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Dutch Supreme Court: Fortis was mismanaged
Court Watch |
2013/12/09 13:54
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The Netherlands' Supreme Court has upheld rulings that the now-defunct Belgian bank Fortis NV was mismanaged from September 2007 to September 2008, and its then-management board can be held accountable.
Friday's ruling opens the door for investor claims against former CEO Jean-Paul Votron, among others, though not former supervisory Chairman Count Maurice Lippens, whom lower courts found was too far removed from decision making to be held liable.
Fortis, Royal Bank of Scotland and Spain's Santander bought Dutch bank ABN Amro in a hostile takeover in 2007, nominally the largest in banking history.
Fortis agreed to buy ABN's Dutch operations for 24 billion euros in its part of the deal but was unable to finance the buy — which represented around half of its own total size — and eventually spiraled toward bankruptcy. The Dutch state ultimately nationalized all Fortis-ABN operations in the Netherlands in 2008 to avoid a meltdown of the country's financial system. The rescue has cost taxpayers at least 32 billion euros. |
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Appeals court sides with Starbucks over tips
Court Watch |
2013/11/25 14:58
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A federal appeals court in New York has agreed that Starbucks baristas must share their tips with shift supervisors.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its finding Thursday.
The decision stemmed from a lower-court ruling that found that the baristas who serve customers must share tips with shift supervisors. The courts say shift supervisors do much of the same work as the coffee servers.
A Starbucks spokeswoman says the company is pleased with the ruling. She says shift supervisors spend more than 90 percent of their time serving customers.
An attoney for the baristas says the ruling lets subsidize the pay of its supervisors with money that should be going to their lowest-wage workers.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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2 plead not guilty to killing students near USC
Court Watch |
2013/11/08 14:44
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Two men have pleaded not guilty to killing two Chinese graduate students who were shot as they sat in a parked car near the University of Southern California last year.
The Los Angeles Times says 20-year-old Javier Bolden and 21-year-old Bryan James entered the pleas Thursday to murder charges.
Prosecutors say the men killed engineering students Ming Qu and Ying Wu a mile from campus in April of last year while stealing their cellphones. Authorities say GPS data was used to track Wu's phone, leading to the arrests.
At a preliminary hearing last month, prosecutors played a recording of a wiretapped phone call between Barnes and Bolden, in which they apparently discussed the attack on the students. |
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Calif. court: Spanking with wooden spoon not abuse
Court Watch |
2013/10/11 10:34
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A state appeals court on Tuesday tossed out child abuse findings against a frustrated Northern California mother who spanked her 12-year-old daughter hard enough with a wooden spoon to cause bruising.
The 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose reversed the child abuse determination made by the Santa Clara County Department of Social Services. Social workers waned to report Vernica Gonzalez to the state Department of Justice's child abuse database with a "substantiated" abuse determination. That determination was upheld by a trial court judge.
The appeals court said the spanking came close to abuse, but that social workers and the lower court judge failed to consider the family's entire circumstances.
Gonzalez and her husband testified that other forms of punishment such as groundings and taking away her phone had failed to persuade their 12-year-old daughter to do her schoolwork and avoid gang culture. The parents said that other family members had testified that spankings in the household were a rarity.
The appeals court said the mother's growing frustration with her daughter's behavior and her intention not to inflict harm in the April 2010 spanking weighed heavily in its ruling. |
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Maine RR makes 1st court appearance in bankruptcy
Court Watch |
2013/08/12 15:02
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A railroad company whose runaway oil train killed 47 people in Canada was granted permission Thursday to continue its business operations pending the appointment of a bankruptcy trustee.
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic lawyers made their first appearance in courtrooms in Bangor and in Montreal a day after the company filed for bankruptcy protection, while Maine's transportation commissioner said the state will make sure that the company's rail lines stay open during bankruptcy proceedings.
In Bangor, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Louis Kornreith granted Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd.'s motion to keep operating until a trustee is appointed to oversee the case. The company says it can preserve the value of its assets for an eventual sale if it can maintain its day-to-day operations during bankruptcy.
In Montreal, a Quebec Superior Court judge granted Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Canada Co. creditor protection, a decision expected to increase the value of the company's assets and speed up the payment process.
The railroad has come under particularly harsh criticism in Canada for the way it's handled itself since July 6, when an unattended train carrying crude oil derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, setting off massive explosions that destroyed much of the downtown area and killed the 47 people. Justice Martin Castonguay told a Montreal courtroom on Thursday that the company's actions have been "lamentable." |
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