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Collier refuses to put Moncier's suspension on hold - A judge who ordered a prominent Knoxville defense attorney suspended from practicing federal law has issued a fresh round of criticism, accusing the lawyer of unethical behavior and outright lying.Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier on Friday issued a sternly worded ruling in which he refuses to put on hold a seven-year suspension of Herbert S. Moncier's right to practice federal law in East Tennessee pending Moncier's appeal.In that ruling, Collier accuses Moncier of legal misconduct, unethical behavior and even lying - after Collier put down his April 29 order...

Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier today issued a ruling barring Knoxville attorney Herbert S. Moncier from practicing law in any federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee. Collier also reprimanded Moncier for remarks made about "opposing counsel." Moncier's courtroom opponent, in the case before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer that landed him in front of Collier, is Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Smith, but it was not immediately clear if it was Smith to whom Collier was referring. Collier issued an 80-page ruling setting out his reasoning. The order states that Moncier will be under "active suspension" for five...

In a medical malpractice case last week, plaintiff's attorney R. Sadler Bailey repeatedly called defense attorneys liars and told the judge her rulings could "set a world record for error." On Wednesday, Bailey was led from the courtroom in handcuffs after Circuit Court Judge Karen Williams held him in direct criminal contempt of court for those and other "unprofessional and inappropriate" remarks he has made over the two-year course of the case. "Much time was wasted because Mr. Bailey could not discuss issues in this case in the courteous and controlled manner that is expected of all attorneys and officers...

Clerical errors led to attacker's release, says suit against state - The family of a teenage girl who was stabbed and nearly killed last year by a high-security inmate wrongly paroled from San Quentin State Prison has sued the state. The suit claims Scott Thomas, who was suffering from bipolar disorder, was never treated during his months in solitary confinement in San Quentin. After he was released without supervision on May 18, 2007, Thomas randomly stabbed Loren Schaller, now 16, and 60-year-old Kermit Kubitz at a bakery near Miraloma Park. Thomas, 26, who was sent to prison nine times for...

Former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson should be freed from prison immediately because California corrections officials had no authority to re-arrest her after she was paroled last week, her attorneys argued in a court motion filed Tuesday. The motion filed in Sacramento County Superior Court claims that Olson's due process rights were violated when she was returned to prison Saturday to serve at least another year behind bars. Olson, 61, was paroled March 17 after serving six years in prison for the attempted bombings of Los Angeles police cars in the 1970s and the shooting death of a...

A prominent Memphis lawyer has been hit with a second lawsuit by a former client accusing him of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars after gaining power of attorney. J. Richard Rossie is accused in a Chancery Court suit of writing unauthorized checks to himself from the account of client Phoebe Copeland, who had granted him power of attorney in 2001 to handle her estate, personal finances and other legal matters. According to the suit, Rossie drew at least 42 such checks between August 2000 and June 2007 totaling $346,667.43. The checks, which ranged from $1,000 to $40,000, were misappropriated...

A family of Pakistani immigrants living in San Francisco public housing was improperly denied an emergency transfer to another apartment after someone broke into their home, desecrated their Quran, defaced their passports and shredded their traditional clothing, according to a federal court lawsuit. After the August 2005 incident - which took place during a time of intensified anti-Muslim sentiment in the country and while the San Francisco Housing Authority was under court order to better protect tenants from hate-motivated crimes - agency officials ruled that the break-in at Ashan Khan's apartment was a simple burglary and didn't qualify the family...

BOW, N.H. (AP) -- Democrat John Edwards says his experience as a trial lawyer makes him the presidential contender best able to give voters hope — and to give the establishment grief. Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, has focused his campaign on pledges to change a government system he says is rigged against most voters. "While you shop (for candidates), I hope you will think about two key things: Who can you trust to tell you the truth about what's wrong in Washington, and who can you trust to fight like hell to make it right?" Edwards said...

A jury in a lawsuit against Dole Fresh Fruit Co. on Thursday awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages to five workers who said they were made sterile by use of a pesticide used on Nicaraguan banana plantations in the 1970s. Last week, the Superior Court jury awarded $3.3 million in actual damages to six workers. The jury's finding that Dole acted maliciously in harming five of the six allowed punitive damages to be considered for the five. The punitive damages total was to be split evenly among the five workers. Twelve workers originally filed suit, but the jury determined that...

