Lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was accused in a lawsuit yesterday of "shameful failures" in providing medical and mental health care to injured servicemen returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a 73-page lawsuit, which is proposed for class-action status on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, "The VA's outmoded systems for providing medical care and disability benefits [have been overwhelmed by] the huge influx of injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan."

McCormick & Co.'s pre-filled spice and seasoning grinders have proved so popular with consumers that the Sparks spice maker has sold enough in four years to put one in more than half of American households. That's $63.5 million in sales - enough that when McCormick management noticed one of its suppliers selling what they considered a knockoff earlier this year, they didn't like it. Their request to the supplier to stop was rejected, according to legal papers. The dispute landed in federal court this week in a lawsuit in which McCormick accuses Weatherchem Corp.

An East Baltimore woman who purchased a problem-ridden house for 7 1/2 times what it had been sold for six months earlier has filed a lawsuit against the seller, alleging fraud and breach of contract.The suit by homebuyer Darlene Glover says she was duped by seller Marie Hoffman into paying $60,000 in 1997 for a house at 819 N. Kenwood Ave. in Patterson Park that Hoffman bought for $8,000 six months earlier.Filed Tuesday in Baltimore Circuit Court by Civil Justice Inc., a nonprofit legal advocacy group, the suit is the latest action targeting house "flipping" -- a practice in which real estate speculators buy substandard properties and quickly sell them at excessive prices.

Two National Security Agency employees have filed a class-action lawsuit against the maker of a device that erases audiotapes, claiming working with it at the spy shop caused their brain tumors.The men claim the electromagnetic field around the equipment was so high that using it three hours a week led to the tumors, according to a lawsuit seeking $10 million filed yesterday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. Both have undergone surgery.At least three NSA workers, including the two men, have been diagnosed with brain tumors, and three were diagnosed with cancer, the lawsuit says.

Setting the stage for a bruising State House battle with the tobacco industry, the Maryland attorney general's office is preparing legislation that would make it easier for the state to pursue its $13 billion lawsuit against cigarette manufacturers.The bill, which is expected to be introduced in the General Assembly next week, seeks to undo the effects of an adverse pretrial decision handed down by a judge last spring.State Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. said the ruling hurt the state's case and forced him to seek a key change in the law in the midst of the lawsuit.

Glen Burnie Bancorp executives and directors have dropped a lawsuit against a former director and Edwin F. Hale Sr., chairman of First Mariner Bancorp, that accused them of illegally soliciting proxies and votes from stockholders.The lawsuit was filed last month, two days before Glen Burnie Bancorp's annual meeting, at which Susan Demyan, the former director, and stockholders backed by Hale unsuccessfully tried to oust management."Since we won, that claim is moot," Price O. Gielen, an attorney representing the $225 million-asset banking company, said yesterday.

Legislation to help the state's multibillion-dollar lawsuit against cigarette manufacturers ran into trouble in the General Assembly yesterday after Baltimore attorney Peter G. Angelos angrily complained about lawmakers tampering with his fee for handling the case.Angelos' concerns swayed some lawmakers who said they could not support the bill as drafted. House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. postponed yesterday's vote until tomorrow-- ensuring a moment of high drama in the last day of the legislature's 90-day session.

A group of investors has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Host Marriott Corp., charging the Bethesda-based lodging owner with breach of contract, violations of the federal Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and breach of fiduciary duty.The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore by a Texas physician who is a member of Potomac Hotel Ltd. Partnership, contends that the company has been "continuously managing the partnership's financial affairs in a way that served its own interests and those of its affiliates."

A woman jailed in Anne Arundel County last year filed a $40 million lawsuit yesterday against the county and the guard she says had sex with her in her Detention Center bunk.Rose Marie Cain, 34, of Pasadena claims in a suit in county Circuit Court that she was too heavily medicated last March to consent to sexual relations with Andrew Rock, then a guard. She was "disabled and unable to resist or even to form the resolve to resist," the lawsuit argues.Rock, 42, of Glen Burnie, who was sentenced on misconduct charges last year, said yesterday, "I have no comment about the allegations she is making."

Allegheny Energy Inc. filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against DQE Inc., a Pittsburgh company that is attempting to terminate the two utilities' planned $4.1 billion merger.The move by the Hagerstown-based utility is likely the opening legal volley in one of the first hostile takeovers ever among power companies, and a sign that Allegheny remains committed to a deal that would create the nation's 10th-largest utility."While we are profoundly disappointed by DQE's failure to honor its contractual obligations, our position remains clear and consistent: The merger is good for both companies' employees, shareholders and the communities we serve," said Michael P. Morrell, an Allegheny senior vice president and its chief financial officer.

An attorney for Exxon Mobil Corp. argued yesterday in federal court for the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by dozens of Maryland gas station operators who have sued the petroleum giant for making moves to sell their stations in a way that they say could violate federal and state laws and possibly force them out of their own businesses. The dispute between the operators and Exxon Mobil Corp. was sparked by a decision the company made in June 2008 to sell off gas stations it still owned and leased to the small-business owners who ran them essentially under a franchise system.

