Lawsuits

The Supreme Court reversed course and ruled that the nation's automakers can be sued for failing to install the most-effective safety equipment in their vehicles. The unanimous decision Wednesday clears the way for a California man to sue Mazda Motor Corp. because his family's 1993 minivan did not have a lap and shoulder belt in a middle rear seat. His wife, Thanh Williamson, was sitting in that rear seat wearing just a lap belt when their car was struck head-on on a Utah highway.

When George A. McKeon started working as a lawyer for Travelers Corp. nearly two decades ago, there were a trickle of lawsuits against the company. Today, it's a torrent. McKeon, now the company's general counsel, says the number of lawsuits has soared from about 20 when he started to more than 2,000 now pending. His yearly budget to handle litigation has also skyrocketed, from $21 million in 1967 to about $270 million this year. Travelers--and much of the insurance industry--is facing a new legal landscape.

Re "Betcha Can't Sue Just One," Commentary, July 26: Jonathan Turley, while admitting that "fast-food businesses are vulnerable to allegations of misrepresentation, fraud and negligence," nevertheless makes light of efforts to use legal action against obesity in the same way my colleagues and I have been so successful in using it against smoking. But the experts scoffed as well when the first smoker lawsuits were filed, and we are now routinely winning multimillion-dollar verdicts. People made light of a lawsuit my law students helped bring against McDonald's for failing to disclose the fat content of its French fries, but a $12.5-million settlement seems to have quieted the critics and encouraged at least three additional fat-fraud lawsuits, one of which is also close to settlement.

Re "Promises to keep," editorial, Jan. 17 At first blush, the editorial regarding Proposition 71 funding for stem cell research seems very sensible. You clearly understand the tremendous importance of the research and potential multifold benefits we dearly hope will follow. What really shocks me, however, is when you speak of the pending lawsuits, which have frozen the program dead in its tracks, as a positive step. Your argument, broadly, is that more accountability is needed. What you fail to mention is that the two suits brought seek only to kill it off entirely.

Panama's refusal to grant refuge to Ferdinand E. Marcos has left him a prime target for American lawsuits and criminal investigations, raising new questions about the scope of the "safe haven" promised the ousted Philippine leader when he fled to the United States, Administration officials and other experts said Friday.

Re "Lawyers Put Their Weight Behind Obesity Cases," July 2: In January my doctor gave me the diagnosis that I had been in denial about for quite some time. I was overweight. "What do you recommend?" I asked. "Should I sue McDonald's? Taco Bell? File damages against Krispy Kreme?" My wise doctor instead instructed me to join Weight Watchers. Although there are many lawyers out there willing to bring Sara Lee to her dimply knees on my behalf, I decided to follow doctor's orders and do the untraditional thing: I took responsibility for my own fat. I joined Weight Watchers the following week and began following its sensible plan.

A key financial adviser to U.S. Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced) is enmeshed in a tangle of lawsuits here that accuse him of failing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts and of breaking promises to business associates. Merced accountant Donald W. Ozenbaugh Jr. has emerged as a pivotal figure in questions surrounding Coelho's personal finances. Coelho, who said through a spokesman on Friday that he was unaware of the lawsuits against Ozenbaugh, has identified him as the man who prepared financial disclosure forms that failed to list an unusual $50,000 loan Coelho received from Columbia Savings & Loan in 1986 to finance part of the purchase of a $100,000 high-yield "junk bond."

Another lawsuit challenging the city's mobile home park rent-control ordinance was filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court. The plaintiff in the latest suit is Willis L. Miller, owner of Los Alisos Mobile Home Park. The 1981 ordinance allows rent increases only after arbitration with tenants. Miller is challenging the city's authority to limit rent increases, a restriction that he says prevents him from earning a "just and reasonable return" on his property.

Hundreds of residents living near the McColl hazardous waste dump in Fullerton filed a series of lawsuits Thursday against developers, dump owners and city, county and state government, claiming that they have been subjected to increased risk of cancer, respiratory disease and stillbirths. The six lawsuits were filed by Robert H. Sulnick, the Santa Monica lawyer who filed claims starting in May on behalf of 685 people living near the abandoned dump for a total of about $4.