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American Canyon Lawsuit Alleges Construction Defects
A group of homeowners has filed a construction defect lawsuit in Napa County Superior Court alleging defective design, construction, and poor workmanship. The homeowners own more than 460 homes that were built by Shea Homes Ltd. There are currently about two dozen homeowners who are part of the lawsuit. However, attorneys who represent the owners expect more owners to join the lawsuit.
According to some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, they have noticed signs of poor and defective construction in the homes that they purchased from Shea Homes. Some plaintiffs have noticed cracks in the ceiling and on the stucco walls. In some cases, the front door, gate and sliding doors have shifted position. Other homeowners have been forced to replace the windows of the house, and suffered through window leakages and mold growth. The homes are located in one of American Canyon’s newer neighborhoods.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount for compensatory damages and attorney fees. This is the first time that Shea Homes has been the target of a construction defect lawsuit. Back in 2007, dozens of other homeowners at LaVigne sued Shea Homes. That particular lawsuit remains in litigation.
When you pay money for a home, you don’t expect to find defective construction and design. Unfortunately, for many California homeowners, their new dream house may be the stuff of nightmares. Construction defects can be seen in the growth of mold inside the home, cracks in the walls and ceiling, broken window titles, windows leaks, water intrusion, improper drainage and several other signs of construction defects.
If you have purchased a home and have noticed construction defects, you may have legal remedies. A California construction defect attorney can help you obtain compensation for the reasonable cost of repairing the defect, relocation expenses and storage expenses during the period of repair, expenses involved in hiring experts to investigate the defects, the cost of repairing other property damage caused by the defects and other costs.
Lawsuit against University Of California and Others Alleges Online Libraries Violate Copyrights
Authors from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against four universities, including the University of California, alleging that that these universities are infringing on copyrights by developing digital libraries of scanned books.
The lawsuit is filed by the Authors Guild, the Union es Ecrivaines et des Ecrivains Quebecois and the Australian Society of Authors as well as 4 individual authors in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The lawsuit names the University of California, the University of Michigan, Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin and Cornell University. The lawsuit has been triggered by the University of Michigan’s action in creating a repository where students can access unlimited downloads of certain books, including out-of-print books whose authors have not been located. According to the authors, these scans include at least 7 million books. All these universities have pooled unauthorized scans of books at the University of Michigan.
The authors say they also have also have a problem with the way these universities have hijacked so-called “orphaned” books, or books whose authors cannot be located. They deny that these are orphaned books, and that these books are protected under copyright laws.
University of Michigan representatives say that they have been planning to make scanned copies of books available to university students by October. According to them, the authors have always been aware of these plans, and the university is not certain what the basis of the lawsuit is. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages as well as impoundment of the digital scanned copies of the book.
This lawsuit reminds California copyright infringement lawyers of a similar lawsuit that is currently pending against Google. That lawsuit is based on Google’s efforts to create a massive online library of digitized copies of books. Later this year, a judge expects Google and authors in that lawsuit to reach a settlement.
New York Tenants Sue Landlord over Bat Invasion
Two New York tenants are suing their landlord for $1 million after their home was invaded by bats.
According to the tenants, they moved into their new apartment on July 25, but had to vacate in a hurry after a couple of bats invaded the premises. The first encounter occurred on July 31 when one of the tenants ran into a bat flying around the apartment. In that incident, the tenants were able to get a building superintendent to capture the bat and place it in a plastic bag. Just a few days later, the other tenant had a similar experience, when a bat flew out from behind the curtains, and towards her.
After the second bat encounter, the tenants complained to the landlord. According to them, he did not seem to be too concerned about the situation, and said that he would call them back soon. He never did. To make matters worse, one of the tenants noticed strange puncture wounds on her skin one morning, and both tenants needed to have rabies shots as a precaution. Since then, the two have moved out of the apartment, and have been forced to live in a friend’s house.
Their lawsuit against the landlord claims that they have suffered severe anxiety since these encounters with the bats, and have had trouble sleeping. Other tenants in the building have not had any similar experience with bats, however.
Landlord-tenant disputes in California can arise over a number of issues. Often, Los Angeles real estate lawyers are called in to settle disputes arising when landlords have not made necessary repairs to a property, or have not maintained a safe property. There are other reasons why you may need an Encino landlord dispute lawyer, if or instance, if your landlord implements an inappropriate rent increase or an eviction notice.
AIG Files Mortgage Securities Fraud Lawsuit against Bank of America
American International Group has filed a lawsuit against Bank of America, claiming that the bank sold billions of dollars in fraudulent mortgage-backed securities.
The lawsuit has been filed in the New York Supreme Court and comes after an investigation into the manner in which several large banks sold mortgage loans. The AIG lawsuit claims more than $10 billion in losses, and is believed to be the single largest mortgage securities-related lawsuit by a single investor.
According to the lawsuit, Bank of America and its Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial units sold mortgage securities that were flawed by fraudulent actions and misrepresentations. Among other things, Bank of America misrepresented the quality of the mortgages it was selling. Bank of America with Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial sold mortgages to borrowers who were clearly unable to repay the loans. These loans were then repackaged into supposedly low-risk securities, and sold to investors like AIG.
This lawsuit is one among several lawsuits that are being filed by private investors who believe that banks misrepresented facts, luring customers into buying high-risk securities during the housing boom. There are already 90 mortgage fraud lawsuits demanding $197 billion. AIG is already in the process of preparing similar lawsuits against other banks and financial institutions including J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. For AIG, which would’ve gone bankrupt had it not been for the $180 billion government bailout in 2008, these lawsuits are aimed towards recovering some of its losses during the financial crisis that year.
To Los Angeles securities fraud lawyers, the increasing numbers of lawsuits against banks and large financial institutions stand in sharp contrast to the action by the U.S. Justice Department. The agency has not taken action against any of the major banks, and in fact, is currently in the process of wrapping up many of its investigations without pressing charges.
Lawsuit Accuses Wyeth of Monopoly through Illegal Patents
A New York-based retail pharmacy has filed a federal lawsuit that alleges pharmaceutical company Wyeth profited immensely by misrepresenting clinical data to retain monopoly over a highly popular drug used to treat psychiatric conditions.
The lawsuit has been filed by Uniondale Chemists Inc. in the U.S. District Court in Mississippi. The lawsuit claims that Wyeth, which is now part of Pfizer, fraudulently obtained three patents on extended release versions of its highly-popular Effexor drug. Effexor is used to treat depression and anxiety, and contains the drug venlafaxine hydrochloride.
According to the lawsuit, Wyeth’s patent on Effexor expired in 2008. However, the company used fraudulent means to capture the Effexor market after those original patents had expired. The lawsuit alleges that Wyeth misrepresented facts when it claimed that it unexpectedly came across the extended-release formula to secure additional patents.
The lawsuit claims that as a result of the company’s exclusionary tactics, generic forms of Effexor XR were blocked from the marketplace between June 2008 and June 2010. According to the lawsuit, Uniondale Chemists paid artificially inflated prices for the extended-release venlafaxine hydrochloride. During this period of time, sales of Effexor in the American market reached $4.5 billion. The lawsuit is seeking class-action status for companies like Uniondale Chemists that suffered losses due to Wyeth’s alleged illegal and unethical conduct.
Pfizer has denied any wrongdoing. According to a statement by the company, it denies all claims related to the Effexor XR patents.
The lawsuit also has some tough words for the Food and Drug Administration which, as California business dispute lawyers know, depends heavily on a brand-name manufacturer’s account to verify the validity of patents. The agency does not have the authority to independently check the manufacturer’s data and verify its accuracy.