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An advertisement promotes Tesla Autopilot at a showroom of U.S. car manufacturer Tesla in Zurich, Switzerland March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/ File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Tesla Inc FollowNov 21 (Reuters) - A Florida judge found "reasonable evidence" that Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and other managers knew the automaker's vehicles had a defective Autopilot system but still allowed the cars to be driven unsafely, according to a ruling. The ruling is a setback for Tesla after the company won two product liability trials in California earlier this year over the Autopilot driver assistant system. Banner's attorney, Lake "Trey" Lytal III, said they are "extremely proud of this result based in the evidence of punitive conduct." The judge also cited a 2016 video showing a Tesla vehicle driving without human intervention as a way to market Autopilot.

Persons: Arnd, Elon Musk, Judge Reid Scott, Tesla, Stephen Banner's, Banner, Bryant Walker Smith, Smith, Scott, Banner's, Joshua Brown, Trey, Lytal, Dan Levine, Richard Chang, Stephen Coates Organizations: REUTERS, Tesla, Palm, University of South, Thomson Locations: U.S, Zurich, Switzerland, Florida, Palm Beach County, California, Miami, University of South Carolina

The outcome in civil court shows Tesla arguments are gaining traction: when something goes wrong on the road, the ultimate responsibility rests with drivers. The electric-vehicle maker also argued it was unclear whether Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash. During the Riverside trial, an attorney for the plaintiffs showed jurors a 2017 internal Tesla safety analysis identifying "incorrect steering command" as a defect, involving an "excessive" steering wheel angle. The automaker subsequently engineered a system that prevents Autopilot from executing the turn which caused the crash. "I think that anyone is going to have a hard time beating Tesla in court on a liability claim," he said.

Persons: Tesla, Elon Musk, Micah Lee's, Lee, Bryant Walker Smith, Matthew Wansley, Wansley, Eloy Rubio Blanco, Rubio, Sam Abuelsamid, Dan Levine, Hyunjoo Jin, Jonathan Oatis, Richard Chang Organizations: Tesla, Tuesday, Court, Reuters, University of South, Cardozo School of Law, U.S . Department of Justice, Traffic, Administration, Thomson Locations: Riverside County, Los Angeles, University of South Carolina, Riverside

A Tesla logo is seen outside a showroom of the carmaker in Beijing, China May 31, 2023. The jury trial, in a California state court, featured testimony from one Tesla employee about Autopilot that the company repeatedly asked to be kept hidden from the public. The lawsuit, filed against Tesla by the passengers, accuses the company of knowing that Autopilot and other safety systems were defective when it sold the car. The electric-vehicle maker also claims it was unclear whether Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash. But plaintiff lawyers cited testimony from Tesla engineer Eloy Rubio Blanco, who acknowledged during the trial that Tesla understood software on the car could have latent defects.

Persons: Thomas Peter, Micah Lee's, Lee, Tesla, Elon Musk, Eloy Rubio Blanco, Rubio, Dan Levine, Richard Chang Organizations: REUTERS, Tesla, Thomson Locations: Beijing, China, California, Los Angeles

An advertisement promotes Tesla Autopilot at a showroom of U.S. car manufacturer Tesla in Zurich, Switzerland March 28, 2018. The lawsuit, filed against Tesla by the passengers and Lee's estate, accuses Tesla of knowing that Autopilot and other safety systems were defective when it sold the car. Tesla won a bellwether trial in Los Angeles in April with a strategy of saying that it tells drivers that its technology requires human monitoring, despite the "Autopilot" name. Tesla, for instance, won a bid to exclude some of Musk’s public statements about Autopilot. The trial, in Riverside County Superior Court, is expected to last a few weeks.

