Plaintiffs

A federal judge has ruled that Ramona Africa and the other plaintiffs in the MOVE civil trial cannot collect interest on top of their jury awards to compensate them for their decade-long wait for the case to reach trial. U.S. District Judge Louis H. Pollak said Ramona Africa and relatives of MOVE founder John Africa were not entitled to interest under federal law because the jury had awarded them damages for noneconomic harm, such as pain and suffering. He rejected a request for interest from another plaintiff - Louise James, mother of Frank James Africa - on the ground that she did not file her motion on time.

Several black men who were contracted to work at the Sunoco refinery in Philadelphia were forced to clean up racial slurs written about them on bathroom walls, the men claim in a federal civil rights lawsuit. Along with racial epithets, the men also claim in the suit filed Wednesday that there were nooses left around the workplace on several occasions. The six plaintiffs, led by Kenneth Hall, 40, of Philadelphia, were all employees of Advanced Speciality Contractors, of Aston, which was contracted to work on a project at the Sunoco refinery on Passyunk Avenue near 61st Street in Southwest Philadelphia, the suit said.

Twenty-four plaintiffs, including a dozen police officers who rushed to the scene of a November train derailment in Paulsboro, sued on Monday, alleging that the rail company's negligence caused the derailment, and that it downplayed the dangers of a chemical spill and failed to protect responders. As a result, the suit says, the plaintiffs have suffered ailments such as breathing problems, headaches, neurological disorders, and elevated blood pressure since the tanker carrying 23,000 gallons of vinyl chloride derailed Nov. 30. Investigators have determined that the freight train crossed the automated drawbridge over Mantua Creek against a red light after the crew got the go-ahead from a dispatcher.

Nearly two weeks after Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Bass Levin publicly disclosed a $17 million settlement offer by lawyer Peter J. O'Connor to end a lawsuit over affordable housing, O'Connor and his clients have denounced Levin's account as "a vicious falsehood. " In a written statement, O'Connor said the mayor's description of the settlement offer was "completely inaccurate and misrepresented the position of the plaintiffs. " In an interview yesterday, Levin said she stood by her account and provided notes of the meeting with O'Connor in support of her recollection.

AS ONE OF THE plaintiffs in the recent successful verdict against the School District of Philadelphia, I take issue with some of the points that Rotan Lee made in his Dec. 28 op-ed, "In Defense of Carl and the Cracker Slur. " I have no problem with Mr. Lee's defense of Carl Singley's outburst as "venting. " What I do resent is his contention that there was "backslapping jocularity between the plaintiffs and the jurors. " First of all, Mr. Lee wasn't there in the courthouse and wouldn't know firsthand what transpired.

For the second time, a federal judge in Philadelphia has dismissed health- damage claims filed by 18 families and individuals who live or lived near the PCB-contaminated Paoli railroad maintenance yard in Chester County. The plaintiffs, 32 people seeking millions of dollars in damages, contend they or their late relatives developed illnesses from exposure to toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, used for decades in railcar transformers. In a series of opinions released yesterday, U.S. District Judge Robert F. Kelly concluded that the families had no "prima facie" case, and entered summary judgment in favor of all defendants.

For all the polished rhetoric and decorous argumentation by very pricey lawyers, there was no disguising the bare-knuckle nature of the hearing Dec. 17 before U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois in Philadelphia. On its face, the issue was whether Philadelphia lawyer Joseph Kohn would disclose his most private communications in a lawsuit, filed in Ecuador, against energy giant Chevron. The suit alleges that Chevron bears responsibility for pollution in a wide swath of Amazon rain forest in eastern Ecuador, where Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, had oil-drilling operations.

Five African American men who sued Whitemarsh Township and a decorated police sergeant for alleged racial profiling and alleged civil-rights violations will each receive $30,000 as part of a settlement while the two law firms that represented them will get $100,000 each. The case stemmed from allegations brought by fellow officers against former Sgt. Guy Anhorn. In reports to township officials and in depositions in the lawsuit, officers accused Anhorn of targeting blacks, performing illegal searches, and falsifying arrest affidavits.

Officials at Merck & Co. Inc. called them "records retention guidelines" - routine reminders urging employees to manage and reduce the almost unfathomable amount of paperwork generated by the pharmaceutical giant. African American employees, who have filed class-action discrimination lawsuits against Merck in federal courts in Philadelphia and Albany, Ga., saw the July memo as something more sinister: a thinly veiled nudge to bosses to shred records that could hurt Merck in court.

