Lawsuit

Several Baltimore-area homeowners are suing the largest residential real estate team in the state, alleging a "scheme of fraud and misrepresentations" involving home purchases, sales and financing. The suit, a proposed class action, names the Creig Northrop Team, Long & Foster and several mortgage firms — including Long & Foster's Prosperity Mortgage Co. — as defendants. A similar lawsuit brought against the Northrop team by a Howard County couple was settled in March.

Although a Charlottesville, Va., jury found one man - athlete George Huguely V - criminally responsible for the beating death of Yeardley Love, his former girlfriend and fellow lacrosse player at the University of Virginia, the young woman's mother wants to hold his coaches culpable, too. Sharon Love, of Cockeysville, filed a $29.5 million civil suit this month against the state of Virginia, which operates the university; the school's athletic...

Albert Lord doesn't like to wait - not in business or on the golf course. The colorful chairman of student loan behemoth Sallie Mae, who's embroiled in a nasty fight over the failed sale of the company, has spent 40 years in the accounting and banking industries. He said that experience should have instilled in him a measure of patience, but it hasn't. Whether in traffic, at the office or on the links, Lord said, he just doesn't like to wait. He can't do much about the first two, but he's got a sure-fire solution for the last one: He's building his own, an 18-hole golf course on land he's acquired amid shuttered tobacco farms and grazing horses in southern Anne Arundel County.

A Baltimore police sergeant who claimed he was never treated for post-traumatic stress disorder after he fatally shot a man in 2005 has settled a lawsuit against the city, in a deal that allows him to retire with his pension, according to court documents and his attorney. Under terms of the settlement, Richard A. Willard, 45, dropped the federal suit and a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; the Police Department canceled an administrative hearing that could have led to his termination.

Former Ravens running back Jamal Lewis is one of four ex-NFL players who are suing the league over brain injuries that they say have impaired their post-football lives, according to an Associated Press report. Lewis and Dorsey  Levens, Fulton Kuykendall and Ryan Stewart, filed the lawsuit against the National Football League and NFL Properties LLC this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, saying the NFL knew as early as the 1920s of the potential for concussions to harm its players but only went public last year.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is right to file this lawsuit against the ordinance regulating pregnancy counseling centers ("Church: Clinic signs are unlawful," March 30). I understand Planned Parenthood, which is one of the largest abortion mills in the country, requested then-City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake to sponsor this bill. Why should Planned Parenthood set the standards of what a pregnancy counseling center is? Planned Parenthood was against any provisions in this law that would regulate them.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge has ruled that a lawsuit over mold in one of the ritzy Harborview condos can proceed to trial. Paul C. Clark, who bought a penthouse at the Inner Harbor complex for more than $1.1 million in 2009, is suing Zalco Realty and the 100 Harborview Drive Council of Unit Owners for $5 million. He contends that the defendants knew of water and mold problems before his purchase but issued him a "resale certification" that stated they were aware of no building or health code violations.

The Seacrets branding crusade continues. After winning a similar case last November, Ocean City's Seacrets has filed another trademark infringement lawsuit, this time against Baltimore restaurant Caribbean Secrets. Seacrets - which this Baltimore Sun story describes as "more of a theme park" than a bar because of its multiple entities - has asked the restaurant to change its name several times, but the request has been "adamantly" denied, according to Sam Littlepage, lead counsel for Seacrets.

Never mix friendship and money. Stanford Rothschild did, in large quantities. He ended up losing both, according to a lawsuit filed last week that virtually wails betrayal. The longtime Baltimore money manager became estranged from one of his best friends and his biggest customer — a tie torn apart by friction over Rothschild's wife and the defection by his own employees and accountant, alleges a civil complaint filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court. Bosom pal Manuel Dupkin worked behind the scenes to withdraw his fortune from Rothschild's firm and set up Rothschild employees in a new company that would manage the money, the complaint said.

