“Based on the foregoing considerations, the motion to dismiss and for partial summary judgment filed by the defendants (doc. 16) is due to be GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. The motion to dismiss and for partial summary judgment is due to be DENIED as to the plaintiff’s claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. The motion to dismiss is due to be GRANTED as to plaintiff’s invasion-of-privacy claim, and that claim is due to be DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
So how did Lin Wood and Beth Holloway win? In this quote: “Based on the foregoing considerations, the motion to dismiss and for partial summary judgment filed by the defendants (doc. 16) is due to be GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. The motion to dismiss and for partial summary judgment is due to be DENIED as to the plaintiff’s claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
I am still reading through the court’s 33 page opinion but wanted to get this up for all of you that have been following the tragedy of Natalie Holloway and now her mother’s lawsuit against the National Enquirer.
I have also downloaded ALL of the Motions that led to the Court’s decision today, or those with exhibits not filed under seal. Ken and I will be working tonight to get ALL of the up for you to read.
One of our favorite attorneys and his law firm has struck another win on behalf of the small guy, or as Dan Rather put it the “voice for the damned”.
The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
Socialite and famed Libel Defamation attorney L. Lin Wood and Melanie Osgood announced their engagement over the weekend at the Ritz Carlton at Reynolds Plantation where Wood had proposed to his bride to be earlier.
We had scooped this before this weekend but had been asked to hold off on announcing this, something we are always willing to do when requested.
Looking at this picture it was well worth the wait and being big fans of Lin Wood in courtrooms and lawsuits, we here at Rose Speaks, especially Ken and Rose, wish Lin and the lovely Melanie only happiness. Many have said, including us, that Lin Wood radiates with happiness in this picture as does Ms. Osgood.
Melanie works full time as an underwriter for Chubb, after graduating from University of Georgia – Terry College of Business and studied abroad at Oxford University in England before moving to Atlanta. She is the daughter of Kendall and LuAnn Osgood of Snellville, Georgia.
…and the rest is the stuff of story book tales with a story book ending, the kind we all love to see happen to good people!
We intend to stay on top of this as wedding plans are announced!
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The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
Final Opinion on 2nd Appellate Court of California vs. Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Howard K. Stern. I have not read it yet so will give my opinion after I read it and after I ask for on record statements.
For reference sake this article we had in October 2012 states most of the same things. That article was titled; Howard K Stern and Dr. Khristine Erosovich has Major loss as California Appeals Court Reverses and Remands back to Judge Robert Perry”. This latest opinion has added two more pages but so far as I read it is just the same as last year.
After I read through this I will be back with more to say! So stay tuned to Rose Speaks.com tonight as we unravel what this opinion actually means and share what you think it means after you read it!!!!!
Am I the only one who thinks California should just let this go and not keep spending tax payers money of a selected case to prosecute?
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The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
DISCLAIMER THIS IS A PICTURE WITH RICHARD JEWELL NOT THE STUDENT WHO SETTLED
I have always liked pictures of L. Lin Wood with Richard Jewell for three reasons:
1. Lin Wood found he was a top defamation – libel plaintiff attorney by representing Richard Jewell and for that all of the little guys out there now have a voice.
2. Lin Wood and Richard Jewell traveled together and lectured colleges in journalism classes about ethics, and did that until Jewell died
3. When Jewell died Lin Wood dropped everything and came home to deliver the eulogy at his “friend’s funeral” and told the world the story of the rose that Jewell left each year at the site of the one woman he was not able to save.
All of us should be so lucky to have Wood represent us or give us a voice in this 24/7 infotainment passed as news we all live in, and two any who have Wood as a friend has to be blessed, just my opinion. Wood does not give bloggers interviews. Once Wood and I were on opposite sides of a lawsuit he treated me as a southern gentleman instead of gutting me and making me cry as we hear in lots of lawsuits when Wood lasers in on his opponents.
In a Google alert I got this today and so hunted down the lawsuit of the case that has been settled.
“A student at Florida A & M University has sued two Florida media outlets — Florida A & M University’s The Famuan and ABC-affiliate WFTV — for wrongly reporting that he was disciplined because of fellow student Robert Champion’s 2011 hazing death.
And even though The Famuan, the university’s student newspaper, corrected the error made in a December 2011 story, the student, Keon Hollis, still sued because “the correction was a whisper of innocence that could never overcome the initial shout of guilty,” his attorney Lin Wood told iMediaEthics. Wood explained in an email:
“The initial false online article conveyed to readers that Keon was a participant in the hazing that resulted in the death of his friend. Before the article was corrected, it was republished and discussed on the Internet numerous times.”
