Lawsuit

The parents of a man who was jailed after he became disoriented while on vacation in Mexico two years ago are suing Blue Cross for the money they spent flying him home by a private medical jet service. John and Sophia Grabowsky of Phoenixville are seeking $11,200 from Blue Cross of Greater Philadelphia, which insured their son, Demetrius, at the time, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Chester County Court of Common Pleas. "Mr. Grabowsky literally had to be kidnapped out of Mexico to save his life," a doctor who treated him wrote in a letter filed with the lawsuit.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit last week filed against Bucks County by the mother of a deceased inmate who alleged that poor medical treatment at the county prison led to her son's death. The lawsuit was one of about a dozen that have been filed by former inmates and prison staff, mostly after an outbreak of an antibiotic-resistant staph infection at the Doylestown Township facility in 2002. The county lost two of the lawsuits in January when a jury awarded $800,000 to Kevin Keller, 27, of Churchville, and $400,000 to Benjamin Martin, 23, of Warminster.

A disgruntled Reading Co. stockholder has sued the company's officers and directors for agreeing to sell out to real-estate speculator Samuel Rappaport for a "grossly inadequate" price. On Thursday, Reading's directors agreed to sell all of Reading's common stock for $14.75 to $14.85 per share. The stock, which is traded over the counter, closed on Wednesday, the day before the offer was announced, at $14.50. It closed yesterday at $14.13. Attorney David H. Weinstein filed the lawsuit on behalf of shareholder Stanley R. Wolfe in Common Pleas Court yesterday.

WASHINGTON - The heirs of a Jewish art collector can proceed with a lawsuit against Hungary seeking the return of art seized during the Holocaust that is worth more than $100 million, a federal judge ruled. But the heirs will have to limit their lawsuit after a U.S. District Court judge in Washington on Thursday dismissed their claims on 11 paintings out of more than 40 in contention. The collection of Baron Mor Lipot Herzog included paintings by Renaissance artist El Greco and Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran.

A class-action lawsuit alleging that the University of Pennsylvania has short-changed city students in its century-old Mayor's Scholarship program was refiled yesterday, this time with the mayor and others added to the list of defendants. The action, first filed in October, was thrown out on procedural grounds April 14 by Common Pleas Court Judge Nelson A. Diaz. He stated that the mayor and city government, not named in the initial suit, had to be included in the action - either as plaintiffs or defendants.

Both sides rested their cases in U.S. District Court yesterday in a civil lawsuit that accuses three Camden police officers of insulting and roughing up a city councilman after a traffic stop in 1997. Judge Stanley S. Brotman said he hoped the eight jurors would begin deliberating by noon today. Ali Sloan El, a councilman since 1996, has sued the city and the Police Department for unspecified damages, saying Detective Shane Sampson, Officer Dean Gransden, and Sgt. Albert Handy Jr. violated his civil rights by using excessive force.

A group of Radnor residents, including the president of the township commissioners, has sued a legislative panel over new political boundaries that divide the township into three state House districts. The suit, filed in the state Supreme Court, is among three official challenges thus far to the final plan approved last month by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission. Graham D. Andrews, the Radnor official, was joined in his suit by the League of Women Voters of Radnor Township and a group called Radnor for Fair Representation, whose members live in Radnor, Villanova, Wayne and Rosemont.

In an unusual move, Chester County Judge Lawrence E. Wood has sealed the records of a civil lawsuit against West Chester developer Mark M. Rowan. Wood issued an order that prevents the public from viewing any of the documents filed with the case. He declined to give the reasons for his decision. "I did it at the request of the parties, that's all I can say," Wood said yesterday. The suit was filed by attorneys for the parents of Rowan's former partner, Richard Balderston, who committed suicide on Nov. 9. The suit, brought on behalf of Balderston's estate, is over the value of Balderston's interest in projects owned jointly with Rowan.

A state judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the Oakland Raiders that sought to prevent the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers from wearing their uniforms for games in California because they allegedly violated the Raiders' trademark rights. The Santa Clara County judge did not rule Monday on the merits of the case, but said it belonged in federal court. Raiders officials said they were exploring their legal options. The Raiders contended that Tampa Bay's pirate logo was too similar to that of Oakland's.

A lawsuit blaming the Oxford Borough police for the jail cell suicide of a prisoner in February was thrown out of federal court yesterday. In a ruling from the bench, U.S. District Court Judge J. William Ditter Jr., agreed with borough lawyer Mark Tunnell that five days of trial testimony had not produced enough evidence to hold the borough or its police officers responsible for the death of Rodney Forester. The 27-year-old borough man was found hanging by his own T-shirt about two hours after he was arrested following a domestic dispute.