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 27 1992 Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92 05:41:46 EDT Message-ID: 04-27 0000 DECISIONLINE: Business Law USA TODAY Update April 27, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network PAN AM SUIT TO BEGIN: The case of families of 212 victims in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1989 who filed suit against the airline, is scheduled to being Monday in a New York City courthouse. The families charge that shoddy security was the reason a bomb-laden suitcase was allowed aboard the Boeing 747. Defense lawyers are expected to argue that no one is certain how the bomb got on board the plane. SUITCASE TRAIL KEY TO CASE: Lee Kreindler, the lead attorney for families suing Pan Am over the bombing of Flight 103 in 1989, has said the case could be worth $500 million. Though Pan Am is bankrupt, damages would be paid by the airline's insurance carrier. Analysts say the key will be nailing down the trail of a Samsonite suitcase containing a Toshiba brand radio-cassette recorder containing explosives. AMOCO WORKING OUT SETTLEMENT: Amoco Corp. is working out a settlement with the French government over a U.S. federal court's order that it pay $200 million for the massive 1978 Amoco Cadiz oil spill, a company spokesman said. Amoco will not appeal the ruling by a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, which called the spill "a disaster waiting to happen." ORCHESTRA SUES JACKSON, SONY: Michael Jackson and Sony Entertainment have been named in a $7 million suit filed by the Cleveland Orchestra over music in Jackson's song "Will You Be There." The orchestra alleges Jackson sampled its 1961 recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on his album "Dangerous," and did not give it credit. "We will pay the orchestra its appropriate share," Sony said. RTC HAS EMERGENCY FUND: The Resolution Trust Corp., which is supposed to be broke, has admitted it has $2 billion in emergency money. RTC spokesman Stephen Katsanos, who denied the fund was a secret, says the purpose of the "liquidity" fund - which is down from about $9 billion in 1989 - is to pay depositors in case massive withdrawals are made from a failed, but not yet closed, thrift. THRIFTS MERGED: Though officially broke, the RTC spent $48 million Friday to merge a sick South Dakota thrift - First Federal Savings Bank of South Dakota, in Rapid City - with a healthy one in North Dakota - Metropolitan Federal Bank, FSB, in Fargo. The RTC says it can no longer complete such mergers and blames Congress for failing to approve additional funding for the S&L baliout. SEGA INJUNCTION UPHELD: Sega Enterprises Ltd. of Tokyo and its subsidiary, Sega of America Inc., Friday announced that the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco has largely upheld its initial injunction against Accolade Inc. The injunction bans the manufacturing and sale of products Sega claims infringe its copyrights and patents. Accolade has appealed the ruling. SUIT TRANSFERRED, CONSOLIDATED: La Quinta Motor Inns Limited Partnership says that pending legal action against Phillip G. Nappo III and Ronin Partners has been transferred and consolidated with a lawsuit among substantially the same parties pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. The transferred suit relates to alleged misleading and illegal consent solicitation by Nappo III and Ronin Partners. HACKERS ACCESS DATA BASES: Last week, San Diego police announced an investigation into a ring of young computer hackers - ages 14 to 25 - who have broken into several financial data bases, including the files of Equifax, one of the nation's largest credit-reporting agencies. Police say the hackers have stolen consumers' credit-card numbers and racked up millions of dollars of unauthorized charges. RING COULD BE WIDESPREAD: Police in San Diego say a ring of computer hackers that have accessed credit-card numbers, has been operating for at least four years and may be working with others in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. "Any bank that issues a credit card could be a victim of this," Dennis Sadler, a San Diego detective leading the investigation, told American Banker. Arrests are expected soon. BEER TRADE WAR AVERTED: Talks are scheduled to begin as early as next week to iron out details of an agreement reached Saturday which avoided a trade war between the USA and Canada over beer importing and exporting. The USA had been threatening punitive tariffs - as much as $2 a six-pack - on Canadian beer if Canada didn't end provincial restrictions on deliveries and pricing of U.S. beer. MCDONNELL DOUGLAS DENIES CLAIMS: McDonnell Douglas has denied allegations of age, sex and race discrimination during the layoff of 20,000 workers that began in the fall of 1990. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says 157 complaints have been lodged against the aerospace and defense contractor, half of them for age discrimination. Chairman John McDonnell said Friday he did not believe they had discriminated. BILL FACES OPPOSITION: A bill that would increase seafood inspections, which was introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt., and is moving through Congress, may not become law because it expected to be opposed by the Bush Administration, which has not lost a veto fight. At issue is the cost. The administration wants the seafood industry to pay for the increased inspections through user fees. 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