The article has since been unpublished, and a correction has been published online reading:
“On Dec. 2, 2011, Keon Hollis of Atlanta was incorrectly identified on thefamuanonline.com as one of four drum majors for the ‘Marching 100′ band dismissed from Florida A&M University following the hazing death of Drum major Robert Champion. Hollis was not suspended, dismissed, expelled or reprimanded in connection to the hazing of Robert Champion. We deeply regret the error.”
Following that December 2012 libel lawsuit over a December 2011 story, Florida A & M University’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communication dean, Dr. Ann Kimbrough, announced a huge shake-up with student newspaper The Famuan in early January, Student Press Law Center reported.”
…After the libel lawsuit was filed, there were several changes made at The Famuan, including a temporary suspension “from publishing,” journalism training for staff, and a change of adviser.
FAMU Journalim School dean, Ann Kimbrough, told iMediaEthics the temporary suspension was in effect for the month of January and indicated it was related to money problems. She wrote:
“The administration postponed the publishing of the first issue until the training and other processes were completed. The Famuan published its first issue on January 30. There are financial strains.”
Before responding to iMediaEthics’ inquiry, Kimbrough noted that because of the pending litigation, she had to “coordinate all responses with our attorney.”
She declined to comment on the libel lawsuit or any new measures at The Famuan because of the libel lawsuit because “this is an active legal matter.” But, she did note in an email to iMediaEthics that the newspaper’s staff had to get “training in areas including ethics, media sales, newspaper management, layout and design, copyediting, etc.”
That bold part is what made me think of Richard Jewell today.
Hollis, the student suing The Famuan, also sued Orlando ABC-affiliate WFTV for its Dec. 5, 2011 story “FAMU student leaders call for an end to hazing.” According to Courthouse News Service, Hollis’s lawsuit indicated WFTV also wrongly reported he was disciplined in relation to the hazing based on The Famuan’s story.
“Hollis says the article attributed its statements about him to FAMU’s student newspaper, The Famuan, which mistakenly identified Hollis as one of four students who had been expelled after Champion’s death. He claims The Famuan removed his name from the original article before WFTV and Cox Media published their piece, but the defendants failed to remove the false and defamatory statements. After Hollis demanded a retraction, WFTV and Cox Media updated the article, stating that Hollis had not been suspended, but he says they failed to mention that Hollis had not contributed to Champion’s death.”
Wood, the attorney who also represented Hollis in his lawsuit against WFTV told iMediaEthics that “The WTFV matter has settled. The FAMUAN lawsuit has been set for mediation by agreement of the parties.” WFTV News Director Matt Parcell confirmed the settlement, telling iMediaEthics by email: “The matter has been settled and we have no further comment.”
Here is the Original Complaint filed by Hollis against Orlando ABC-affiliate WFTV:
Call me a “romantic” but I like to think perhaps Lin Wood has a picture of Richard Jewell in his office and when he defends one of the “damned” as Dan Rather calls Wood as the “voice of the damned”; Wood is grounded by the wrong and horrible aftermath of a client turned friend, Richard Jewell.
I am sure Richard Jewell thinks, “Good job, Lin, good job”.
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The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
An article By Ed Silverman of Pharmalot asked that question in his article entitled “Did DaVita Admit Fraud In Suing A Whistleblower?” After reading this Google alert on the largest Medicare Fraud Case to date that has been made public, I spent the day on PACER reading more.
Thus over the next few days along with two other cases we are going to play catch-up with, we are going to dwell on this case. In short with Sequestration looming which is going to devastate our economy and our workforce especially federal employees, Medicare Fraud is big news. I believe we should pursue more of these cases and not cut “entitlements” to those of us who worked our whole life and paid our Social Security Insurance and Medicare Insurance payments every payday.
So here goes with more of what Ed Silverman had to say:
…Since a fair number of whistleblower cases pop up in the pharmaceutical industry, a recent development concerning a whistleblower and DaVita, the second-largest independent provider of dialysis services in the US, might be of interest. Consider the following….
Along with a nurse, a nephrologist and former medical director named Alon Vainer filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2007 alleging DaVita deliberately wasted medicine in order to gain hundreds of millions of dollars in extra payments from Medicare.
NOTE: HUNDREDS OF MILLION IN ALLEGED FRAUD OF MEDICARE.
So how has DaVita responded? Besides denying the allegations, the dialysis provider filed its own lawsuit against Vainer. Now, consider the accusations: DaVita charged Vainer breached his contract, caused damages by not alerting DaVita to violations of the law and filed invoices falsely claiming he complied with his agreement, which he could not have done if he did not alert DaVita to any violations of the law.
