• Georgia widow sues Mercedes-Benz
• Blacks seek end to menthol-cigarette ads
• Court rules against Branch Davidian reporter
• Title insurance claims often limited

Georgia widow sues Mercedes-Benz    (Return to index)

A woman whose husband died in a head-on car crash is seeking $7 million from German automaker Mercedes-Benz, claiming the company covered up an engineering defect she says caused her husband’s fatal injuries. The victim’s Mercedes collided with a cargo van in Cobb County, Georgia, 13 years ago, but the complexities of translating technical documents helped delay a trial. Lawyers for Mercedes-Benz say the drunken driver of the other vehicle was to blame. For the full story, see “Suit against carmaker finally in Cobb court” in the Oct. 23 edition of The Atlanta Journal and Constitution.

Blacks seek end to menthol-cigarette ads    (Return to index)

A law passed to protect former slaves during post-Civil War Reconstruction forms the basis of a federal lawsuit against Big Tobacco. The suit, filed Oct. 19 in Philadelphia, charges the tobacco industry with violating the civil rights of African-Americans by targeting them with menthol-cigarette advertising. It also seeks a court-ordered ban on such practices. The case is said to be the first to use civil-rights rather than personal-injury or product-liability law in a claim against tobacco companies, as well as the first such suit filed on behalf of the black community. The plaintiffs in the well as two black health groups, claim menthol smokes are more dangerous than regular proposed class action, who are African-American menthol smokers and ex-smokers as cigarettes. See the Oct. 22 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer or click on http://cnn.com/US/9810/22h/cigarettes.blacks/index.html to find out more.

Court rules against Branch Davidian reporter    (Return to index)

A former TV reporter who filed a libel suit against a rival station was fair game for fair comment, the Texas Supreme Court decided in dismissing his suit. John McLemore, one of the first reporters on the scene of the 1993 Branch Davidian inferno in Waco, Texas, alleged that a Dallas station libeled him with its report about an alleged tip that foiled federal agents’ plans to raid the Davidian compound. In finding that McLemore was "a public figure for limited purposes," the high court reversed an appeals court’s judgment in the case, which now appears headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. See Law Journal EXTRA! at http://www.ljx.com/news/waco.htm for the story from the Oct. 12 issue of Texas Lawyer.

Title insurance claims often limited    (Return to index)

Buyer beware: Your title insurance policy might not offer the protection you think it does, according to a story in the Oct. 12 issue of The National Law Journal. The story on Page B12, "Tort Claims Against Title Insurers Will Likely Fail," outlines a hypothetical case in which a couple buys real estate and discovers too late that a restrictive covenant won’t allow the use for which they’d bought the property – and spent their life savings. Attempts to recover damages from the title insurer failed because state law didn’t hold the company liable for a negligent title search. "In most states, any title search that a title insurer conducts is made for its own benefit and not that of the insured," the article says, and advises lawyers to examine preliminary title reports for a merger clause.