Plaintiffs

The plaintiffs in a high-profile land dispute with Johns Hopkins University filed for summary judgment in their case against the university on Tuesday, one day after JHU filed a similar motion. The lawsuit was originally filed in November by family members of Elizabeth Beall Newell, who along with her siblings sold 108 acres of their family's Belward Farm near Gaithersburg to JHU in 1989 for $5 million. The sale, of land the family said was valued at $54 million, came with certain stipulations, including that the land be used for research or education purposes.

Lawyers for families and businesses who sued ExxonMobil Corp. after an underground gasoline leak in northern Baltimore County have been granted more time to seek reconsideration of a court ruling that struck down most of a $1.5 billion verdict. The Maryland Court of Appeals gave lawyers for about 150 plaintiffs in Jacksonville until April 17 to submit their argument challenging the Feb. 26 verdict. The motion for reconsideration was originally due March 28. But the new date is short of the 30-day extension to April 29 that the lawyers requested in a motion filed last week, said Terri Bolling, a spokeswoman for the Maryland judiciary system.

The oversized windows of Hans Wilhelmsen's house in Jacksonville command a view to the east of hills dotted with baled hay and stands of oak, maple and pine on the 70 acres he owns a mile south of where an Exxon station unleashed an underground flood of unleaded gasoline five years ago. Thirteen bison patrolled the fields then, but they're gone now, and Wilhelmsen is sure he knows why. "We saw six die at one time" about two years ago, Wilhelmsen said....

Construction can proceed on a casino planned for Baltimore after a Circuit Court judge threw out on Thursday an attempt by opponents to halt the development. A group of environmental advocates and neighborhood residents filed suit last month to delay the issuing of building permits for the planned Horseshoe Baltimore Casino, alleging the city and state improperly approved an inadequate cleanup of industrial contamination at the site near Westport. Earlier this week, another judge approved a temporary order blocking construction when attorneys representing the neighborhood said work had begun on the site despite the lawsuit.

Attorneys representing the 8,600 plaintiffs in the nation's largest consolidated asbestos personal injury trial finished presenting their case in Baltimore Circuit Court yesterday -- nine days ahead of schedule.The trial resumes May 4 with 32 days of testimony scheduled from the defense. Everyone was looking forward to the break."I'm going away on Saturday and I'm not going to tell anyone where I am," said Judge Marshall A. Levin, who has frequently found himself caught in the middle of attorneys' battles.

Two women who work for a State Farm insurance agent in Randallstown sued him and his corporate employer Tuesday, saying he repeatedly subjected them to sexual harassment, vile insults and a hostile work environment. Kristi Mitchell and Veronica Cobb are seeking at least $4 million in punitive damages from the agent, Obie Sorrell, and State Farm Annuity and Life Insurance Co., a Fortune 500 company based in Bloomington, Ill., that has 17,000 agents and 68,000 employees. Mitchell has been an office manager for State Farm since February 2002, and Cobb was hired in May as a customer-service manager.

The Towson-based state Injured Workers' Insurance Fund has agreed to pay a half-million dollars to settle a lawsuit that claimed it was illegally taping telephone conversations with lawyers and their clients. Under terms of the agreement, signed yesterday by Baltimore County Circuit Judge Lawrence R. Daniels, plaintiffs Jack J. Schmerling, a Glen Burnie attorney, and Robbie L. Arnold, who had a claim pending before IWIF, will receive $15,000 and $5,000, respectively. The bulk of the money, $480,000, goes to the plaintiffs' lawyers for legal expenses.

A class action lawsuit challenging Baltimore's red-light-camera tickets, maintaining in part that the timing of traffic signals' yellow lights had been too short and resulted in fraudulent citations, has been dismissed by a city Circuit Court judge. The three plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit in August 2004 contended that the traffic signals in their cases had yellow lights lasting less than 3 seconds. One of the plaintiffs says 4 seconds is the standard. Violations carry a $75 fine but no points.

Lawyers on both sides of the largest consolidation of asbestos personal-injury claims in U.S. history were trying to explain to a judge today how "secret" psychological profiles of prospective jurors were faxed from the defense to the plaintiffs.The lawyers spent most of yesterday trying to fashion an explanation for Baltimore Circuit Judge Marshall A. Levin, who is presiding over the trial consolidating 9,032 claims. At the end of the day, the fax incident was still a mystery.Levin was considering dismissing 51 potential jurors and beginning anew the arduous jury-selection process.

Attorneys representing the 8,600 plaintiffs in the nation's largest consolidated asbestos personal injury trial finished presenting their case in Baltimore Circuit Court yesterday -- nine days ahead of schedule.The trial will resume May 4 for a scheduled 32 days of testimony from the defense. Everyone was looking forward to the break."I'm going away on Saturday and I'm not going to tell anyone where I am," said Judge Marshall A. Levin, who has frequently found himself caught in the middle of attorneys' battles.