A 61-year-old white woman, who says she was wrongfully fired from the Baltimore prosecutors' office after 25 years on the job, has filed an employment discrimination lawsuit alleging age, race and gender discrimination in the 2010 termination. Antoinette E. Swiec, of Baltimore, is seeking $400,000 in compensation from the Baltimore state's attorney's office on each of two counts, claiming she was fired because the predominantly young, African American division she worked for wanted her out. The lawsuit was filed in  U.S. District Court Monday, and was to be served on Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, though the firing occurred under his predecessor, Patricia C. Jessamy.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge has dismissed a $5 million lawsuit filed against the former president of Baltimore International College by the board of the defunct culinary school. The suit, a counterclaim, alleged that Roger Chylinski, who founded the college and served as its president from 1980 to 2010, misused more than $200,000 for personal meals, antiques and unapproved salary. But Judge John Phillip Miller issued a dismissal May 7 without a hearing or written explanation.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler says he's considering going to court if the interstate panel that regulates Atlantic coast fishing for menhaden doesn't cut back enough the catch of a Virginia-based fleet that takes the lion's share of the forage fish. Speaking at a Chesapeake Bay scientific symposium in Baltimore on Monday, Gansler said he was "working with" the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission as it ponders tightening harvest limits on menhaden. Called by some "the most important fish in the sea," menhaden are a food source for many other fish and wildlife, including ospreys and striped bass, Maryland's state fish.

My heart goes out to the family of Jenny Olenick, who by all accounts was a talented and wonderful teen. The May 5 article detailing events surrounding the filing of a malpractice suit, "Lawyers question teen's health before death," got my attention for several reasons. To imply that pre-exiting conditions, such as stress, anxiety and heart disease would have contributed to or caused her death seem far-fetched. As reported in the article the autopsy report found "no evidence of a physical process, like cardiomyopathy having occurred," according to the state's chief medical examiner.

Midnight Sun alum Sam Sessa and I were both unfamiliar with Caribbean Secrets, the defendant in the trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Ocean City's Seacrets. So Sam drove by the restaurant on South Hanover Street earlier this week and snapped the above photo. I'm going to present this without much comment, but will point out Seacrets' lawsuit states: "The continued use of the CARIBBEAN SECRETS mark by Defendant in connection with its restaurant is likely to cause confusion or mistake as to the source or origin of those services, thereby misleading and/or deceiving consumers in the State of Maryland and elsewhere.

A 61-year-old white woman, who says she was wrongfully fired from the Baltimore prosecutors' office after 25 years on the job, has filed an employment discrimination lawsuit alleging age, race and gender discrimination in the 2010 termination. Antoinette E. Swiec, of Baltimore, is seeking $400,000 in compensation from the Baltimore state's attorney's office on each of two counts, claiming she was fired because the predominantly young, African American division she worked for wanted her out. The lawsuit was filed in  U.S. District Court Monday, and was to be served on Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, though the firing occurred under his predecessor, Patricia C. Jessamy.

The Seacrets branding crusade continues. After winning a similar case last November, Ocean City's Seacrets has filed another trademark infringement lawsuit, this time against Baltimore restaurant Caribbean Secrets. Seacrets - which this Baltimore Sun story describes as "more of a theme park" than a bar because of its multiple entities - has asked the restaurant to change its name several times, but the request has been "adamantly" denied, according to Sam Littlepage, lead counsel for Seacrets.

In July 2010, Adarien Jackson's 6-year-old son, Kaden, began complaining of itchy bumps on his ankles. They soon turned into a rash and spread to his back, behind his ear, and on his eyelid. The child's pediatrician and dermatologists tried allergy drugs, diet changes, oils and oatmeal baths. But it wasn't until months later that Jackson discovered the cause of the problem. Kaden's twin brother, Kyler, began waking in the middle of the night, crying out, "Bugs are crawling on me!"

With a catch in her throat, Kristin Hudson talks in a video posted online about her young daughter asking if "they" will take away her daddy's farm. The video, featured on SaveFarmFamilies.org rallied farmers and others across the country to the side of an Eastern Shore farm couple fighting an environmental group's lawsuit alleging that the farm polluted a Chesapeake Bay tributary. The Web-based organization has raised more than $200,000 to date from Perdue Farms, agricultural groups and other farmers to help Alan and Kristin Hudson pay legal bills in the 2-year-old case, according to one of the group's leaders.

They twist and they turn. They break up communities. They sprawl across jurisdictional boundaries. And, in something akin to cellular mitosis, one has been divided into two entities that are miles apart. "They" are the state legislative districts newly mapped out in Baltimore County. If you look up "crazy quilt," in the dictionary, an accompanying picture of the map would clearly illustrate the term. The whole once-a-decade enterprise smacks of partisanship and back-room political horse-trading, eliciting a cynical shrug.

The Ravens won't have to wait as long as once thought to work new defensive tackle Ryan McBean into their regular-season defensive line rotation. McBean, the former Denver Bronco who agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Ravens yesterday, had his six-game suspension for violating the league's performance-enhancement policy reduced to three games. That news was first reported by The Denver Post. In exchange for the reduced suspension, McBean has dropped his lawsuit against the NFL that alleged the league improperly handled his drug test.