Figures
$20 million
The amount about 400 people should receive from monies held by Lexington, Ky., lawyers who sued American Home Products in 2001 on behalf of users of the fen-phen diet drug. Special Judge William Wehr ordered that funds be placed in a trust for the plaintiffs. Lawyers and consultants had received $106 million collectively from a $200 million settlement and also set aside $20 million of the settlement to create the nonprofit fund. The lawyers received roughly $20 million each. Several clients raised questions about the settlement, and the clients sued the lawyers in 2004, demanding an accounting.
$18 million
The jury verdict against the Pensacola News Journal that was reversed by a Florida appeals court. The verdict was over a 1998 story a businessman claimed cast him in a “false light.” But the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that Joe Anderson Jr.’s case should have been dismissed because he mischaracterized his lawsuit as a false-light claim in an attempt to sidestep a two-year statute of limitations that applies in libel cases.
$3,000
The fine levied against a Columbia, S.C., company after one of its workers fell to his death in Rock Hill, according the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The worker who fell was sitting on a steel beam trying to kick off a loose piece of metal when he lost his balance. He and another employee of Capitol City Erectors did not use a fall protection system while working on Winthrop University’s new fitness center.
$220,000
The amount investigators say a Matthews, N.C., licensed insurance agent illegally transferred from the variable annuity accounts of five clients to his own personal account. According to Insurance Commissioner Jim Long, Shawn Robert Blankenship was arrested and charged with nine felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense and is under a $50,000 secured bond at the Union County Jail.
$4 million
The amount of federal aid awarded to Florida disaster experts to map out preparations for two catastrophic Florida hurricane scenarios: the failure of the dike around Lake Okeechobee and the impact of a powerful Category 5 storm in the Miami area. David Paulison, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that airborne lasers would be used to create maps around Lake Okeechobee where flooding might occur. Planners will use the maps to determine which areas to evacuate and what to do if a breach of the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike occurs. About 45,000 people live in flood-prone areas around the lake.
71%
Nationwide’s proposed residential property insurance rate hike rejected by Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty. McCarty said the filing contained “proposed hurricane rate hikes in excess of 300 and 400 percent for some territories which are entirely unsustainable.”