An Anne Arundel County judge threw out a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the referendum last November in which Maryland voters approved an expansion of casino gambling after a $95 million campaign. Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth rejected a contention by plaintiffs who opposed the expansion that the referendum required a majority of all Maryland voters — rather than a majority of those casting their ballots — to pass. Silkworth also said the plaintiffs waited too long to bring their suit.

When our governor criticized state university law school students for backing the fight against pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, one knew the fix was in - even though the pollution at issue, according to U.S. District Court Judge William M. Nickerson, turned out to be not from some 80,000 chickens but from 42 cows put on the property as the proverbial red herring ("Farmers, Purdue win pollution suit," Dec. 21). The judge covered his tracks in an opinion that insults the common sense of all Marylanders.

A division of the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. has been named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit alleging discriminatory practices at The Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge, a tenant at Cordish's Fourth Street Live! property in Louisville, Ky. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that the lounge's employees "demanded to know the ratio of 'black people' to 'white people'" who were expected to attend a party, then denied entrance to every black person who showed up. Andre Mulligan, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, is suing Louisville Bourbon LLC (doing business as Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge)

A Harford County jury has determined the State of Maryland and several of its principal transportation agencies were not negligent in connection with a 2001 accident on the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge that killed two Harford County residents. The jury of six women, who heard a lawsuit brought by the father of one of the victims, 12-year-old Ashley Tollenger, of Churchville, reached its verdict late Friday afternoon, following a trial in Bel Air before Circuit Court Judge M. Elizabeth Bowen that began Nov. 7. Garrett Tollenger, Ashley's father, sued the state, the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Transportation Authority, claiming their failure to repair defects in the bridge's roadway and to construct a crash barrier separating the oncoming lanes of the four-lane bridge contributed to the death of his daughter and her stepfather, Kenneth Connor, 52, of Havre de Grace.

The plaintiffs in a high-profile land dispute with Johns Hopkins University filed for summary judgment in their case against the university on Tuesday, one day after JHU filed a similar motion. The lawsuit was originally filed in November by family members of Elizabeth Beall Newell, who along with her siblings sold 108 acres of their family's Belward Farm near Gaithersburg to JHU in 1989 for $5 million. The sale, of land the family said was valued at $54 million, came with certain stipulations, including that the land be used for research or education purposes.

Two huge civil cases led by Baltimore — one that ended last week as the other gained momentum — spotlight City Hall's emerging role as an aggressive watchdog against the misdeeds of multinational banks. On Thursday, Wells Fargo settled a nationwide suit launched by the city four years ago that alleged the bank discriminated against black and Latino mortgage borrowers. Baltimore is also the lead plaintiff in a class action suit against a group of financial firms worldwide it accused of conspiring to keep a key interest rate benchmark low — and thereby siphon off money from the city treasury.

A group of disabled workers is moving forward with a class-action lawsuit against the Social Security Administration alleging the federal agency discriminates against employees with disabilities by denying or limiting promotions. An office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Aug. 25 affirmed a 2008 decision by an EEOC administrative judge that certified the case as a class action, attorneys for the plaintiffs said Monday. The lawsuit seeks compensatory and other damages as well as changes in policies and procedures that will improve career opportunities for disabled employees, according attorneys for the plaintiffs.

Attorneys want to include 700,000 women who have worked for Wal-Mart in the largest employment discrimination class action in American history. The lawsuit accuses the nation's largest nongovernment employer of favoring men over women in promotions and pay. The plaintiffs want all women who worked at Wal-Mart from 1996 to 2001 eligible for awards in the suit. The attorneys plan to file their motion for class certification in April. The lawsuit, filed in 2001 in federal court in San Francisco, focuses largely on one statistic: In 2001, the suit claims, women made up 65 percent of Wal-Mart's hourly employees and 33 percent of its managers.

The recent $55 million jury verdict against Johns Hopkins Hospital is a malpractice outrage, praised by lawyers, as usual, smacking their lips for more of the same ("Waverly family awarded $55 million in lawsuit," June 27). From the article in The Sun, I understand that the Waverly couple, awarded this large sum, Rebecca Fielding and Enso Martinez, waited for hours at home, with Rebecca in futile labor, until they saw the light all of a sudden and ran to Hopkins for rescue. Somehow, as per Mr. Martinez, the obstetrics department at Hopkins was not on its toes to save his child from oxygen deprivation and its attendant complications.

Two customers of Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Hampstead-based men's apparel chain, accusing the retailer of using deceptive marketing by claiming merchandise is on sale when it is actually being offered at regular price. James Waldron and Matthew Villani filed the complaint April 5 in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, seeking a jury trial. The plaintiffs filed on behalf of themselves and others who bought Jos. Bank merchandise from April 5, 2006, to the present.