In move that Volkswagen hopes will begin to help put its recent bad publicity over lying to the government and to consumers in the rearview mirror now knows where the case will be conducted. Northern California was named as the venue for the Volkswagen A.G. Emissions litigation surprising some as both the plaintiffs and Volkswagen were interested in other venues. This case, which gained a great deal of publicity due to consumers being lied to about air quality of its “clean diesels”, deals with consumers who have joined a class action suit in 60 different federal courts. This venue decision was made by the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
This case involves more than 500 class actions that allege that Volkswagen purposefully set out to deceive consumers by claiming in advertisements that it was producing clean diesel cars. The truth is that Volkswagen vehicles which were produced under the clean diesel brand were actually as much as 40 times higher than the standards for nitrogen oxides allowed by the United States law. Volkswagen admitted that around 11 million of their purported clean diesels had a rigged system set up to “defeat” emissions tests when the system sensed it was being evaluated. The vehicles were temporarily cleaner while the testing equipment was connected to the cars, then went to normal operations when the equipment was removed.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit and attorneys for Volkswagen attempted to have the cases moved to Michigan or Virginia. The plaintiffs also stated, through attorneys, that they would be satisfied if the cases were conducted in Tennessee or New Jersey. The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation opted instead for the case to be heard in the Northern District of California because one-fifth of all Volkswagen cases were filed there, and even more specifically, 30 cases were filed in the Northern District.
Another reason the Norther District was chosen is Judge Charles Breyer works there. Judge Breyer, the brother of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, has a great deal of experience in working with multidistrict court cases. Judge Breyer is currently presiding over a trial that concerns price fixing among airlines. Several of the airlines involved are the world’s largest.
A Statesville, North Carolina resident, Bill Warner, died after being infected by “lethally drug resistant bacteria,” (called a “superbug”) which remained lodged in the crevices of a duodenoscope after failed sterilization of the instrument. Deadly design flaws apparently made it impossible to properly and adequately cleanse the scope of deadly brown scaly deposits after previous use.
Police say that in October of 2012, emergency responders arrived at a home in North Bend, Washington to investigate April and Jeff Henderson; a couple who was supposedly caring for then 19-year-old Heather Curtis. Detectives say they found Heather Curtis in a room with a bunk bed, lying on the mattress with only a light blanket to cover her. Among the dirty diapers, feces, garbage, smell and flies milling about was Heather; naked except for a very soiled diaper. Investigators say they originally thought Heather was a child of 7 or 8 years old because she was extremely malnourished, emaciated and writhing in pain. Heather Curtis is blind, has spastic quadriplegia and cerebral palsy. Her teeth had decayed to the point where she, after being removed from the home, required 19 root canals. At the time of her rescue she weighted only 68 pounds.
Jessica Ryburn, his mother, filed a lawsuit against the Giddings Independent School District. The lawsuit made the accusation that other student athletes were similarly injured in the past. However, this accusation has proven difficult to verify because the school district doesn’t have records of all sports injuries. The state does not require school districts to track all student athlete sports injuries. Due to the lack of records, the Giddings Independent School District refused to respond to Ryburn’s lawsuit.
Cox entered the hospital on June 25th with a swollen upper lip. According to the suit, her vitals were normal and nothing about her seemed out of the ordinary at the time. The doctor diagnosing her at the time, Dr. Jonathan Severy, ordered the nurses to give Cox .3 milligrams of epinephrine through an injection. However, the suit alleges that the nurse, Susan B. Edwards, administered 3 milligrams of the drug, ten times the amount, through an IV instead.
The deputies then claim he pulled forward and began to reverse again. Nine of the deputies opened fire, shooting 61 shots. He was killed instantly.
Even though the request bothered Eason, he went ahead and prepaid for his breakfast as he was asked. However, later that day he returned to the restaurant in Vancouver to inquire about this policy that seemed so discriminatory. While he was there, he spotted a white couple seated and eating their meal and asked if they had been required to pay for their meal in advance. The couple questioned by Elson were amazed that someone would expect that they would have to prepay, according to Kafoury. Soon after, Elson, who is also a real estate agent in the Vancouver area, filed a lawsuit against the restaurant and is seeking $100,000 in compensation for what he has been through.