A federal judge has refused to expand a lawsuit beyond the seven people who are suing a South Dakota urology clinic and its owners.

The plaintiffs sought to make it a class action suit representing more than 6,000 patients.

The lawsuit against Siouxland Urology Center in Dakota Dunes and doctors alleges that the former patients could have been exposed to blood-borne infections because medical equipment that was intended for single-patient use was reused at the clinic.

U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier ruled that the complaint did not meet all the requirements for class action status.

The plaintiffs, identified as Iowa residents, seek more than $5 million on allegations that include negligence, medical malpractice, and emotional distress.

Credit Suisse has agreed to pay $70 million to settle a class-action suit by investors claiming it misstated its subprime asset losses.
In an agreement filed in Manhattan, the Swiss bank said it would settle with investors who purchased United States depositary shares of the company’s stock on the New York Exchange between February 15, 2007 and April 14, 2008.

US residents who purchased Credit Suisse stock on the Swiss stock exchange during the period are also included. The settlement must be approved by the court.

Defendants had alleged that during the period in question, Credit Suisse and some of its executives, including chief executive Brady Dougan, issued “materially false and misleading statements regarding the company's business and financial results”.

Specifically, they alleged that Credit Suisse “concealed the company’s failure to write down impaired securities containing mortgage-related debt”.

In the settlement, Credit Suisse said it continued to “deny all charges of wrongdoing or liability”. However, the bank said it concluded that “further continuation of the action would be protracted and expensive”.

Tribune Co. employees at the time of company’s 2007 leveraged buy-out are eligible to join a class action lawsuit against the ESOP trustee that represented their interests in the takeover by billionaire Sam Zell, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Any Tribune Co. employee or beneficiary who received or were entitled to an allocation to their employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) stock or ESOP cash accounts are now automatically members of the class suing Lisle-based GreatBanc Trust Co. for failing to fulfill its fiduciary responsibility in the deal, said Daniel Feinberg, an attorney representing the employees and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer’s ruling is the second set-back in less than a week for GreatBanc, the remaining defendant with significant liability in a 2008 lawsuit brought by Dan Neil and other Los Angeles Times staffers against the architects of the ill-fated going-private transaction.

Wisconsin Senate Republicans used a surprise legislative maneuver to pass a bill that would strip collective-bargaining rights from most public-sector workers — a move accomplished without the 14 Democratic senators who had fled the state to stall the measure.

Republicans voted 18-1 Wednesday night to pass nonfiscal provisions of the budget-repair bill — including those that would eliminate or severely limit collective-bargaining rights for most public employees.

Republicans control the Senate but had been blocked from voting on the issue after Democrats left the state Feb. 17 to prevent a quorum. Instead, Republicans used a procedural maneuver to force the collective-bargaining measure through: They removed elements of Gov. Scott Walker's bill that technically were related to appropriating funds, thus removing a requirement that 20 senators be present for a vote.

A California appeals court has sided with environmentalists in a decision that blames Los Angeles County and its flood control district for sending polluted runoff into the Pacific Ocean.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the county is responsible for the heavily polluted storm water flowing untreated each year down the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper environmental groups say the ruling is a turning point in the battle for clean water. Council attorney Aaron Colangelo says the county must now eliminate the flow of pollutants.

The Los Angeles Times says the Flood Control District argued its channels were simply conduits for upstream polluters, but the court says the district controls the flow to the ocean.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a securities class action case with particularly important implications for public companies based in Texas.

At issue is a 2007 court of appeals ruling that made it more difficult for shareholders to bring securities fraud class actions in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. If the Supreme Court sides with the shareholder plaintiff, companies in Texas could face a flood of cases that plaintiffs previously would not have filed.

A lawsuit seeking class-action status accuses Harrah's New Orleans Casino of failing to protect its employees from dangerous levels of secondhand smoke.

The mother of a former Harrah's dealer who died of cancer last year filed the federal suit Wednesday against the casino's owner, Nevada-based Caesars Entertainment Corp. The suit claims Maceo Bevrotte Jr.'s cancer was "directly linked" to his prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke at the casino. The suit says Bevrotte worked at Harrah's for about 15 years.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and asks a judge to certify the case as a class action for at least 1,000 current, former or future nonsmoking casino employees.

Caesar's spokesman Gary Thompson said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation.