March 28, 2019 (Reuters) — Purdue Pharma LP fraudulently transferred funds to members of the wealthy Sackler family who control the OxyContin maker despite knowing it faced major liabilities that had made it already insolvent, New York’s attorney general alleged on Thursday. New York Attorney General Letitia James made the claims in a revised lawsuit already pending against Purdue over its role in the opioid epidemic that added members of the Sackler family and other drug manufacturers and distributors as defendants. The lawsuit alleged Purdue and other manufacturers engaged in deceptive marketing that downplayed the dangers of the addictive painkillers and accused distributors of failing to detect the diversion of the drugs for illicit purposes. “As the Sackler family and the other defendants grew richer, New Yorkers’ health grew poorer and our state was left to foot the bill,” Attorney General James said in a statement. The revised lawsuit also added as defendants units of opioid manufacturers Johnson & Johnson, Endo International PLC, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and distributors McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. In a statement, the Sackler family called the lawsuit “a misguided attempt to place blame where it does not belong for a complex public health crisis.” Representatives for the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment.
March 28, 2019 Prepackaged potato skins marketed by TGI Fridays are not made with the skins of potatoes, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York on Wednesday. Plaintiff Solange Troncoso of New York is proposing a class action against the Carrollton, Texas-based company, claiming that the company misleads consumers by selling “Potato Skins” snacks that contain potato flakes and potato starch, but no skins, Reuters reported. The lawsuit claims the Idaho Potato Commission and others inside and outside the industry have associated potato skins with healthy eating since they started appearing on restaurant menus a half-century ago, according to the wire service. Ms. Troncoso is claiming she and other consumers are defrauded by the misleading packaging for its bacon ranch, cheddar and bacon, and sour cream and onion potato skins, providing them with an “inferior product,” either by mistake or at a “full” price, according to Reuters. “The presence of potato skins imparts a further value in the eyes of reasonable consumers,” states the complaint, filed almost a year after Ms. Troncoso paid $1.99 for a bag of TGI Fridays Sour Cream & Onion Potato Skins at a convenience store. TGI Fridays has not commented on the suit.
March 28, 2019 (Reuters) — Johnson & Johnson has settled three cases brought by plaintiffs who claimed asbestos in the company’s talcum-based products caused mesothelioma, an attorney for the plaintiffs said on Wednesday. The cases were pending in Oklahoma, New York and California state courts. J&J, which faces some 13,000 talc-related lawsuits nationwide, denies that its talc causes cancer, saying numerous studies and tests by regulators worldwide have shown its talc to be safe and asbestos-free.
March 19, 2019 Swiss Re Ltd. said that it is part of an insurance group covering U.S.-based The Boeing Co. and Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise S.C., Reuters reported. Swiss Re said that it is a co-insurer for Ethiopian Airlines and part of the group of insurers for Boeing’s airliner manufacturer liability policy. Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing 737 Max 8 plane crashed on March 10, killing all 157 people on board.
March 19, 2019 (Reuters) — A group of U.S. states is investigating Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. for potential unfair and deceptive acts related to reports of hundreds of vehicle fires, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said on Monday. The South Korean automakers have recalled more than 2.3 million vehicles since 2015 to address various engine fire risks in a series of recalls. In November, Reuters reported that federal prosecutors had launched a criminal investigation into Hyundai and Kia to determine if vehicle recalls linked to engine defects had been conducted properly. “We are aware of multiple fires involving Connecticut vehicles, including some allegedly already repaired through the recall process. This is a serious matter, and we are moving aggressively and responsibly to uncover the facts and to ensure accountability,” Attorney General Tong said in a statement.
March 20, 2019 U.S.-based Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center said that the Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico erupted on March 18, triggering warnings for ash rain and mudslides in the country’s central region, The Yucatan Times reported. Mexico’s disaster prevention agency said that the eruption spewed a column of ash around 1.2 kilometers into the air. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.
Australia’s financial services regulator called on insurers and banks to include climate as one of the material risks they manage to meet obligations to policyholders and depositors, Reuters reported. The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority said that climate-related risks are foreseeable and actionable for financial firms.
A putative class action lawsuit filed against a Chicago senior living center under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act has been settled for an undisclosed amount, according to a district court filing in the case. The case, Cynthia Dixon v. The Washington and Jane Smith Community-Beverly et al., is one of about 200 cases that have been filed under the law, according to a defense attorney who is not directly involved in the case. In January, the Illinois Supreme Court held in a unanimous opinion involving Six Flags Entertainment Corp. that plaintiffs can sue firms under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act for allegedly failing to properly notify people about their policies even if no actual harm is claimed. In her lawsuit against the center, which was originally filed in state court, then moved to U.S. District Court in Chicago, Ms. Dixon charged the center had unlawfully collected, used, stored and disclosed her and the proposed class’ “sensitive and proprietary biometric data” in violation of the Illinois law. According to the complaint, when employees are first hired by the center, they are required to have their fingerprints scanned by a Kronos Inc. fingerprint scanner to enroll them in its employee database. Chelmsford, Mass.-based Kronos is also a defendant in the case. The complaint said also Ms. Dixon was required to scan her fingerprints at the beginning and end of each workday. The complaint charges the center did not inform its employees that it disclosed employees’ fingerprint data to the vendor; that it did not inform its employees of the purpose and duration for which it collects this data; that it did not obtain written releases from employees before collecting their fingerprints; and that it did not provide employees with a written, publicly available policy on the issue.
— A massive fire at a fuels storage company along the Houston Ship Channel may burn for two more days, an official said on Monday as the blaze spread a plume of black smoke across the city, shutting schools in two nearby communities. The fire began Sunday morning in a giant storage tank containing naphtha, a volatile substance used to create octane-boosting components of gasoline. No injuries were reported from the fire, but nearby residents were encouraged to remain indoors. The entire city of Deer Park, Texas, a Houston suburb, was told to shelter indoors all day Sunday. The order was lifted Monday.
The National Flood Insurance Program is launching a new risk rating system for its flood insurance policies. David Maurstad, deputy associate administrator of the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration and chief executive of the NFIP, called Risk Rating 2.0 a “game-changing initiative for the NFIP” during a media call on Monday. More information about policyholder impacts and the implementation timeline will be released in the coming weeks, but the new rating system for flood risks will be “data-driven” and factor in different variables rather than basing flood insurance premiums simply on whether or not a policyholder is in a flood zone, Mr. Maurstad said. For example, the new system will determine a policyholder’s flood risk by incorporating elements such different types of flooding — heavy rainfall from a hurricane, river overflow or coastal surge — and a building’s distance to a coast or river. “We’re going to change an insurance rating structure that hasn’t fundamentally been changed since the 1970s,” he said. “We’re going to consider more flood risks than we currently do now. It is going to be based on replacement costs of the properties.” The intention is to try to “close the insurance gap,” Mr. Maurstad said.
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