New Jersey Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden came to the state legislature in 1982 already experienced in an aspect of government that most politicians would just as soon avoid: lawsuits. During the three years that she served as mayor of Millburn, Ogden was sued three times by the township's former attorney. Ogden says those cases were without legal merit, and she points out that the judge who heard the cases dismissed the first two in summary judgments - without hearing arguments - and that he dismissed the third lawsuit after hearing the plaintiff's arguments.

Twenty-four plaintiffs, including a dozen police officers who rushed to the scene of a November train derailment in Paulsboro, sued on Monday, alleging that the rail company's negligence caused the derailment, and that it downplayed the dangers of a chemical spill and failed to protect responders. As a result, the suit says, the plaintiffs have suffered ailments such as breathing problems, headaches, neurological disorders, and elevated blood pressure since the tanker carrying 23,000 gallons of vinyl chloride derailed Nov. 30. Investigators have determined that the freight train crossed the automated drawbridge over Mantua Creek against a red light after the crew got the go-ahead from a dispatcher.

More than a decade ago, the telecommunications company RCN Corp. viewed itself as a potential competitor to Comcast Corp. One national magazine wrote about it as "The Little Phone Company That Can?" Then, according to a long-running antitrust lawsuit in Philadelphia federal court, Comcast thwarted RCN's expansion into cable-TV business in Philadelphia by lobbying against RCN with government officials, offering customers discounts in areas where RCN would expand, and restricting RCN's access to contractors who would build out its network.

Like many class-action settlements, the $3.5 billion payout announced in 1999 by the makers of the diet drug Fen-Phen unleashed a stampede of claims, including thousands that were bogus. Many came courtesy of Abdur Razzak Tai, a Florida cardiologist who expected more than $1,000 from a plaintiffs' lawyer each time he certified a Fen-Phen patient with heart damage - a marker that often led to a six-figure payout. Tai signed more than 12,000 physician reports over several years.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision released Wednesday, voted 5-4 along ideological lines in favor of Comcast Corp. in a consumer class-action lawsuit that has been grinding its way through the Philadelphia federal courts since December 2003. The suit claims to represent two million Philadelphia-area Comcast TV customers who it says were harmed by anticompetitive business practices, and seeks $875 million in damages. The courts in Philadelphia certified the consumers as a class to collectively sue, but the Supreme Court overturned their rulings.

The lawsuit filed by seven Pennsauken police reads like the wild, wild West. There are barroom brawls, allegations of an extramarital affair, and a police chief who allegedly won't speak to his underlings. The May 7, 2011, brawl at the Pinsetter bowling alley on Maple Avenue involved some of the plaintiffs and other off-duty police, with two plaintiffs contending they were sucker-punched. "The whole thing at Pinsetter's becomes a fiasco," said lawyer Katherine Hartman, who filed the suit in Camden federal court Friday.

Six students who sued the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania for poor living conditions in an off-campus house reached a settlement with the university Monday. A representative of the University of Pennsylvania confirmed that settlement was reached. According to court documents, two of the plaintiffs, Zachary Opperman and Andrew Green, filed a declaration of withdrawal and the motion was granted withdrawn without prejudice on Monday. The terms of the settlement were confidential.

Taxpayers are going to pick up more than half of the $3.5 million payout to 88 people whose drug convictions were thrown out after investigators determined they had been arrested by a group of rogue Camden police officers. U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Schneider, who oversaw the consolidated cases, ordered the city to pay the settlement by Feb. 15. Jason Williamson, a New Jersey ACLU lawyer, whose office represented one of the plaintiffs, said Thursday that lawyers were still working out how much each client would receive.

A $3.5 million settlement has been reached in the federal lawsuits of 87 people who had drug convictions tossed out or charges dropped after Camden police involved in their arrests were linked to possible corruption, the lawyer who represented the city said Wednesday. One plaintiff did not agree to the settlement, finalized Tuesday, said John Eastlack Jr., the city's attorney. That litigation may proceed, he said. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office vacated sentences or dropped cases against 200 people - including the plaintiffs - in 2009, when an FBI investigation alleged that members of a Camden antidrug police unit stole cash and drugs from suspected dealers, fabricated arrest reports, faked evidence, and lied while testifying to grand juries.

DOVER, Del. - A judge approved a $123 million settlement Monday in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of young children who were sexually abused by former Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley. The settlement approved by New Castle County Superior Court Judge Joseph Slights III resolves claims against Beebe Medical Center, a southern Delaware hospital where Bradley had hospital privileges; the Medical Society of Delaware; and five physicians accused by the plaintiffs of not reporting suspicions about Bradley to authorities.