Francisco Castaneda says he spent more than 10 months in immigration jails in Southern California pleading for medical help as lesions on his penis grew larger and more painful, but the government's only response was to free him before it had to pay for a scheduled biopsy. The 35-year-old Salvadoran native, who entered the United States illegally with his mother when he was 10, now says he has terminal cancer that would have been prevented by proper treatment. His cancer was diagnosed immediately after his release from federal custody in February, and his penis was amputated before he began chemotherapy....

New York (AP) -- A federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit alleging that Target Corp. is breaking California and federal law by failing to make its Web site usable for the blind. The plaintiffs fault Target for not adopting technology used by other companies to make Web sites accessible to the blind. The technology allows reading software to vocalize invisible code embedded in computer graphics and describe content on a Web page. Granting class-action status allows blind people throughout the country who have tried to access Target.com to become plaintiffs in the suit, which alleges violations of the...

FOR YEARS, few things terrified a Silicon Valley executive more than trial lawyer Bill Lerach. "Being Lerached" meant a courtroom showdown with the wily, ferocious lawyer, who usually extracted fat settlements from companies accused of stock manipulations. He moved mountains, collecting $7 billion for Enron shareholders. His law firm had a lineup of clients that included the UC Board of Regents and public pension funds in New York and Ohio. When a high-flying stock fell to earth, he was the go-to guy that investors used to get even. Companies caved, knowing insurance would cover much of it. Except his methods...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The owners of a dry cleaner who were sued for $54 million over a missing pair of pants have closed and sold the shop involved in the dispute, their attorney said Wednesday. The South Korean immigrants are citing a loss of revenue and the emotional strain of defending the lawsuit. They will focus their energy on another dry-cleaning shop they still own, said their attorney, Chris Manning. "This is a truly tragic example of how devastating frivolous litigation can be to the American people and to small businesses," Manning said in a statement. Soo Chung and her...

The federal courts are the latest to try to stop California attorneys from targeting small businesses for quick profits over minor infractions.The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed with a lower court to curb the litigious ways of Jarek Molski, a disabled Woodland Hills man, and sanction his lawyer.Although this particular ruling involved a Solvang restaurant, it will affect similar cases throughout the U.S. Central District, which includes Orange County, and the Ninth District which includes seven states.Molski had sued more than 400 restaurants around California for violations of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. He objected to...

DETROIT (AP) -- Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, best known for representing assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, was indicted on charges of conspiring to make more than $125,000 in illegal contributions to the 2004 presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards. The indictment was returned Aug. 21 and unsealed Friday. It names both Fieger and Vernon Johnson, a partner in Fieger's Southfield-based law firm.

Santa Cruz, Calif. (AP) -- The partner of a former University of California chancellor who plunged 33 stories to her death last year has filed a lawsuit demanding part of her estate. Gretchen Kalonji, Denice Dee Denton's partner of more than 10 years, sued Denton's estate for $2.25 million in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, claiming she was mistakenly left out of Denton's will. The lawsuit, which was filed in June, asserts Kalonji and the one-time UC Santa Cruz chancellor had verbally agreed to provide for each other if one partner should die. "It's just a bunch of lies, that's...

NASHVILLE - A judge Tuesday closed one door in legal attempts to deny expanded pension benefits to former Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison but left another open. Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle dismissed motions by Knoxville attorney Herbert S. Moncier seeking to revoke Hutchison's certification as a law enforcement officer. She based the dismissal on legal procedural rules without addressing the merits of Moncier's arguments, declaring he was trying to "resurrect" a lawsuit that is already dead in her court. At the same time, however, the chancellor noted in a five-page order that Moncier filed a second lawsuit last...

A prominent Knoxville defense lawyer whose behavior at a recent court hearing has been deemed by a federal judge in Greeneville as criminally contemptuous is fighting back. Attorney Herbert S. Moncier, through his defense team of Ralph Harwell and John T. Rogers, is asking U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer to reconsider his decision earlier this week to find Moncier in criminal contempt of court. But that's not all. The attorney also wants Greer booted off the bench and into the witness chair. He is asking that U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick's staff be barred from the prosecution table and, if all...

A federal judge today found a prominent Knoxville defense attorney guilty of contempt of his court. Greeneville U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer issued a 28-page written opinion, deeming attorney Herbert S. Moncier guilty of contemptuous behavior during a Nov. 17, 2006, hearing. Moncier is expected to file motions later today asking Greer, among other things, to reconsider and remove himself from the bench. Moncier could face up to six months in jail and lose his law license. Greer's decision comes after a court hearing in April. At the time, Greer was going to rule but took under advisement proof from...

