The bankruptcy trustee recovering funds for victims of Bernard Madoff saw victory before being hit with a big setback yesterday. Trustee Irving Picard reached a $1 billion settlement with Madoff feeder fund Tremont Group Holdings Inc., only to learn hours later of an adverse ruling in a different case. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and Thomson Reuters News & Insight have stories. The ruling (PDF) by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff bars Picard from pursuing $8.6 billion in common law fraud claims against several banking defendants, including London-based bank HSBC. The ruling does allow about…

A tip from a suspicious former policeman who worked part time at a Texas gun store led authorities to an AWOL soldier believed to be planning a new attack on Fort Hood. Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo was expected to be charged with federal explosives violations after police in Killeen, Texas, found bomb materials and guns in his hotel room near Fort Hood, report the Austin American-Statesman, the Associated Press and the New York Times. Abdo admitted the plot, AP says. The tipster policeman, Greg Ebert, worked at Guns Galore, the same store where the 2009 Fort Hood attack suspect bought…

A small utility in California is claiming that the process of “water banking” damaged the water table and caused well problems and shortages for its customers. The plaintiff, the Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District, serves only 20,000 customers, the New York Times reports. But it has filed two important test cases that challenge water banking—the process of storing water for future use or sale—and the farming interests that dominate it. According to the story, one water bank authority targeted in the suit is controlled by a subsidiary of Roll Global, a company that also owns POM Wonderful, the fruit juice…

A doctor accused of malpractice scored a rare defense win in April when the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed a trial verdict in his favor. For the past few years, the high court has not been as friendly toward medical malpractice appeals brought by physicians. Before the order upholding the court victory for Harrisonburg orthopedic surgeon Robert [...]

Miami’s housing market is seeing a resurgence, and one consultant says developers can thank foreclosure mills for the reprieve. Home sales in the metropolitan area are up by 16 percent for the first half of the year, and prices are holding steady or even increasing, the New York Times reports. “Much of Miami is gripped by a housing mania as the oversupply of distressed homes dries up and foreigners and investors swoon,” the newspaper says. “Only a few years after it seemed there were so many unwanted high-rise condominiums that the only solution was to tear some of them down,…

Life means life in Florida, and John Curtis Ivey, sentenced to a life term at age 22 for an armed robbery in which he pistol-whipped the victim, has served 19 years so far. He knows he deserves punishment for his crime. But since no one was killed or permanently injured, he hopes he can some day be released from prison, reports the St. Petersburg Times in a lengthy article about his case. Engaged to the woman he was dating when he committed the 1991 crime, Ivey won a resentencing in an appeal of his Hillsborough County case—and got life a…

A man who is disabled from multiple sclerosis and who alleges injuries from use of defendant’s folding shower chair has stated a claim for breach of an implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose under Va. Code § 8.2-315, says a Newport News U.S. District Court. This products liability action arises out of plaintiff’s use [...]

A Norfolk U.S. District Court devises a test for reimbursing travel time for expert witnesses traveling to depositions for this condemnation case, and orders plaintiffs to reimburse travel expenses at 50 percent of the hourly rate the experts charge for depositions. This is a condemnation action to take 1.604 acres under development as Granby Tower high-rise [...]

In a builder’s suit to enforce a $4.9 million arbitration award against insurance carriers for a drywall subcontractor who used defective Chinese drywall that damaged 74 homes, a Norfolk U.S. District Court says replacement of the defective drywall is not an occurrence under the sub’s CGL policy, but any repair or replacement of non-defective components [...]

A doctor accused of malpractice scored a rare defense win in April when the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed a trial verdict in his favor. For the past few years, the high court has not been as friendly toward medical malpractice appeals brought by physicians. Before the order upholding the court victory for Harrisonburg orthopedic surgeon Robert [...]