Suit

RG Steel has filed more than 280 "clawback" suits aimed at getting companies to repay money received from the steel company in the three months before its bankruptcy. RG Steel, formed to buy the Sparrows Point mill and several other facilities in 2011, quickly became insolvent and filed for bankruptcy protection last May. When it auctioned off its mills for pennies on the dollar last summer, it had more than 1,000 creditors in and beyond the region. Now the company is seeking to have suppliers - at least some of which are also creditors - turn over payments it made to them in the 90 days leading up to its bankruptcy filing.

Montgomery County on Monday filed a federal class action lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, alleging the mortgage finance firms wrongly avoided paying transfer taxes in Maryland. In some instances, the companies have said they are exempt from the taxes (required to record documents, including deeds, at land records offices throughout the state) "because they are governmental entities or agencies," according to the county's complaint. But that's not true, claims the county.

Christopher C. Hartman, known as Baltimore's P.T. Barnum when he staged flamboyant media events as press spokesman for Mayor William Donald Schaefer, died of heart failure Thursday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 67 and lived in Cockeysville. A founder and first chairman of the 1970 Baltimore City Fair, he was recalled as a promoter of city neighborhoods, sports teams and businesses. His best-known stunt was dressing the mayor in an old-style swimming suit and posing him in a pool with a rubber duck alongside a comely mermaid outside the National Aquarium in 1981.

A battle over the future of the closed Chestnut Ridge golf course in Lutherville is continuing, with the company that bought the property now suing the Baltimore County Council over its decision to limit the land's development potential. In a lawsuit filed last month in Baltimore County Circuit, CR Golf Club LLC, which has ties to Timonium developer Cignal Corp., claims council members made an unfair land-use decision this summer that limited the number of homes that can be built on the approximately 230-acre property off Falls Road.

A fourth accuser is coming forward to claim he engaged in underage sex with former "Sesame Street" puppeteer Kevin Clash. On Monday, Florida-based attorney Jeff Herman filed his third lawsuit alleging that Clash, now 52, engaged in sex with minors. Herman also has filed suits on behalf of two of the previous three accusers. All three cases allege civil — in other words, noncriminal — violations, and are pending in the Southern District of New York. All three seek unspecified damages.

The city's lawyer has filed paperwork to block a former deputy mayor and the administration's technology chief from answering questions in a lawsuit over a proposed overhaul of the municipal telephone system. City Solicitor George Nilson is asking a judge for a protective order to prevent former Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty and current Chief Information Officer Chris Tonjes from answering questions from a lawyer for Baltimore Comptroller Joan M. Pratt. Pratt filed a lawsuit in October to stop Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's technology office from installing a new phone system for city offices, alleging that the administration used an "underhanded, illegal technique" to bypass the competitive bidding process.

Three former NFL players living in Maryland have filed a suit against the league alleging it hid information about the long-term health effects of concussions and endangered players' lives by "mythologizing" violent hits. The class-action suit seeks more than $600 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The players join almost 4,000 peers in filing suit against the league , according to Paul D. Anderson, a lawyer who specializes in advocating for traumatic brain injury victims and retired NFL players' rights.

The estate of a 40-year-old patient killed at a state psychiatric hospital sued the man accused of the killing and has started the process to sue the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The suit, filed Oct. 25 in Baltimore, alleges that Andre Mayo, 47, assaulted and killed Rogelio Mondragon in his cell at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital on Oct. 27 last year. It demands $15 million in compensation and $5 million in damages on each of two counts. The estate also filed a notice of claim for $15 million against the health department, which is the first step in filing a suit against a state agency.

The city of Baltimore has lost its case against the wife of former mayoral candidate Otis Rolley, who it claimed owed the city $26,100 for taking months of paid leave she hadn't earned while working for City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young. Charline Rolley said Thursday that the victory is "bittersweet, but definitely a weight off my shoulders. " City Solicitor George Nilson said in a statement that taxpayers will now be left footing the bill. The city had sued Rolley for breach of contract and unjust enrichment, and asked the court to force her to repay the city for the salary she earned while on paid leave to give birth, take care of her sick infant and work on her husband's campaign.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, praised the U.S. Department of Justice's decision Wednesday to sue Bank of America over alleged reckless mortgage lending practices. The government claims that loose mortgage lending standards by Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America bought in 2008, ended up costing taxpayers at least $1 billion. "I welcome this announcement and strongly commend the Obama Administration, the Department of Justice, and the Inspectors General for their diligence in seeking accountability and justice on behalf of the American taxpayers and homeowners," Cummings said in a statement.