PHILADELPHIA, (AP) -- Illegal immigrants who worked long shifts scrubbing theme restaurants for an indicted janitorial firm are seeking unpaid wages in a federal lawsuit. Some of the plaintiffs were rounded up in federal raids in February and deported before receiving their final paychecks, the suit charges. Others said they worked 80- or 100-hour weeks without earning overtime pay or even the prevailing minimum wage. "People should be aware of the kinds of exploitative situations that are happening out there, in particular with immigrant workers," said lawyer Nadia Hewka of Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, who helped file the suit....

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Supreme Court ordered a state appeals court Monday to review a decision giving $82.6 million to a woman who was paralyzed after her Ford Explorer rolled over. The justices want a California appeals court to determine if its ruling is in line with the Supreme Court decision overturning a $79.5 million punitive damages award in a tobacco case earlier this year. The court said then that a jury may punish a defendant only for the harm done to the person who is suing, not to others whose cases were not before it ....Ford's legal team, led...

The attorney for David Halberstam's family believes that the student who was driving the car in which the famed author was killed acted negligently and recklessly. But he is not surprised that a police inquiry completed this week, and announced last night, found no criminal action, although the district attorney has yet to rule. "I think it was a standard negligent automobile accident. He was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol -- it was appropriate that it not be brought as a criminal matter," Attorney Martin Garbus said Friday about the April 23 crash. But he added, "It...

A defendant in a Sonoma County courtroom got rough justice Wednesday when he was punched in the face by his own attorney and shocked twice with a stun gun after he tried to wrestle a court bailiff's gun from its holster. Cotati resident Martin E. Hirtz, 44, was in Superior Court Judge Lawrence Antolini's court at about 9 a.m. on a probation violation charge related to a previous conviction for assaulting a peace officer when the chaos began. Hirtz made a move for the gun as he was being taken from the courtroom into custody, according to a statement by...

Moncier's lawyer says he didn't improperly obtain key testimony - When it rains, it pours. On that, prominent Knoxville defense attorney Herbert S. Moncier would no doubt agree. The real question is whether Moncier is the rainmaker or a lightning rod. Weeks after a couple of high-profile run-ins, Moncier is again wading in some hot water. This time, court records allege he may have violated a professional rule of conduct in sending to the witness stand a confessed cocaine supplier without notifying her attorney. But fellow attorney Ralph Harwell, who is representing Moncier in his other two legal entanglements, contends...

A federal judge today briefly ordered Knoxville attorney Herbert S. Moncier jailed for an allegation of contempt of court in Greeneville. U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer ordered deputy U.S. marshals to take Moncier into custody on what’s known as a summary contempt charge after the prominent defense attorney allegedly disrupted a hearing by repeatedly interrupting the judge, speaking loudly in an attempt to silence the judge and being, in the judge’s view, overly argumentative. By leveling a summary contempt charge, the judge essentially opined that no other course of action would restore order in his court. The move came during...

A federal appeals court blocked a landmark judgment against the tobacco industry Tuesday, allowing the companies to continue selling "light" and "low tar" cigarettes until their appeals can be reviewed. The decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit also allows the companies to continue for now the advertising campaigns that a federal judge in August ruled were misleading. Without comment, the appeals court granted the tobacco companies' request to put Judge Gladys Kessler's order on hold. The companies have argued that her far-reaching ruling could cost them millions of dollars and lead to...

The Navy lawyer who led a successful Supreme Court challenge of the Bush administration's military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay has been passed over for promotion and will have to leave the military, The Miami Herald reported Sunday. Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, 44, will retire in March or April under the military's "up or out" promotion system. Swift said last week he was notified he would not be promoted to commander. He said the notification came about two weeks after the Supreme Court sided with him and against the White House in the case involving Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a...

A state appeals court has rejected a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco by the family of a woman who was killed when her head slammed into the low ceiling of the Broadway Tunnel as she stood on the open upper deck of a private bus. Signs outside the western end of the tunnel provided an adequate warning to drivers of the lowered clearance of 13 feet, 6 inches ahead, the Court of Appeal panel said Thursday. The suit was filed by the husband and son of Diana Cushing Canning, 50, of Sebastopol, one of two passengers killed in...