Yes, you read that correctly. It would appear that DaVita officials are suing the whistleblower for not bringing their own purported fraud to their attention. Consequently, the DaVita team appears to somehow acknowledge that the fraud took place after all, even though they have denied this all along. This prompted an interesting response from the judge hearing the combined cases…
“The possible violations of law are the very same types of violations Vainer has alleged against DaVita in the underlying qui tam (whistleblower) complaint,” writes US District Court Judge Charles Pannell. “In essence, then, the defendants (DaVita) are seeking breach of contract damages for the plaintiff’s (whitleblowers) having not reported the alleged violations for which the defendants are themselves being sued.
“While the defendants have couched their counterclaim in contract terms, this claim is nonetheless the type of counterclaim barred in (False Claims Act) qui tam actions. In order to prove that Vainer breached the contract by not informing the defendants about violations of applicable law, the defendants (DaVita) would have to first prove that such violations actually occurred. If these violations occurred, then the defendants would be liable for them.”
…“While the parties have not identified and the court cannot find through its own research binding case law that addresses the scenario before the court, the court agrees with the plaintiffs and the United States that such an outcome would have a chilling effect on the FCA’s goal of encouraging whistleblowing on perpetrators of fraud against the federal government. The court concludes that the defendants’ counterclaim amounts to a claim for indemnification or contribution.”
So guess what???? US District Court Judge Charles Pannell DISMISSED THE SUIT DAVITA FILED AGAINST DR. ALON VAINER, my first thought is WTF was DaVita thinking, go figure.
Here is the full finding of Judge Charles Pannell:
So did a lot of corporate attorneys just screwed up or did L. Lin Wood, who left Bryan Cave LLC in 2007 to pursue this case, somehow trick the corporate lawyers into what appears to be a fatal error?
Never fear DaVita is just adding more lawyers, but my money is on the U. S. Government and the plaintiff’s attorneys, including Lin Wood and Stacy Evans are going to win this thing. If it goes to trial, which I doubt it will because of the media coverage this will bring, then Medicare Fraud at it’s worse will be out there for the U. S. taxpayer to see. My question is how does this happen without criminal charges being filed? When are we going to begin to hold the top executives of corporations liable criminally for ripping us the taxpayers off for Millions that we ended up paying?
Yes I read all day yesterday and into last night after reading this article, then more on PACER and yes we are going to cover this case as one of the biggest cases we have ever covered, because this case is important. Seldom is one of these cases made public so we can see via filings how corrupt some people are with what appears to be little concern to what is happening to our country and those of us receiving Medicare.
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The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
In the Sheldon G. Adelson vs National Jewish Democratic Council famed libel attorney L. Lin Wood went to the heart of the Washington D. C. Anti-SLAPP statute, you know the ones that Perez Hilton is always being sued and then comes back and wins under.
Lin Wood has gone straight to the heart of the constitutionality of the Anti-SLAPP statutes, could we be seeing the making of a U. S. Supreme Court case on the Horizon?
I read the other day on Face Book where an attorney had just filed his first defamation case and was wishing for a Lin Wood play book. I had forgotten how much I enjoy reading Wood’s filings. At one time I had said Wood’s Court filings were woven with the beauty of a glistering cobweb of a spider on a winter’s morning. As I read through these filings I found myself thinking the same thing. There are ought to be a Lin Wood play book for Libel and Defamation suits, he is still the best there is out there.
The hearing was on Dec. 17th in New York Southern District Federal Court before the Honorable J. Paul Oetken at 2:30 PM and the winner of the filings and Oral Arguments is……………
We will also be updating the Beth Holloway suit against the National Enquirer this week. These are some great cases to follow. HOWEVER IF YOU HAVE A CASE YOU WANT US TO FOLLOW, JUST FILL OUT THE CONTACT US FORM AT THE TOP. WE ARE ALSO ALWAYS LOOKING FOR GOOD GUEST AUTHORS SO IF YOU HAVE A CASE WHERE PAPERS ARE AVAILABLE AGAIN JUST FILL OUT THE FORM ABOVE, WE WILL GET THE PAPERS AND YOU CAN WRITE ARTICLES FOR ROSE SPEAKS.COM.
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The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
If you remember, L Lin Wood, is the lead attorney on this case. He felt strongly about this enough to leave the large legal firm he was with to not have any appearance of conflict of interest and took the gamble of setting up his own firm during the recession, and it appears his gamble was RIGHT!!!
(CNN) — It started with a chance conversation between a doctor and a nurse several years ago. But that brief encounter may end up exposing what could be one of the largest Medicare frauds in U.S. history.
