Suit

(NOTE: To download Liam's full cheat sheet for all of Saturday's races, click here . Following is his analysis on the Preakness Stakes.)   There are always lots of hard luck stories in the Kentucky Derby, and some of those hard luck horses come to the Preakness looking to set the record straight. Several of those guys are here to take on Orb. And a handful more Derby grumblers are skipping the Preakness to set their sights on the Belmont. However, recent history shows that the Derby winner tends to back up the Derby win and beat most if not all of those Derby finishers again.

A Howard County couple is suing one of the largest residential real estate brokerages in the state and a Columbia title company for more than $11 million, alleging that the firms had financial ties that violated federal law. The case is a proposed class action that could involve thousands of plaintiffs, all home buyers who bought a home with the Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate since 2000 and used a settlement firm called Lakeview Title...

For many folks headed to Preakness, the focus of the afternoon isn't the race. It's the fashion — and we don't just mean hats. If you're in the grandstands, the Jockey Club area or Corporate Village, you'll want to dress the part. Betsy Dugan, owner of Bettina Collections in Cross Keys and former co-owner of Octavia in Pikesville, has been dressing women for Preakness for years. "This is the time ... to dress up," she said. If there's one rule of thumb, it's that ladies and gentlemen at Preakness should look like ...well, ladies and gentlemen.

The O'Malley administration has settled a class action lawsuit brought by critics who accused the state of failing low-income and disabled Marylanders by regularly taking nearly a year to approve medical assistance applications as part of a severe backlog. The settlement means the Maryland Department of Human Resources will process claims faster and work to eliminate a backlog of more than 9,000 delayed cases, according to the Public Justice Center, the Homeless Persons Representation Project and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the organizations that filed suit.

New York Mets pitcher David Cone allegedly lured two women into the bullpen area of Shea Stadium in 1989 and masturbated in front of them, a lawsuit filed yesterday said.The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Rockland County, N.Y., is an amendment to a suit filed by three Rockland women last year accusing Cone of harassment and slander.The women were identified in the suit as Phyllis DeLucia of West Nyack, Debra Hittelman of Spring Valley and Joan Twohie of Wesley Hills, all 28.The suit also alleged that later in the 1989 season Cone went to a hotel where two of the women were staying and jumped into bed with them.

The founder of the Catonsville-based retirement community company that pioneered campus-style continuing-care facilities nationwide faces a $100 million lawsuit brought on by a trustee this month. John C. Erickson, who founded the Baltimore County Erickson Retirement Communities in 1983, is accused, along with his family members and other former board members, of approving company assets for private use. The company has since been bought by a local entrepreneur and operates under new leadership as Erickson Living.

The air went out of Mirlande Wilson's tale about a Mega Million's jackpot ticket hidden at a Windsor Mill McDonald's Tuesday, when lottery officials announced that the actual winners have come forward - and produced the winning ticket. The timing likely will save Wilson a court battle. Wilson, a 37-year-old mother of seven, was sued Monday in Baltimore City Circuit Court by Mandisa Mazibuko of Germantown in an attempt to block Wilson from cashing. Mazibuko also sought $1 million in damages, plus interest and court costs.

You know the story about William Faulkner at the Oxford, Mississippi, post office, don't you? Sacked for sitting in the back reading the magazines instead of waiting on customers, he said, "Good, now I won't be at the beck and call of every son of a bitch that's got two cents. "  Well, when The Sun sent me off on my [cough] sabbatical [cough] in 2009 and I set up the blog at a new location, I decided that I no longer had to be at the beck and call of the Associated Press Stylebook . So I gladly adopted the Oxford comma and suited my own preferences in other matters.

A federal lawsuit has been filed against the Harford County Public Schools and two school officials on behalf of a disabled student, who the suit claims was subjected to years of continuous bullying and threats from other students beginning when he was a student at Church Creek Elementary School and continuing when he was a student at Aberdeen Middle and High schools. The suit contends the school system not only failed to address the problem, but also failed to protect the student from the abuse.

Former coach Mike Leach sued ESPN Inc. and a public relations firm on Wednesday, accusing them of libel and slander after he was fired by Texas Tech amid accusations that he mistreated a player suffering from a concussion. The suit filed in Texas district court claims the network's coverage of Leach's firing last year was "willful and negligent defamation" and that it failed to "retract false and damaging statements" it made from "misinformation" provided to ESPN by Craig James , the father of the Texas Tech player.