Los Angeles -- A lawyer indicted in a federal wiretapping case was sued Wednesday by an attorney who represented billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's former wife during a child custody battle four years ago. Stephen Kolodny filed the lawsuit in Superior Court against Terry Christensen, a partner at Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil & Shapiro. The suit accuses Christensen and the law firm of invasion of privacy, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Kolodny is seeking general, special and punitive damages. Messages left for Christensen and Kolodny's attorney were not immediately returned Wednesday. Christensen is awaiting trial with six other...

Roanoke, Va. -- A jury has awarded $2 million to a couple whose 4-year-old son died after being run over by a riding lawn mower at his day care center. The Roanoke Circuit Court jury on Wednesday found the mower's manufacturer liable for the April 2004 death of Justin Simmons. Cleveland-based MTD Products Corp. said it would appeal. "I find it incredulous that a jury no longer cares about common sense and personal responsibility," company attorney John Fitzpatrick said. The jury held MTD responsible for not designing a mower that automatically stops its blades whenever it rolls backward. No such...

Columbus, Ohio -- Two smokers can't bring a class action lawsuit against Philip Morris USA Inc. over the way the tobacco giant markets "light" cigarettes, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The smokers had argued that Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris knew cigarettes it marketed as having less tar and nicotine would be as dangerous as regular cigarettes. The tobacco company, which is a unit of Altria Group Inc., contended that Ohio law requires a more specific warning from the state on a company's marketing practices before allowing lawsuits to apply beyond individuals to an entire class. The high court threw...

Game over. That's Knox County Chancellor Daryl Fansler's ruling in a blistering opinion denying County Commissioner Wanda Moody reimbursement for her legal expenses in a public-records lawsuit against Sheriff Tim Hutchison. Fansler concludes in his opinion, released Friday, that Moody and her attorney, Herbert S. Moncier, have been playing a game to avoid detailing her legal expenses and bringing the case to a close. He insists he's had enough and is shooting down not only legal fees within his discretion to award but even those allowed under the Tennessee Open Records Act. Under that law, Moody was entitled to recoup...

Students suing over the high school exit exam made a last-minute plea to an appeals court Thursday, asking the justices to decide the fight over 2006 diplomas before the bulk of graduation ceremonies begin around the state. Acting on orders from the state Supreme Court, the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco on Thursday morning had set oral arguments on the test for July 25. Arturo Gonzalez, a lawyer representing students challenging the exam, then asked the appeals court for quicker action. In judicial terms, the July 25 date places the exit exam in a high-priority position. The...

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco attorney who sued the state on behalf of high school seniors who failed the exit exam that is required to earn a diploma filed an emergency request today for an expedited hearing with the California Court of Appeal. On Wednesday, the state's Superior Court voted to stay the order from a lower court that would allow all members of the Class of 2006 to graduate, regardless of whether they had passed the controversial exam. The Superior Court also sent the matter to the Court of Appeal. Arturo Gonzalez, the attorney who sued the state...

EL PASO, Texas - A jury awarded $27.5 million in damages to a California woman of Iranian descent who alleged she was racially profiled when Southwest Airlines accused her of assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with a flight crew. Samantha Carrington of Santa Barbara won in the civil case Friday after suing the Dallas-based carrier for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. Carrington was arrested by federal authorities in 2003 after her Houston-to-Los Angeles flight made a scheduled stop in El Paso. Criminal charges were never filed. According to court records, three flight attendants said Carrington, a naturalized citizen from...

LOS ANGELES - An appellate court ruled a judge wrongly punished a defendant for his lawyer's outburst during a deposition. Jerome Renard and Mario Oliver were sued for fraud by investors who claimed they were paid only a quarter of the money loaned to open Linq Restaurant. Renard lawyer Anthony Rodriguez got into a heated debate with the plaintiff attorney over a conflict of interest issue and Rodriguez stood up, shouted and pointed his finger within three inches of the attorney's nose. The outburst was triggered when the plaintiffs' lawyer said he wanted to call Rodriguez as a witness, court...

