It Figures
$47.5 million
The total damages ordered to be paid by Merck & Co. after an Atlantic City, N.J., jury found its painkiller Vioxx contributed to an Idaho postal worker’s heart attack, reversing the verdict in the man’s first trial. It was one of Merck’s biggest losses over the drug so far. The jurors awarded the man and his wife $20 million in compensatory damages, then $27.5 million in punitive damages. Merck has now won nine cases and lost five in the mushrooming litigation over its arthritis pill.
$70.7 million
The amount the company that runs the West Virgnia workers’ compensation program earned during its first year in business. The profit will help build BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co.’s reserves to take care of debt, which includes long-term liabilities including about $490.5 million in injured workers’ claims and a $200 million loan from the state that BrickStreet. Brickstreet took over the state’s workers’ compensation system in January 2006.
$400 million
How much it would cost to replace a key weather satellite that is already beyond its expected life span, according to National Hurricane Center Director Bill Proenza. He said the satellite, designed to last five years, is in its seventh year of operation, and it is only a matter of time until it fails. He said he did not know of any plans to replace it. Without its data, two-day forecasts could become 10 percent less accurate, and the three-day predictions could lose 16 percent accuracy, he said.
82%
The pay raise that State Farm Insurance’s chairman and CEO received after the company posted a record profit last year. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Rust Jr. got a $5.26 million raise. He earned $11.66 million in 2006 with a base salary of $1.77 million and results-based bonus of $9.89 million, the statement said. Rust made $6.4 million in 2005 and $5.5 million in 2004.
1.2 million
The number of Floridian policyholders insured by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. who can expect refunds soon. The reduced rates are the result of expanded access to coverage from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. Citizens filed the rate decreases on March 16. Homeowners in high risk coastal areas will see reductions averaging 14.5 percent, while those in other areas can expect 6.7 percent lowering. Commercial risks such as condominium associations in high risk areas along the coast will see rate reductions averaging 14.7 percent.
300
The capacity of buildings that will be required to have sprinklers in North Carolina. The Building Code Council voted 8-4 to relax the standard, which had required sprinklers where at least 100 people gather to eat or drink. Instead, the council raised the standard to 300 people. The council vote was at the request a state group for architects and against the advice of the state’s fire marshals.