Three years after 14-year-old Deanna Green was electrocuted on a Druid Hill Park softball field, her family still does not have an explanation of how the fatal accident happened or who bears responsibility. The Greens have filed a lawsuit against the city, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., and regional contractor Del Electric Inc. seeking damages as well as some answers - some "accountability," as Deanna's father says. But so far, the lawsuit has led to more frustration. They have yet to learn whether the case can go forward or whether the court will compel the defendants to turn over information the family has long sought.

Developer and banker Edwin F. Hale Sr. is asking a Baltimore court to stop Constellation Energy, the parent of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., from shutting off the lights of First Mariner Tower and 15 tenants occupying the Canton Crossing building. It is the latest challenge for Hale, whose First Mariner Bancorp has suffered in the past two years after making bad mortgage loans at the height of the housing bubble. Baltimore's largest independent bank reported a $2.4 million loss in the three months that ended June 30. Hale has said he wants to raise capital to shore up the company's finances.

A federal judge on Thursday denied Wells Fargo's motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Baltimore over what city officials said were racially discriminatory lending practices that led to a wave of foreclosures that cost the city millions. The courtroom victory means the city, whose lawsuit is being closely watched by other municipalities, could gain access to the inner workings of one of the largest mortgage providers in the region. U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg wrote in a memo Thursday that the city had produced enough evidence to continue its claim and is entitled to discovery.

The Baltimore Police Department has agreed to hire a consultant to monitor its internal disciplinary process for the next three years under the terms of a multimillion-dollar settlement in a lawsuit that alleged institutional race discrimination. Word of the settlement came Monday, as police announced that they had dismissed internal charges against about 40 officers accused of wrongdoing as a result of an unrelated audit. The move returns those officers to the streets, continuing the fallout from the April firing of the department's in-house prosecutor, whom the police union has accused of manipulating documents.

One of the Orioles' best players from their last playoff team has been accused in a lawsuit by an ex-girlfriend of having unprotected sex with her despite his allegedly having "full-blown AIDS," according to a published report. Former second baseman Roberto Alomar, who spent three tumultuous but highly successful seasons with the Orioles from 1996 to 1998, is facing a $15 million negligence lawsuit that was filed Tuesday in a Brooklyn, N.Y., court. According to a story first reported by the New York Daily News, Ilya Dall, Alomar's former live-in girlfriend, alleges the 12-time All-Star had unprotected sex with her despite being HIV-positive and showing signs that he reached the most advanced stage of the viral infection, AIDS.

Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, known for decades of urban revitalization projects throughout the city and elsewhere, faces more than $5.5 million in loan defaults, court records show. National City Bank is seeking $5.3 million for a commercial loan made to Struever Bros. in 2007, including $5 million in unpaid principal, plus interest, according to a lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court. The developer also has defaulted on a $5.5 million revolving loan that Fannie Mae approved in 2004 through its American Communities Fund and owes more than $557,000, according to a lawsuit filed in Baltimore Circuit Court.

The Anne Arundel County Council has rejected a settlement that would have relieved the county of a $3 million lawsuit, but at the same time would have eased zoning laws and allowed a church to build a school on an environmentally sensitive plot of land. The County Council voted unanimously during Monday night's meeting against a measure that would have relaxed zoning laws to allow Riverdale Baptist Church to build a school on a 57-acre tract near the Jug Bay Wetlands in Lothian. By refusing the settlement, which called for church leaders to drop their lawsuit claiming religious discrimination and the county to pay as much as $300,000, the county now will have to contend with the consequences of a potentially multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

Among the 40 state workers laid off this week because of budget cuts was an employee who sued the O'Malley administration last year for wrongful termination and got another state job - temporarily. Nelson Reichart, until this week a real estate manager with the Maryland Aviation Administration, said he "can't say one way or another" whether he believes his layoff was connected to his 2007 firing and subsequent lawsuit. "I was let go, and I'm letting it go," he said. Jack Cahalan, a Transportation Department spokesman, said Reichart held one of two aviation administration positions eliminated in a "consolidation of real estate functions" and that the action was not connected to the lawsuit.

Two people who were shot outside a 2005 party at the Odenton Volunteer Fire Company's banquet hall have filed a $7 million lawsuit claiming the shooter was reckless and the organizer of the party and county officials and fire company officials did not provide adequate security. The lawsuit - filed Aug. 12 by Erica Lynn Williams of Annapolis, who was hit by a car as she attempted to flee the gunfire, and Delvin Delonta Eldridge of Baltimore, who was shot in the lower back - names Temika Young, who organized the party, Terrance Carlester Medley, the convicted shooter, and Anne Arundel County and the Odenton fire company as defendants, saying they "had a duty keep their premises safe and secure."