Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.law From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: law Mon, Apr 20 1992 Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 05:42:18 EDT Message-ID: 04-20 0000 DECISIONLINE: Business Law USA TODAY Update April 20, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network SOME WORKERS RETURN TO CAT: Striking United Auto Workers union members return to Caterpillar plants across Illinois Monday after five months off. Workers are being called back individually and most won't return until May. Those starting Monday should prepare for changes, including strike-breakers being given better shifts than senior union members, experts say. STATE HOPES TO REOPEN BANKS: Pennsylvania says it hopes to reopen this week under state ownership two privately owned banks it seized Friday. The two banks, Marian Bank in Philadelphia and Tobias Knoblauch Private Bank of Reading, Pa., were not covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The state said the banks were unsafe and unsound. Top management was removed. STATE CLOSES INSURER: An insurance company that covered two privately owned banks in Pennsylvania that were seized by the state Friday also was shut down. The Pennsylvania Deposit Insurance Corp., an independent insurer that had only $4 million in assets as of last November, did not have enough money to protect depositors. Marian Bank and Tobias Knoblauch Private Bank were seized. CASES TO BE RECONSIDERED: The Bush administration will reconsider thousands of cases in which benefits were denied to New York residents who claimed they couldn't work because of mental or physical disabilities. The proposed settlement involves a lawsuit covering 200,000 New York residents, The New York Times reports. Claimants could receive up to $6,000 annually for four years. CASINO OWNERS LOBBY LAWMAKERS: Nevada casino owners are lobbying Illinois lawmakers for a $2 billion gambling complex in Chicago. This is despite a 1991 agreement by owners not to open out-of-state ventures. Owners next month will present their requests to Nevada's control board. Currently there are no rules prohibiting casino companies from trying to push through legislation allowing out-of-state gambling. DEALER DOES NOT OWE: South Carolina Supreme Court Judge Jean Toal has ruled that Yarborough Ford in Belton, S.C., does not owe William and Martha Fields anything because it sold them a pickup truck with a larger engine than they wanted. The Fields returned the truck three months after buying it - citing poor gas mileage - but did not cancel their finance contract, reports Automotive News. CARDS TO FIGHT FRAUD: In an effort to cut down on credit card fraud, Citibank Monday will begin offering cards with ID photos. The Citibank Photocard is optional for its 30 million Visa and MasterCard holders, says the USA's largest credit card issuer. The problem of credit card fraud is significant, as more than $1 billion was lost last year because of misplaced, stolen and counterfeited credit cards. INDICTMENT CHARGES BRIBERY: A Bolivian national who tried last year to buy the CenTrust Tower in Miami has been charged with offering a Resolution Trust Corporation manager a $1 million bribe, federal investigators said Friday. A grand jury indictment charging Juan Carlos Fernandez Bowles of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, with offering a bribe was unsealed Friday in Atlanta. BOWLES STILL AT LARGE: Juan Carlos Fernandez Bowles, who was indicted Friday by a grand jury for offering a $1 million bribe to a Resolution Trust Corp. manager, remains at large. If convicted of offering the bribe to a manager of the RTC regional sales center in Atlanta, which markets high-value real estate and other commercial assets from failed thrifts, he faces 15 years in jail and up to a $3 million fine. DEFAULT JUDGMENT ENTERED: Urethane Technologies Inc. said Friday it has been advised by its counsel that a $5 million default judgment has been entered against UT in a suit brought by one of UT's sales representatives. The lawsuit had recently been filed in a Utah state court seeking damages based on UT's allegedly wrongful rescission of a contract with a customer referred to UT by the sales representative. CLASS ACTION CERTIFIED: U.S. Judge Joseph DiRosa of New Orleans has certified a state opt-out class action for women and their families alleging injury or adverse health effects because of silicone gel breast implants in the case of Marilyn Spitzfaden v. Dow Corning Corp. The class certification is limited to Louisiana residents or to women who have had implant surgery in the state. TRIAL HINGES ON HALCION USE: The sleep aid Halcion will be considered in the retrial beginning Monday of a Missouri woman who stabbed her two sons after losing a custody battle. Upjohn, the drug's manufacturer, may soon face more than 100 U.S. lawsuits, says Grand Rapids, Mich., lawyer Joseph Moch. The FDA, which has received over 2,000 reports of adverse reactions, will convene an advisory panel May 18. TOWNS ASK FOR GAS-PRICE PROBE: In North Carolina, the towns of Manteo, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk and Southern Shores are demanding a probe into the price of gasoline on the Outer Banks, which is several cents a gallon higher than on the mainland, The Virginian Pilot:Ledger Star reports. A 1989 probe yielded insufficient evidence to bring a case to trial, state Assistant Attorney General Kip Sturgis said. Business Law Editor: Jason P. Smith. (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