Liability Insurance

Merck & Co., which pulled its Vioxx painkiller from the market last year in the biggest drug recall, said it probably doesn't have enough insurance to cover the costs of lawsuits associated with the withdrawal. The company has $630 million in product liability insurance for Vioxx, after deductibles and co-insurance, Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Think auto insurance rates are outrageous? Consider this: In Los Angeles County, 1.4 million cars are uninsured, their drivers unable or unwilling to cough up the thousands of dollars that even basic liability coverage can cost. In other words, if you get whacked by another vehicle, there's a one-in-four chance that the driver isn't insured. You can bet that rates are higher in part to deal with this problem.

Rose Espinoza started with the simplest of ideas in the simplest of places: She would fight gangs by working from her garage. She would invite children of all ages to come to her place after school to do their homework. They would have a safe site and tutoring. Older children would help younger ones. It worked. For 12 years, children in Espinoza's La Habra neighborhood flocked to Rosie's Garage. The program expanded to three other locations and won a presidential Points of Light award.

The owners and officers of a real estate firm cannot be forced to pay out of their own pockets for racial discrimination practiced by one of the agents, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, dealing a setback to an interracial couple who say they were turned away from buying a house in Twentynine Palms. The 9-0 decision limits the reach of the federal Fair Housing Act, which bars racial discrimination in real estate sales and rentals.

Even for a layman, the concept is fairly easy to grasp: The lower a racing airplane flies, the better its pilot can see and the closer it can come to the spindly pylons that mark the inner edge of the racecourse. Which is probably why Ramblin' Rose, a 2,000-pound, 310-horsepower two-seater was flying at an altitude of about 60 feet at 2:45 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13.

The cost of insuring against lawsuits already has climbed for company directors in the wake of Enron Corp.'s meltdown. Now, liability insurance is becoming more expensive for others--including homeowners--as insurers get pickier about the risks they are willing to take. Premiums for certain kinds of professional liability coverage are rising as much as 70%, and insurers are trimming coverage and dropping unprofitable customers, insurance brokers said.

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that insurance companies may be sued for failing to cover damage that their adjusters mistakenly overlooked, even if the legal deadlines for such lawsuits have expired. In a case stemming from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the court decided that a quake victim whose insurance company found only minor losses may now go to court to seek reimbursement for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage the homeowner said he later discovered.

In the latest clash between Santa Ana street vendors and city officials, ice cream truck drivers are demanding the repeal of a long-standing ordinance requiring them to carry $1 million in liability insurance. The statute is an unfair burden because most of the vendors earn only $30 to $60 a day, said Pedro Vasquez, a former vendor and veteran crusader against local ordinances that target street peddlers. "The city should be trying to help these businesses, not intimidate them. . . .

Things to do this weekend with your money The liability coverage in your insurance policies protects your assets if you are sued by someone. Here's how to check if you have enough coverage. * Today: Determine your "insurable net worth"--in essence, what you have to lose should you be sued. Include the equity in your home, other real estate and cars, plus any savings you have. Art, jewelry, collectibles and other valuables should also be considered.

Up in smoke. That's where all those lovely millions may go, the city of Los Angeles' divvy out of the $206 billion in conscience money wrested from the nation's tobacco companies by all the states and cities suing over decades of medical bills for their smoke-sickened citizens. As they say--easy come (cough, wheeze, hack), easy go. Like seismic aftershocks, the Rampart police scandal just won't stop shaking the city up--or shaking it down.