Deloitte to pay $40 million to the state of NY in insurance case settlement

The Pennsylvania insurance commissioner, has put the final touches on a $40 million settlement with Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Yesterday the New York-based accounting firm paid the amount in regards to its auditing service for Reliance Insurance Co., a carrier that is currently in liquidation.

The commissioner’s office had brought accusations up of accounting and actuarial malpractice, as well as breach of contract in relation to its audit of Reliance.

The accounting firm never admitted any malfeasance.

This settlement brings the state’s overall recovery amount from the Reliance case to $145 million. Prior to this settlement, $45 million was paid out by the Reliance parent companies, and ~$60 million was recovered from legal actions against the carrier’s former executives.

Since Oct. 3, 2001 Reliance has been in liquidation after it was declared insolvent by previous commissioner, M. Diane Koken.

OC Register to pay out $22 million to carriers

The Orange County Register has agreed to a settlement in a multimillion-dollar class-action suit with its newspaper carriers after a battle spanning years.

Freedom Communications, the newspaper’s parent company, released a statement Monday saying it will pay a maximum of $22 million to memberswho file claims, plus attorneys’ fees as determined by the court.

The newspaper carriers sought payment because the company listed them as independent contractors and not employees, withholding overtime pay and mileage reimbursement.

The settlement, which came mid trial, does not require the newspaper to instate its carriers as employees.

Apple being sued over iPhone technology

Apple Inc is the object of a civil suit that claims technology used by the iPhone that allows it to view certain sites infringes on a patent filed by Los Angeles real estate developer Elliot Gottfurcht and his partners.

The suit states that the technology the iPhone utilizes to negotiate and display some websites that are specifically designed for small phone screens infringes on a patent that EMG secured last month.

Susan Lundgren, a spokesperson for Apple, declined to release an official statement on the lawsuit, saying that the California-based company does not discuss pending legal claims.

EMG has not looked into suing companies such as HTC Corp, creator of the G1 Google phone, and Research in Motion Ltd, maker of the BlackBerry, which also carry devices that can display mobile websites, according to Gottfurcht’s lawyer.

eHarmony to release same-sex matching site following a discrimination settlement

eHarmony is launching a new same-sex matching site projected to be released by the end of March. This service is the result of legal trouble the company has been working through in New Jersey and California courts.

A gay man in NJ sued the eHarmony for not providing for same-sex relationships as a violation of his rights in the state of New Jersey, and earlier in the year, a gay woman from San Francisco filed a suit for being denied service from eHarmony because of her sexuality.

FL. teen broadcasts suicide over webcam

A South Florida teen committed suicide using a lethal drug overdose in front of a live webcam audience. According to an investigator on Friday, the event occurred 12 hours after he began blogging about his plan to do it.

According to Broward County investigator Wendy Crane, Abraham Biggs, 19, died from a lethal combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which is used to treat insomnia and depression. At least one of the drugs was prescribed to him and it is yet unclear how he came into possession of the others, said the medical examiner.

Some of the viewers encouraged Biggs, while others tried to talk him out of doing it, and a few were debating whether the dose he took was actually lethal, Crane said. It’s still unknown how many people were watching the broadcast.

Biggs revealed his plan on a body building forum, where some users said they did not take him seriously because he had made statements about killing himself before. Biggs posted a link from there to Justin.tv, a site that gives users the ability to broadcast live videos from their webcams.

Ban on gay marriage moves to CA’s highest court

The Supreme Court of California agreed to hear a legal challenge against the state’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage on Wednesday, but let the ban stand in the meantime.

A decision by the court in May allowed marriage for same-sex couples in America’s most populated state, one of a group of states, provinces and mostly European countries where these unions are recognized.

When voters passed the ban on November 4, social conservatives celebrated. However, since then, nationwide protests by gays and other opponents of the ban have breathed new life into the debate.

California is divided over the issue, with 52 percent of the vote coming from supporters of the ban. Cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles are more open to gay marriage, and areas like the inland valleys are being compared to the socially conservative Midwest.

King of Pop sued for $7 million dollars by Arab prince

The son of an Arab monarch brought a suit against the King of Pop on Monday, alleging that Jackson accepted $7 million as an advance for an album and an autobiography that he never authored.

The claim that Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa’s legal team presented was their client paid for Jackson’s expenses as an advance on the book and a joint recording deal with the sheikh, who is an amateur songwriter. Jackson holds the position that the money was a gift.

A lawyer for Al Khalifa said the his client first spoke on the phone to Jackson, 50, while the singer was on trial in California after his 2003 arrest for child molestation. Attorney Bankim Thanki said that Al Khalifa wanted to help Jackson get his career back on track. Jackson’s finances dwindled after his arrest.

Al Khalifa’s first payment of $35,000, went to paying off the utility bills at Neverland Ranch, Jackson’s 2,500-acre ranch home and park in California, Thanki said. When Jackson was found innocent of the molestation charges in June 2005, Al Khalifa paid out $2.2 million in legal bills, according to the sheikh’s attorney.

According to lawyers, Jackson and the sheikh became close and at one time both were living in a palace in Abu Dhabi owned by Al Khalifa’s father, Bahrain’s king. The singer lived for nearly a year in Bahrain as a guest of the son, but the relationship went south when Jackson defaulted on a business deal the sheikh claims they had agreed upon.

Hells Angels’ defense attorney claims self-defense

A defense attorney defending two Hells Angels currently on trial in Sioux Falls wants to show during cross-examination that multiple Outlaws biker fired a gun during a shootout.

Chad Wilson and John Midmore are charged with attempted murder after wonding five members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club in 2006 in a gun fight at Custer State Park.

According to the prosecutors Wilson and Midmore waited for the Outlaws, then Wilson got out of his pickup truck and started shooting at the rival group.

The Hells Angels defense attorney is questioning officers why a .45-caliber handgun that had been fired was found on the motorcycle of another one of the Outlaws who was shot.

He says the Outlaws fired first and his clients only fired back in self-defense.

Fatal accident closes both directions of I 94

Interstate 94 was reopened on both sides after a deadly accident between a tanker truck, semi and a car in Waukesha County, Wisconsin early Wednesday.

One person has died, but authorities haven’t provided any further details on the fatality.

Sheriffs closed the interstate in all lanes near Calhoun Rd. after the tanker, hauling liquid asphalt, turned over and spilled its load on the interstate.

Man accidentally runs over 3-year-old son’s foot with lawn mower

According to police, a father accidentally backed over his 3-year-old son with a riding lawn mower and severed the boy’s toes.

The boy was rushed to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, then flown by helicopter to Hartford Hospital after Monday afternoon’s accident. His name and condition were not released.

Police say the boy had already been brought to the local hospital when they and firefighters arrived at the Notting Hill Gate home. They gathered as many of the severed pieces that they could find and sent them on the helicopter with the boy.

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