Dr. Alon Vainer, a medical director at dialysis clinics in Georgia, was discussing clinic procedures with one of the nurses, Daniel Barbir. The two men say they saw something they believed was very wrong: expensive medicine, and lots of it, was being tossed in the trash. And the clinic workers were being told to do it, the two men say.
“When we sat down and started talking about it and getting into details, we actually realized exactly what was going on,” Vainer said.
The alleged waste was being carried out on a massive scale and, the nurse and the doctor said, they knew why almost immediately. They claim it was a way for their company, DaVita Inc., to defraud the government, overbill Medicare and Medicaid and make a fortune.
“We’re talking in the hundreds of millions, easily,” Vainer said. “The profit this company raked from those two schemes, only from those two drugs, was hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The allegations of massive fraud have implications for all Americans. The alleged fraud would have involved Medicare and Medicaid patients, whose medicine is paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
…DaVita Inc., based in downtown Denver, is one of the nation’s largest dialysis companies. The name means “Giving Life” in Italian. The company just moved into a brand new $101 million office tower, complete with fountains, gardens and even a suspended ski gondola inside for private meetings.
DaVita has grown in the past couple of years and now runs roughly 2,000 dialysis clinics across the country, which has added up to a $7 billion business. The dialysis empire is run by CEO Kent Thiry, who dresses like one of the Three Musketeers, has adopted a company slogan of ‘One for all and all for one’ and in company staff meetings leads his employees, who he calls villagers, in cheers of “DaVita!”
Thiry is reportedly paid an estimated $15 million a year, according to the Wall Street Journal, which has called him the best compensated CEO in Colorado.
Most of DaVita’s revenue comes from a single source: taxpayers. More than two-thirds of DaVita’s revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid payments.
If Vainer and Barbir’s allegations are true, the company threw away hundreds of millions of dollars of medicine, and taxpayers paid for it.
…both men have filed a whistleblower lawsuit under the U.S. False Claims Act on behalf of the U.S. government, charging DaVita with massive Medicare fraud. They stand to make millions if DaVita is found guilty.
… the company’s attorney Kim Rivera did. When asked about the plaintiffs’ allegation that DaVita had come up with so-called schemes to throw away drugs and maximize profits, Rivera said: “Well that’s just wrong. If you look at the facts of the case, first of all, the doctors make the dosing decisions…. When you look at what the practices were — decisions being made by doctors, based on what was in the best interest of their patients. And they took into account a variety of things.
“You can’t just look at one issue. You have to look at things like infection control, what the patient’s going to do, how the patient’s going to do with particular doses. And so, during that entire time what we did, what the doctors did, was appropriate.”
But other companies, including DaVita’s main competitor, used smaller vials and smaller combinations at times, limiting what was thrown away.
…Plaintiffs’ attorneys Lin Wood and Marlan Wilbanks, who claim DaVita made as much as $800 million over-billing the government, say that DaVita’s defense won’t hold up in court.
“It’s not just the taxpayers that are the victims here, it’s the health care system,” Wood said.
“It doesn’t take a graduate degree to understand what’s going on here,” Wilbanks said. “This is just dishonesty.”
DaVita denies that and vows to fight the case in court. But earlier this year, while denying it did anything wrong, DaVita settled a similar case in Texas for $55 million.
Pat Burns, with the watchdog group “Taxpayers Against Fraud,” says the bigger problem is that even if a company gets caught cheating the government, the company executives never seem to face any punishment. Fines are paid and business continues as usual.
You need to read the full article on CNN, it well worth a read and why are these guys never charged criminally?
Just to catch up on the papers we have here are the two we have up and I will prowl PACER tonight.
In my not so humble opinion, this is “entitlements” that the U. S. Department of Justice needs to prosecute and set examples to protect Medicare and Medicaid recipients not just save us money on. Millions would pay out how many legitimate claims in a year?
We will also be updating the Beth Holloway suit against the National Enquirer and the Sheldon Adelson cases this week. These are some great cases to follow. HOWEVER IF YOU HAVE A CASE YOU WANT US TO FOLLOW, JUST FILL OUT THE CONTACT US FORM AT THE TOP. WE ARE ALSO ALWAYS LOOKING FOR GOOD GUEST AUTHORS SO IF YOU HAVE A CASE WHERE PAPERS ARE AVAILABLE AGAIN JUST FILL OUT THE FORM ABOVE, WE WILL GET THE PAPERS AND YOU CAN WRITE ARTICLES FOR ROSE SPEAKS.COM.
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The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.
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