Suits

After Anthony Goodrow complained that he had been brutalized by Hawthorne police officers during an arrest nearly three years ago, department officials said they "conducted an in-depth and thorough internal investigation." Their conclusion: Officers acted appropriately and did not use excessive force. That finding, however, appears at odds with the city's payment of $1 million in late January to settle Goodrow's lawsuit alleging excessive force.

Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay $33 million to settle allegations that it misled shareholders by indicating that Merrill Lynch & Co. would not pay year-end bonuses -- when in fact the bank had already approved up to $5.8 billion in payments. Federal regulators, who brought the suit against BofA, said the episode occurred as shareholders were considering the bank's proposed acquisition of Merrill Lynch last year.

Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo had only worked as a Los Angeles County probation officer for 180 days when he left work after suffering two on-the-job injuries in 2000 -- straining his shoulder closing a gate and hurting his ankle breaking up a fight among youths. During the next seven years, Tuiasosopo, 45, collected workers' compensation as he jetted to Hawaii to act in movies and television shows that paid more than $38,000. In 2007 he sued the county, alleging probation officials failed to help him return to work, and earlier this year the county settled the lawsuit for $125,000.

A panel of federal judges, accusing California officials of obstruction, on Thursday denied the state's request to delay an order to produce a plan for reducing its prison population by 40,000 inmates. Aides to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said they would take their request to the U.S. Supreme Court today. The judges issued their order on Aug. 4 in two long-running lawsuits by inmates. The state asked for a delay pending its appeal of the order to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was filed separately Thursday.

Was it the real estate downturn, or were people misled into a risky investment scheme? That's the question at the center of a lawsuit filed Tuesday that accuses Orange County real estate lender Dan J. Harkey of bilking dozens of investors out of more than $15 million. In an added twist, the investors claim that their money helped fund the election of Harkey's wife, state Assemblywoman Diane L. Harkey (R-Dana Point).

A federal jury in Los Angeles ruled Friday that Eminem's music royalties don't change just because a song has been sold online. The decision prevents, at least for now, an upending of the music industry that could have greatly changed the financial relationship between record labels and artists, in which labels have long commanded most of the proceeds from album sales.

Accusing Wells Fargo & Co. of discriminating against minority borrowers by steering them into subprime mortgages, Illinois' attorney general sued the San Francisco bank, asking a state court to negate the loans and to fine Wells, the nation's largest home lender. "The dreams of many hardworking families have ended in foreclosure due to Wells Fargo's illegal and unfair conduct," Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan said in filing the lawsuit Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday handed Univision Communications a major victory in its hard-fought battle with its programming partner from Mexico, underscoring Univision's exclusive rights in the U.S. to the wildly popular Spanish-language soap operas that fuel its huge ratings. Grupo Televisa, Mexico's largest entertainment company, had sought the judge's permission to transmit to U.S.

The wise-cracking Chihuahua who earned millions for Taco Bell Corp. -- and some criticism from Latinos as an ethnic stereotype -- has a new slogan: "?Yo quiero mi dinero!" -- I want my money! A federal appeals court Friday ruled that Taco Bell is solely liable for $42 million in breach-of-contract awards to two Michigan men who created the diminutive mascot that starred in the Irvine fast-food giant's hit $500-million advertising campaign in the 1990s.

When Anthony Colannino, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, looked at his pay stub for the last two weeks of June, he assumed there must have been a mistake: He had received only $271.98, more than $3,000 less than the county usually pays him. No mistake, Colannino was told when he queried the amount. He had been docked 11 days' pay because he had exceeded the amount of time his office would allow him to work in the California State Military Reserve.