassed by management. The complaint includes an A-to-Z list of allegations, including one defendant's alleged observation, "It's not sexual harassment if you like it."
Dow Corning Bankruptcy
This is Dow Corning's statement on the petition it filed for Chapter 11 protection from liability lawsuits over its involvement in the manufacture of silicone breast implants.
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