A federal lawsuit has been filed against the Harford County Public Schools and two school officials on behalf of a disabled student, who the suit claims was subjected to years of continuous bullying and threats from other students beginning when he was a student at Church Creek Elementary School and continuing when he was a student at Aberdeen Middle and High schools. The suit contends the school system not only failed to address the problem, but also failed to protect the student from the abuse.

A Towson cardiologist and his former employer disputed claims during a civil trial Tuesday made by 21 plaintiffs who allege that the doctor performed unnecessary stent procedures to treat heart patients. Dr. Mark Midei, St. Joseph Medical Center and Catholic Health Initiatives are being sued in Baltimore County Circuit Court by former patients of Midei, who claim that the doctor completed an excessive number of the procedures and that the hospital failed to provide any oversight, leaving the patients with lasting medical complications.

Three moving trucks hauled furniture out of the city's Circuit Court buildings Saturday, as the Baltimore state's attorney's office left its century-old lodgings inside for an upgrade that prosecutors say will protect crime victims and witnesses. "This move represents a sea change in our operations that will substantially contribute to our efficacy and efficiency," State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein said. He added that he thanked the state and city "for recognizing the importance and need for space that will better position us to fight for the safety and security of our citizens.

While we're "Regulating farms with certainty" (March 18) as The Sun editorializes, let's be certain that we hold the University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic accountable for their own litigation runoff. It's "outrageous" (your word, not mine) when The Sun suggests that law clinics should be immune from punishment for knowingly representing a frivolous lawsuit. Even Gov. Martin O'Malley registered his concern. In November of 2011 he complained about the "ongoing injustice" of the Environmental Law Clinic pursuing "costly litigation of questionable merit.

Sheldon Stephens, the first man to claim that “Sesame Street” puppeteer Kevin Clash had an underage relationship with him, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the former voice of Elmo. Stephens is the fourth man to sue the Turners Station native, but in November he was the first to make his allegations public. Clash, 52, has denied all of the allegations. He has said he and Stephens had a relationship after Stephens became an adult. Stephens soon retracted his claim, calling the relationship adult and consensual.

Edwin F. Hale Sr., the Baltimore developer and former CEO of First Mariner Bancorp, filed a $5 million lawsuit Monday against the operators of 1st Mariner Arena , alleging they are improperly using billboards that belong to him. Filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court, Hale's suit names as defendants arena operator SMG Holdings of West Conshohocken, Pa., and the advertising firm that replaced him at the arena, Legends Sales and Marketing of...

Jennifer Royle, a sportscaster at 105.7 The Fan, confirmed Monday that she has dropped her defamation lawsuit against Nestor Aparicio and two of his colleagues at radio station WNST. “All I wanted was for the harassment to stop,” Royle said. “Nestor wrote on his blog that he will never speak my name again. It looks like I won. " But Aparicio doesn't see it that way. "If she wants to go around proclaiming victory,' she's wrong," he said in a telephone interview Monday.

The developers of the stalled Westport Waterfront filed a $225 million suit in bankruptcy court Wednesday alleging that out-of-state financiers posed as potential investors in the project and then conspired with others to upend development plans. Investors based in Utah gained access to confidential information about the project by offering to help refinance it, according to the suit filed by developer Patrick Turner, Thomas Fore, and their companies affiliated with the Westport project.

The only residents of the Westport waterfront last week were a gaggle of geese that commandeered a large puddle amid the brush and broken asphalt. The only structure was a battered chain-link fence, capturing wind-blown litter along the perimeter. By now the 43-acre tract, assembled and cleared over several years with millions of dollars and personal resolve, was supposed to house hundreds and bustle with office workers. There should be a towering skyscraper and a stadium. Instead, the development company that was going to make that happen is in bankruptcy and the future of the $1.4 billion Westport Waterfront project, thought of as a potential "Harbor West," is uncertain.

A Morgan State University student who was partially blinded with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire alleges in a recently filed lawsuit that the school ignored warning signs of Alexander Kinyua's potential for violence. Joshua Ceasar of New Jersey was struck by Kinyua, who is accused of killing a family friend before eating some of his body parts in Harford County. Kinyua pleaded guilty but not criminally responsible in December in the attack on Ceasar. "There were numerous warning signs that Kinyua was a danger to the community, and Morgan State failed to act to protect anyone on campus," said Ceasar's attorney, Steven D. Silverman.