Persons: Arnd, Micah Lee’s, Lee, Tesla, Elon Musk, jousted, Dan Levine, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Tesla, Reuters, Riverside County Superior Court, San, Thomson Locations: U.S, Zurich, Switzerland, California, Los Angeles, Riverside County, San Francisco

The lawsuit, filed against Tesla by the passengers and Lee's estate, accuses Tesla of knowing that Autopilot and other safety systems were defective when it sold the car. Autopilot failed to brake, steer or do anything to avoid the collision, according to the lawsuit filed by Banner's wife. Tesla denied liability for both accidents, blamed driver error and said Autopilot is safe when monitored by humans. Tesla said in court documents that drivers must pay attention to the road and keep their hands on the steering wheel. "Elon Musk has acknowledged problems with the Tesla autopilot system not working properly," according to plaintiffs' documents.

Persons: Casey, Elon, Musk, Tesla, Micah Lee’s, Lee, Stephen Banner’s, Banner's, Reuters ’, Matthew Wansley, Bryant Walker Smith, Jonathan Michaels, we're, Christopher Moore, Adam, Nicklas, Gustafsson, Elon Musk, Richard Baverstock, Trey, Lytal, Dan Levine, Hyunjoo Jin, Peter Henderson, Grant McCool Organizations: Tesla, China International Consumer Products, REUTERS, FRANCISCO, Tesla Inc, Reuters, Cardozo School of Law, University of South, Thomson Locations: Haikou, Hainan province, China, California, Los Angeles, Florida, Miami, University of South Carolina, San Francisco

[1/6] Jan Gilpin poses with a bottle of the asthma and allergy drug Singulair, first prescribed to her son when he was three-years-old, at her home in Newton, Massachusetts, U.S., June 21, 2023. That team found in 2015 that the drug’s distribution into the brain was more significant than its label described. Lawsuits filed against Merck cite this 1996 patent as evidence of Merck’s knowledge of the drug’s potential brain impacts. Marschallinger and her colleagues in Austria came away with a different finding when they reviewed Merck’s original research and did some of their own. Marschallinger said it would have been logical for the FDA to require Merck to investigate the brain impacts more thoroughly once reports of mental-health problems emerged.

Persons: Jan Gilpin, Singulair, Brian Snyder, Merck, Julia Marschallinger, Marschallinger, ” Marschallinger, “ It’s, Robin Respaut, Dan Levine, Janet Roberts, Brian Thevenot Organizations: REUTERS, Brian Snyder Companies Merck, Co, FDA, Molecular Regenerative, Singulair, Merck, Thomson Locations: Newton , Massachusetts, U.S, Austria

April 26 (Reuters) - A California judge on Wednesday tentatively ordered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding the safety and capabilities of the carmaker’s Autopilot features. Plaintiff attorneys sought to depose Musk regarding recorded statements that tout the capabilities of Autopilot. Right now.”Tesla, however, opposed the request in court filings, arguing that Musk cannot recall details about statements. The lawsuit is scheduled to go into trial on July 31, adding to growing legal and regulatory scrutiny over Tesla's Autopilot system. A California state court jury on Friday found Tesla's Autopilot feature did not fail in what appeared to be the first trial related to a crash involving the partially automated driving software.

[1/2] A Tesla Model 3 vehicle drives on autopilot along the 405 highway in Westminster, California, U.S., March 16, 2022. Tesla denied liability for the accident and said in a court filing that Hsu used Autopilot on city streets, despite a user manual warning against doing so. "This case should be a wakeup call to Tesla owners: they can't over-rely on Autopilot, and they really need to be ready to take control and Tesla is not a self-driving system," he said. The Hsu trial unfolded in Los Angeles Superior Court over three weeks, with testimony from three Tesla engineers. The main question in Autopilot cases was who is responsible for an accident while a car is in driver-assistant Autopilot mode - a human driver, the machine, or both?

After the verdict on Friday, juror Mitchell Vasseur, 63, told Reuters that he and his fellow jurors felt badly for Hsu, but ultimately determined that Autopilot was not at fault. Jury foreperson Olivia Apsher, 31, said the Autopilot system reminds drivers when they are not adequately taking control. "There are audible warnings and visual warnings both for the driver, indicating that it is your responsibility." The trial unfolded in Los Angeles Superior Court over three weeks and featured testimony from three Tesla engineers. Reporting by Abhirup Roy in Los Angeles, and Dan Levine and Hyun Joo Jin in San Francisco Editing by Peter Henderson and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/2] A Tesla Model 3 vehicle drives on autopilot along the 405 highway in Westminster, California, U.S., March 16, 2022. It said in a court filing that Hsu used Autopilot on city streets, despite Tesla's user manual warning against doing so. The main question in Autopilot cases is who is responsible for an accident while a car was in driver-assistant Autopilot mode - a human driver, the machine, or both? That executive, Ashok Elluswamy, director of Autopilot software at Tesla, testified during the Hsu trial last week about the videotape. Also at issue in the Hsu trial is the airbag.

☆ Exclusive: Johnson & Johnson considers refiling talc-liability bankruptcy after appeals-court defeat
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Mike Spector | Thomson Reuters | Mike Spector Is A Correspondent At Reuters Covering Corporate Crises That Span Bankruptcy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

[1/2] A bottle of Johnson and Johnson Baby Powder is seen in a photo illustration taken in New York, February 24, 2016. In a court filing Tuesday, lawyers representing a creditors committee of talc plaintiffs said they recently became aware of discussions about a second J&J subsidiary bankruptcy. The J&J subsidiary that was to absorb liability for the talc cases, LTL Management, declared bankruptcy almost immediately after it was created. Andy Birchfield, a plaintiffs' lawyer at law firm Beasley Allen, said on Tuesday that claims “could easily be resolved if Johnson & Johnson would stop playing games and abusing the bankruptcy court process." How the J&J subsidiary might square such a move with the appeals court ruling remained unclear.

A lawyer for Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary said in a statement that the company would seek a rehearing of the panel’s decision by the full 3rd Circuit court. Gordon’s strategy worked in bankruptcy court but set up J&J for failure when it faced the 3rd Circuit appeals panel. Gordon, at the bankruptcy conference, described the lawsuits as “completely unmanageable” and a dire threat to J&J that could go on for decades. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to hear arguments in coming months on a challenge to the 3M subsidiary’s bankruptcy. The litigation, they asserted, should be allowed to proceed against Georgia-Pacific because the parent company did not file for bankruptcy.

Jan 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Monday shot down Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) attempt to offload tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products into bankruptcy court. The appeals court ruling revives those lawsuits. Monday's decision by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed the bankruptcy filed by the J&J subsidiary in 2021. The appeals court decision could force companies considering the strategy to more carefully consider its risks, two legal experts said. The Texas two-step has garnered criticism from Democratic lawmakers in Washington, and inspired proposed legislation that would severely restrict the practice.

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Koch unit Georgia-Pacific used a corporate bankruptcy maneuver known as the Texas two-step, forming a new Texas subsidiary, Bestwall, that took on the company's asbestos liability. The latest court documents, filed on Wednesday, provide new detail about how Koch has benefited from the case. Koch has received more than $5 billion since Bestwall filed for bankruptcy in 2017. Representatives for New Georgia-Pacific and Koch Industries did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. New Georgia-Pacific's shareholder equity is forecast to be about $27.8 billion after accounting for the Koch dividends, according to the Wednesday court filing.

☆ Special Report: Boy Scouts, Catholic dioceses find haven from sex abuse suits in bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Kristina Cooke Mike Spector Benjamin Lesser Dan Levine Disha Raychaudhuri | Kristina Cooke | Mike Spector | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +19 min

The Boy Scouts, for instance, said on a website the group set up for restructuring that it launched a “comprehensive noticing campaign” in the media. He sought compensation in the Boy Scouts bankruptcy in June, long after a deadline of November 16, 2020 for filing claims. The Boy Scouts bankruptcy reorganization plan, approved by a judge in September, halts all lawsuits against the Boy Scouts, local councils, churches and other organizations that chartered scouting activities. His case was halted by the Boy Scouts bankruptcy. Later that year, in August, he filed his lawsuit against defendants including a Boy Scouts local council and DeSandre.

