Lawsuit

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation president announced Tuesday a "historic" settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency, calling on federal regulators to improve bay waters largely by pressing state and local governments to crack down on polluters. With top EPA officials present at the foundation's Annapolis offices, President William C. Baker said the agreement settles a lawsuit brought in the waning days of the Bush administration accusing the federal government of neglecting its legal responsibility to restore the bay. "This agreement is a game changer," Baker said.

Attorneys for Anne Arundel County and the Riverdale Baptist Church reached a $3.25 million settlement Thursday in a federal lawsuit claiming that county zoning laws infringed on the church's religious rights. The agreement, reached on the 12th day of lengthy jury trial, clears the way for the church to build a long-planned Baptist school on 57 acres it owns near the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary in Lothian. It also requires the county to: • Admit that it violated a federal statute preventing the creation of local zoning laws that impose a "substantial burden" on religious freedoms without compelling cause.

A federal judge has denied a bid by Perdue Farms and an Eastern Shore chicken grower to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of polluting a Chesapeake Bay tributary, clearing the way for trial on the potentially pioneering legal case. Judge William M. Nickerson of the U.S. District Court in Baltimore ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit brought this year by the Waterkeeper Alliance could go forward, though he struck two environmental groups as plaintiffs on a technicality. The Waterkeeper Alliance, the Assateague Coastal Trust and Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips filed suit in March alleging that harmful levels of bacteria and nutrient pollution were flowing from a drainage ditch on a Worcester County farm into a branch of the Pocomoke River.

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.

Baltimore County lost an appeal of a wrongful contract termination lawsuit brought by a former petroleum vendor in federal court Wednesday, potentially leaving the county on the hook for more than $700,000. The county attorney is reviewing the ruling, said spokeswoman Ellen Kobler. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., ruled against the county in a lawsuit brought by Petroleum Traders Corp. According to the petroleum company, attorneys for the county argued that the contract with the Fort Wayne, Ind.,-based company was invalid because it had not been properly approved by local officials.

Lawyers for Howard County government are seeking dismissal on technical grounds of a $4.8 million lawsuit in which a man claimed a drunken off-duty county officer pointed a gun at him outside an Ellicott City restaurant in April. In a formal answer to the suit filed in late October on behalf of Han S. Yu, senior assistant county solicitor David R. Moore argued that the county government is immune from lawsuits against employees who are doing their "governmental functions," and added that Yu's complaint of emotional distress was faulty because "there is no allegation that any of the defendants acted out of a desire to inflict distress.

Fourteen more people who say they were exposed to carbon monoxide while working at Ruth's Chris in the Pier 5 Hotel in February 2008 have filed a joint lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court seeking $39 million in compensatory damages for each of three counts It's the second bite at the apple for their lawyers, the Murphy Firm — led by William H. "Billy" Murphy Jr. — who already won a $34 million jury verdict in the incident this summer, splitting...

Et cetera Report: Another lawsuit alleges Alomar has HIV Roberto Alomar 's wife has accused the former baseball star in divorce papers of having unprotected sex with her despite knowing that he is HIV-positive. The New York Post reported Thursday that Maria Del Pilar Rivera Alomar filed paperwork in Florida alleging the former Orioles second baseman "knew prior to his first sexual contact with [her] that he was HIV-positive. " The lawsuit is the second in two years to accuse Alomar of having unprotected sex while knowing he carried the virus.

Maryland's highest court has cleared the way for the city to move forward with its plans for the long-delayed $152 million Superblock project. The Maryland Court of Appeals dismissed Friday a lawsuit by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos that challenged the project. In a 4-3 decision, the court said Angelos did not have standing to sue, affirming a Baltimore Circuit Court ruling to dismiss the complaint. Long stymied by legal challenges, the project involves construction of a 269-unit apartment building, a 650-space underground parking garage and shops called Lexington Square near Lexington and Howard streets.

A $60 million fraud lawsuit filed by Dr. Mark Midei against St. Joseph Medical Center — the Towson hospital that claimed he performed unnecessary stent procedures — was transferred to Baltimore County on Monday by a city judge who also threw Midei's attorney out of the courtroom and called information in his legal filings "dated" and "inaccurate. " Baltimore Circuit Judge Evelyn Omega Cannon found that neither St. Joseph nor its parent company and co-defendant in the case, Catholic Health Initiatives, does business in the city and that no unnecessary procedures occurred there.