Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.law,americast.usa-today.law From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: law Mon, Oct 26 1992 Date: Mon, 26 Oct 92 04:43:26 EST Message-ID: 10-26 0000 DECISIONLINE: Business Law USA TODAY Update Oct. 26, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network KEATING HAS TO PAY $1 BILLION: Charles Keating Jr. and two co-defendants must pay $1 billion to thousands of investors who claim they were cheated by Keating's Lincoln Savings, the judge in their federal civil fraud trial has ruled. The final damage figure was announced after federal district judge Richard Bilby calculated the effect on a jury award of federal racketeering statutes calling for triple damages. KEATING ALSO MUST PAY $750M: Federal district judge Richard Bilby has ordered Charles Keating Jr. and two co-defendants to pay $1 billion to investors who say they were cheated by Lincoln Savings. Keating also was ordered to pay plaintiffs another $750 million in punitive damages. The judgment came in a pair of class-action civil lawsuits by investors who lost money investments sold by Lincoln Savings and Loan. FEDS COULD SUE TWA'S ICAHN: Federal regulators are threatening to sue TWA owner Carl Icahn to cover more than $1 billion in pension payments to retirees of the troubled airlines, the head of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. says. Executive Director James Lockhart III says Icahn has been warned he must finance the $1.2 billion shortfall or face lawsuits that could wipe out his fortune. BOARD OF TRADE BANS LEE B. STERN: The Chicago Board of Trade has banned Lee B. Stern & Co. from trading and suspended memberships of the firm's three main owners following more than $1 billion in questionable trades Thursday that shook up the Treasury bond market. Thursday, a floor broker, whose trades were guaranteed by Stern & Co., initiated a series of huge trades in 30-year bond options and futures. SEQUOIA CONTINUES TO SUFFER: Sequoia Systems Inc.'s announcement that it would restate its results for the latest financial year is only one of several self-inflicted blows to the troubled company that has lost three top executives. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its accounting practices. Also, the company has violated a $15 million revolving loan agreement with Bank of Boston. WANG RIVAL'S INJUNCTION LIFTED: Wang Laboratories Inc. said Friday that a federal appeals court has lifted a preliminary injunction against rival Clearpoint Research Corp. The injunction prohibited Clearpoint from making a product that adds memory to personal computers. The court did not rule on the validity of Wang's patent on the SIMM (single in-line memory module). The injunction had been issued Sept. 25. MATTER GOES BACK TO COURT: A federal appeals court has lifted an injunction prohibiting Clearpoint Research Corp. from making, using and selling single in-line memory modules (SIMM). A spokesman for rival Wang Laboratories said Friday that the court referred the matter back to the district court for a clearer explanation of why it issued the injunction. Wang filed suit against Clearpoint June 12 over the SIMM. MGM GRAND WINS DISNEY SUIT: MGM Grand Inc. Friday announced a favorable court ruling in its suit against Walt Disney Co. The ruling affirmed MGM Grand's right to name its entertainment resort the MGM Grand Hotel, Casino & Theme Park. The resort under construction will be the world's largest hotel and casino. Construction on the $1 billion resort began in 1991 and is scheduled to be finished by 1994. DAILY NEWS DECISION EXPECTED: A federal bankruptcy judge decides by Monday whether the New York Daily News will be allowed to reject a longstanding contract with its printers' union. Publisher Mortimer Zuckerman has made the rejection of the contract a condition for his takeover of the tabloid newspaper. The printers' union wants to hang onto an 18-year agreement that guarantees its members jobs for life. BANK SETTLEMENT NOT APPROVED: A federal district judge Friday refused to approve a settlement of a class-action suit reached between First Investors Corp. and about 400,000 customers of two of the company's junk bond funds in the late 1980s. Judge Mary Lowe was acting at the request of New York's attorney general in refusing to approve the settlement. First Investors allegedly often misled elderly customers. JUSTICE WON'T CHALLENGE PANEL: The Department of Justice Friday said it won't challenge a tanker broker panel set up to provide oil companies with rate estimates for intracompany cargo movements. The challenge would have been under antitrust regulations. The panel would be organized and administered by the Association of Ship Brokers and Agents to help oil companies assign market costs for international voyages. BUSH SIGNS NON-EXCLUSIVE DEAL: President Bush Friday signed an executive order prohibiting the use of union-only agreements on federal construction projects. Associated Builders and Contractors, which has been challenging the legality of such agreements in court actions, said the national association and its 80 chapters would enthusiastically support the president's bid for re-election. EPA TO ANNOUNCE EMISSIONS RULES: The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that it will announce final rules Monday governing sulfur dioxide emissions from utilities. Officials said several other clean-air rules, including an auto emissions test, are expected this week. The rules are under Title IV of the Clean Air Act, which says that sulfur dioxide emissions from electric utilities must be halved by 2000. Business Law Editor: Beth Mann. (919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM