Article Abstract:
The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals has certified Wesleyan College v. W.R. Grace & Co as a class action by universities against the makers of asbestos used in buildings on thousands of college campuses. The court expressed some reservations about the advisability of class certification and reserved the right to modify its decision. Reservations concerned the suitability of Central Wesleyan as a class representative since the school only has evidence that one asbestos producer, National Gypsum Co, supplied materials for its buildings. National Gypsum, now bankrupt was not named as a defendant.
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Article Abstract:
The 4th Circuit dismissed Poyner v Murray, an appeal claiming that electrocution constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Defense lawyers objected that the appeal had been directed at the kind of evidence on which the conclusion that electrocution is not cruel has always been based, but the judges felt convinced by the 105 state, four federal and one Supreme Court cases which have found this punishment not to be unconstitutional.
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Article Abstract:
The court in Bauer v Sweeny held that the takeover of a bankrupt S & L by the Resolution Trust Corp forestalls a stockholders' derivative suit against officers of that S & L. The facts in the case were the bankruptcy of SeaBank Savings FSB and the appointment of the Resolution Trust Corp (RTC) as receiver. The court held that the RTC was now the proper defendant in any such action.
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