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Qualcomm: court grants motion to dismiss lawsuit
Breaking Legal News |
2009/08/11 12:03
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Qualcomm Inc. said Tuesday that a California court has granted its motion to dismiss a consumer class-action lawsuit that accused the chip maker of antitrust violations and unfair competition.
Judge William Q. Hayes of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California rejected plaintiff Christopher Lorenzo's arguments in his amended complaint, standing by his previous ruling that Lorenzo lacked standing on the antitrust allegations. The court also manintained that Lorenzo's claims did not give him the right to be compensated by Qualcomm under California's unfair competition law. |
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Animal groups in court over Helmsley fortune
Breaking Legal News |
2009/08/11 12:03
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Leona Helmsley's dog, Trouble, may be living quietly enough in Florida, but there's a lot of barking about the way the late hotel queen's millions are being given away.
Three of the country's largest animal welfare groups on Monday accused the trustees of Leona Helmsley's estate of a "scheme to deprive dog welfare charities" of their stake in the real estate baroness' fortune. They filed a petition in Manhattan Surrogate Court arguing that Helmsley, who died in 2007, specified in her will that her multibillion-dollar estate should be used to help dogs, and the trustees disregarded those wishes. The groups — the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Maddie's Fund — want the court to throw out a judge's February decision that gave the trustees for the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust sole authority to determine which charities would benefit from her estate. In April, the trustees gave away $136 million to hospitals, foundations and the homeless. They gave $1 million to animal charities, including $100,000 to the ASPCA and groups that train guide dogs for the blind. The trust, in a statement posted on its Web site, said Helmsley never wanted her fortune just to go to dogs. "Did Leona Helmsley intend for this charitable trust to focus on the care and help of dogs, rather than people? Absolutely not," the statement said. "Have the trustees of this vast fortune acted improperly and ignored Mrs. Helmsley's instructions? Again, absolutely not." The hotel heiress, whose fortune had been estimated at $5 billion to $8 billion after her death at age 87, also named her dog as a beneficiary in her will, leaving a $12 million trust fund for the little white Maltese. But a judge whittled that amount down to $2 million. |
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Feds: Fmr. Mass. speaker's lawyer has conflict
Breaking Legal News |
2009/08/10 10:33
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Prosecutors have asked a judge to disqualify the lawyer representing former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi in his federal corruption case, because the lawyer also gave advice to a prosecution witness.
Court documents unsealed this week show that Steven Topazio, DiMasi's former law associate, testified that he consulted DiMasi's lawyer, Thomas Kiley, as soon as questions surfaced about Topazio's relationship with the software company whose multimillion dollar state contracts are at the center of the case against the former speaker. Prosecutors say Topazio was the conduit for monthly $4,000 payments from the company to DiMasi. Topazio is now a government witness. The Boston Globe reports that prosecutors argue that Kiley has a conflict of interest by representing "two adversely positioned clients." |
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Reputed drug kingpin Montoya to plead guilty
Breaking Legal News |
2009/08/09 10:32
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Prosecutors say one of Colombia's most notorious reputed cocaine kingpins is set to plead guilty next week to U.S. drug charges.
A Miami federal judge on Friday set a change of plea hearing for Tuesday for "Don" Diego Montoya, the alleged chief of Colombia's North Valley Cartel. Montoya was extradited to face U.S. charges in December and initially pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say in court papers that Montoya will plead guilty to charges from two separate cases: one in Miami and one in Washington, D.C. Both accuse Montoya of drug racketeering and conspiracy charges. Montoya's attorney did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. |
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NY court: US govt can withhold Spitzer documents
Breaking Legal News |
2009/08/07 10:29
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An appeals court says the federal government does not have to release information about wiretaps from the investigation that brought down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found Friday that The New York Times had not shown it has a First Amendment right to the material. A lower court had ordered the release of the FBI documents, which could reveal details about the origins and scope of the investigation. The Times said it is disappointed and is reviewing the decision. It said public access to such records would provide "a valuable check on law enforcement agencies and on the courts." The documents named other clients of the Emperor's Club VIP prostitution service. David Paterson became governor in March 2008 after Spitzer resigned in disgrace. |
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Ex-Edwards mistress at court amid campaign probe
Breaking Legal News |
2009/08/06 08:31
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The former mistress of John Edwards arrived at a federal courthouse in Raleigh where a grand jury was meeting Thursday — an appearance that comes as federal investigators examine the two-time presidential candidate's finances. Rielle Hunter walked into the building through a back entrance and holding a young child. Edwards adamantly denied during his confessional interview with ABC News last summer that he had fathered a child with Hunter, and he welcomed a paternity test. His wife, Elizabeth, has said while promoting her book that she doesn't know if her husband is the father. Former Edwards aide Andrew Young, who made a similar appearance while the grand jury was sitting last month, has claimed to be the child's father. Edwards has admitted to an affair with Hunter that he says ended in 2006. That year, Edwards' political action committee paid Hunter's video production firm $100,000 for work. Then the committee paid another $14,086 on April 1, 2007. Edwards, a North Carolina senator from 1998 until his vice presidential bid in 2004, acknowledged in May that federal investigators are looking into how he used campaign funds. Grand jury proceedings are secret, and the U.S. attorney's office in Raleigh has declined to confirm or deny an investigation. Young hasn't spoken publicly since saying he was the father in 2007 and has repeatedly ignored reporter requests for interviews. |
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Va. conviction overturned in Ga. woman's death
Breaking Legal News |
2009/08/05 08:32
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An ex-Navy SEAL trainee had his murder and abduction convictions overturned Tuesday after spending 13 years in prison for killing a Georgia college student who was vacationing in Virginia. A divided Virginia Court of Appeals panel granted Dustin Turner's request for a writ of actual innocence, vacating his conviction of murder and abduction with intent to defile in the 1995 death of 21-year-old Emory University student Jennifer Evans. Turner is the first person in Virginia to get a murder conviction overturned under a 2004 law that allows nonbiological evidence of innocence to be considered more than 21 days after sentencing. Turner, 34, of Bloomington, Ind., is serving an 82-year sentence for killing Evans in his parked car outside a Virginia Beach nightclub in 1995. Another trainee, Billy Joe Brown, changed his story to say that he alone killed Evans. "While Turner's conduct creates a suspicion of guilt, the evidence, viewed in the context of Brown's recantation, cannot support findings of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," the ruling stated. The Attorney General's Office has two weeks to ask for the full court to make a decision or a month to appeal the ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court. If the attorney general does not protest the ruling, Turner would be released from Powhatan Correctional Center. Turner's attorney and mother said they were cautiously optimistic about Tuesday's ruling. "We're very pleased, and we like our chances moving forward, but at this point we're not exactly sure what forward will be," Turner's attorney David Hargett said. David Clementson, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said only that officials there are reviewing the opinion. |
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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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