Justice Department regulations say that money laundering charges against a financial institution must be approved by the MLARS chief. Binance's defense attorneys at U.S. law firm Gibson Dunn have held meetings in recent months with Justice Department officials, the four people said. Faced with the Justice Department investigation, Binance hired an external lawyer from U.S. law firm Paul Weiss, Roberto Gonzalez, who was previously Treasury's deputy general counsel. MLARS has a reputation in the Justice Department for moving slowly in reaching prosecution decisions, people familiar with its activities said. Day met with Justice officials in Washington in recent months, three of the people said.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov 18 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday sentenced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years and three months in prison for defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9 billion. In San Jose, California, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes, 38, on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy after a jury convicted her last January following a trial spanning three months. The prosecution had recommended a sentence of 15 years in prison, while the defense had urged the judge to impose no prison time. The federal probation office had recommended a 9-year prison sentence, according to court papers. Before sentencing Holmes, Davila asked if any of her victims were in the courtroom.

A jury in San Jose convicted Holmes, 38, on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy in January. Prosecutors, who are seeking a 15-year prison sentence, called Holmes' fraud "among the most substantial white collar offenses Silicon Valley or any other district has seen." At trial, prosecutors said Holmes engaged in fraud by lying to investors about Theranos' technology and finances rather than allowing the company to fail. Though she was convicted on three counts, Holmes was acquitted on four other counts alleging she defrauded patients who paid for Theranos tests. Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York and Dan Levine in San Jose; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Such warnings could complicate any case the Justice Department might wish to bring, the sources said. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. The Justice Department investigation potentially represents a more serious level of scrutiny because of the possibility of criminal charges against the company or individual executives, the people familiar with the inquiry said. As part of the latest probe, Justice Department prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco are examining whether Tesla misled consumers, investors and regulators by making unsupported claims about its driver assistance technology's capabilities, the sources said. The Justice Department’s Autopilot probe is far from recommending any action partly because it is competing with two other DOJ investigations involving Tesla, one of the sources said.

☆ Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Mike Spector | Dan Levine | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Such warnings could complicate any case the Justice Department might wish to bring, the sources said. The Justice Department investigation potentially represents a more serious level of scrutiny because of the possibility of criminal charges against the company or individual executives, the people familiar with the inquiry said. As part of the latest probe, Justice Department prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco are examining whether Tesla misled consumers, investors and regulators by making unsupported claims about its driver assistance technology's capabilities, the sources said. The Justice Department's Autopilot probe is far from recommending any action partly because it is competing with two other DOJ investigations involving Tesla, one of the sources said. The Justice Department may also face challenges in building its case, said the sources, because of Tesla's warnings about overreliance on Autopilot.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration findings come nearly three years after the agency's inspectors began documenting quality-control issues at the same Lilly plant in Branchburg, New Jersey. FDA inspectors returned to the plant this past July, spending 12 days there. Lilly did not directly respond to questions about the FDA inspectors' findings. The FDA report did not say whether the medicines in question were ultimately shipped to customers or discarded. In November 2019, FDA inspectors found that quality-control data had been deleted and not appropriately audited at the New Jersey plant.

☆ Eli Lilly sued for age discrimination by U.S. agency EEOC
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterFILE PHOTO: An Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical manufacturing plant is pictured at 50 ImClone Drive in Branchburg, New Jersey, March 5, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File PhotoSept 26 (Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co was sued on Monday by the U.S. According to the EEOC, Fry suggested that the lack of millennials was a problem, and the Indianapolis-based company would target 40% "Early Career" hiring. The lawsuit filed in Indianapolis federal court accused Lilly of violating the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The case is EEOC v Lilly USA LLC, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, No.

Johnson & Johnson has said it would provide a fair amount of money to the subsidiary to pay claims. Johnson & Johnson, valued at more than $450 billion, had about $31 billion in cash and marketable securities on hand at the end of the third quarter, securities filings show. One would absorb all the talc liability; the other would carry on the business free from the threat of billion-dollar judgments. Levesque replied that the “technical aspect” of the subsidiary bankruptcy wasn’t likely to cause concern about J&J’s creditworthiness. Is that what you're saying?” asked Jeffrey Jonas, a Brown Rudnick lawyer representing a creditors committee comprising talc plaintiffs.

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