Court rules against homeowners in toxic water case

Headline Legal News 2014/06/10 12:25   Bookmark and Share
The Supreme Court says a group of homeowners in North Carolina can't sue a company that contaminated their drinking water because a state deadline has lapsed.

The justices ruled 7-2 on Monday that state law strictly bars any lawsuit brought more than 10 years after the contamination — even if residents did not realize their water was polluted until years later.

The high court reversed a lower court ruling that said federal environmental laws should allow the lawsuit against electronics manufacturer CTS Corp. to proceed.

The decision is a setback for the families of thousands of former North Carolina-based Marines suing the federal government in a similar case for exposing them to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune. The government is relying on the same state law to avoid liability.
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Top court rejects bail plea of Indian tycoon

Headline Legal News 2014/06/06 14:36   Bookmark and Share
India's Supreme Court Wednesday rejected an appeal by an Indian tycoon accused of a multibillion dollar fraud to be released from jail and allowed house arrest.

Subrata Roy, head of the Sahara India conglomerate, has been jailed since March 4 on charges that his company failed to return billions of dollars to investors. Bail was earlier set at $1.68 billion and the company has struggled to raise the funds.

India's securities regulator has accused Sahara India of raising nearly 200 billion rupees ($3.2 billion) through bonds that were later found to be illegal.

Sahara is well known throughout India because it sponsors the Indian cricket team. The company also sponsors the Indian hockey team and owns a stake in Formula One racing team, Force India.

The company has interests in microfinance, media and entertainment, tourism, health care and real estate, including New York's landmark Plaza Hotel and London's Grosvenor House.

The court Wednesday allowed the Sahara group to sell properties in nine Indian cities after the company said it had not succeeded in raising the $1.68 billion needed to obtain bail for Roy.

The court had earlier rejected a proposal by the company to pay bail in instalments.
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Washington wants pot tax trial in state court

Headline Legal News 2014/06/03 12:22   Bookmark and Share
The state attorney general's office has asked a federal judge in Seattle to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Washington's authority to tax marijuana sales.

In the motion Friday to U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman, the state says Martin Nickerson failed to appeal the tax assessments in a timely manner and that the issue should be resolved in state court.

The case arises from the state's attempt to collect sales taxes from a medical marijuana dispensary in Bellingham. Attorney Douglas Hiatt, who represents Nickerson, said it could throw a wrench in Washington's plans for collecting taxes on recreational marijuana, too.

The lawsuit challenges Washington state's authority to tax marijuana as long as marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
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Arkansas court says judge went too far on voter ID

Headline Legal News 2014/05/16 14:58   Bookmark and Share

The Arkansas Supreme Court tossed out a judge's ruling striking down the state's voter ID law on Wednesday, but stopped short of ruling on the constitutionality of the measure.

In a 5-2 ruling, justices vacated a Pulaski County judge's decision that the law violates Arkansas' constitution. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox had struck down the law in a case that had focused on how absentee ballots are handled under the law, but justices stayed his ruling while they considered an appeal.

Fox also has ruled the law unconstitutional in a separate case but said he wouldn't block its enforcement during this month's primary. That ruling is being appealed to the high court.

Justices said Fox didn't have the authority to strike down the law in the case focusing on absentee ballots. They noted that there was no request before Fox in the case to strike down the law.
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Oklahoma court agrees to 6-month stay of execution

Headline Legal News 2014/05/09 11:17   Bookmark and Share
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals agreed Thursday to a six-month stay of execution for a death row inmate while an investigation is conducted into last week's botched lethal injection.

The court reset the execution date of inmate Charles Warner to Nov. 13. Warner's attorneys requested the 180-day delay, and the state Attorney General Scott Pruitt said Thursday in a court filing he wouldn't object.

While the stay only applies to Warner, Pruitt and Gov. Mary Fallin have said the state will not carry out any executions until the investigation is complete, which is expected to take at least eight weeks.

"If the state is allowed to enforce the ultimate penalty of death, it is incumbent upon this court to allow the state the time necessary to ensure that the penalty is carried out in a constitutionally sound manner," Justice Charles Johnson wrote in a specially concurring opinion.

Warner was scheduled for execution on the same night last week as Clayton Lockett in what would have been the state's first double execution since 1937. But Lockett's vein collapsed during his lethal injection, prompting prison officials to halt the execution. He later died of a heart attack.
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Court revives victim lawsuit in mistaken shooting

Headline Legal News 2014/05/05 15:06   Bookmark and Share
The Supreme Court has reinstated the lawsuit filed by a former major league baseball player's son who was shot on the porch of his family home by a Houston-area police officer.

The justices on Monday ordered a lower court to reconsider the case of Robert Tolan, son of former major leaguer Bobby Tolan. The son was shot in the chest after police mistakenly believed he was armed and had stolen a vehicle.

A Houston-area jury acquitted Bellaire police Sgt. Jeffrey Cotton of criminal charges in the shooting, which happened on New Year's Eve in 2008. A federal appeals court dismissed Tolan's civil lawsuit claiming that Cotton used excessive force.

The high court said the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acted too hastily.
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