Still unclear if state Supreme Court will mediate in county's election woes - As it remained unclear Wednesday if the Tennessee Supreme Court will jump in to decide Knox County's election troubles, Chancellor John Weaver issued an order dismissing lawyer Herbert S. Moncier's efforts to unseat Sheriff Tim Hutchison. Weaver denied Moncier's request to force the Election Commission to remove Hutchison's name from the ballot. He also ruled that Jim Gray, Knox County Democratic Party chairman, could not consolidate a related legal action he has brought with an earlier one brought by former County Commissioner Bee DeSelm. But his ruling...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The attorney for one of three young men sentenced to prison for the videotaped sexual assault of an unconscious teenage girl vows that the victim and her family will regret naming him as a defendant in a $26 million civil lawsuit. "They're going to rue the day they brought me into this case," said Joseph G. Cavallo, who represented Gregory Haidl, son of a former Orange County assistant sheriff. Haidl, 20, and co-defendants Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner, both 21, were sentenced earlier this month to six years in state prison stemming from the July 2002...

Fairfax, Va. -- A $1.8 million lawsuit accusing a circus boss of a spy campaign against animal-rights groups was rejected by jurors Wednesday. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had brought the civil lawsuit against Kenneth Feld, the president of Vienna, Va.-based Feld Entertainment, which owns the Ringling Bros. circus and numerous other high-profile entertainment acts, including Disney on Ice. The lawsuit contended Feld and other company executives stole sensitive documents and wiretapped the activities of Norfolk-based PETA and other groups. Feld said after the verdict that PETA's accusation "flies in the face of logic."

OAKLAND -- A blind UC Berkeley student has filed a class-action lawsuit against Target Corp., saying the retailer is committing civil-rights violations because its Web site is inaccessible to those who cannot see. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court, said the upscale discounter's on-line business, target.com, denies blind Californians equal access to goods and services available to those who can see. "Target thus excludes the blind from full and equal participation in the growing Internet economy that is increasingly a fundamental part of daily life," said the suit, which seeks to be certified as a class action...

Salem, Ore. (AP) -- The Oregon Supreme Court upheld on Thursday a $79.5 million punitive damages award to the family of an Oregon smoker who died of lung cancer, saying the amount isn't excessive given the "reprehensible" conduct of tobacco giant Philip Morris in marketing cigarettes. The decision upholds a lower court ruling and responds to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that asked Oregon courts to consider whether the award in the lawsuit against Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc., was excessive. The state Supreme Court said it was not excessive, given "such extreme and outrageous circumstances."

A homeless man is suing Waffle House for allegedly tricking him into drinking a "Christmas Shake" laced with dishwashing detergent. Rex Leo, 50, was hospitalized on Dec. 14 after a waiter at the Waffle House in Stockbridge, Ga., allegedly mixed the toxic concoction and offered Leo $5 to drink it. Leo was released from Henry Medical Center on Monday. Leo's attorney, Jay Sadd, said the mixture ate up the homeless man's mouth, esophagus, larynx, trachea, lungs, kidneys and stomach. "We're not sure at this point if he lost oxygen. That would cause brain damage," Sadd said. "Rex's family says he...

Lawyers for Stanley "Tookie" Williams lodged another legal bid late Saturday to spare his life, even as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger remained publicly mum on clemency for the Crips gang co-founder who is scheduled to be executed early Tuesday. Williams is asking the California Supreme Court to postpone the carrying out of his death sentence while the state Legislature considers a moratorium on executions. A bill that the Legislature is expected to consider next month would provide time for a state commission to review the way the death penalty is applied in the state. The motion from Williams' attorney Verna Wefald...

Los Angeles -- Condemned killer Scott Peterson is attempting to halt publication of a book written by a lawyer who was kicked off his case for violating a judge's gag order. A Superior Court judge declined to grant a request for emergency relief during a hearing Wednesday, likely pushing the case before an appellate court next week, Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, said Wednesday night. "We're seeking appellate relief to prevent a lawyer who was employed for the briefest of times from capitalizing on that employment and violating his oath as a lawyer," Geragos told The Associated Press. Matthew Dalton was...

Chicago -- A jury rejected a $24 million lawsuit brought by a former death row inmate who claimed Chicago police conspired to frame him for two murders. Anthony Porter spent more than 16 years in prison and came within two days of being executed. He was freed in 1999 after a Northwestern University journalism teacher and his students found another man who confessed to the killings. The civil jury decided Tuesday that detectives were not malicious in their investigation and had reason to focus on Porter as the lead suspect. "We are absolutely stunned," said Porter's attorney, James Montgomery Jr....

Selling gas to a drunk could make store owners legally responsible for injuries suffered if the intoxicated motorist causes a crash, the state Supreme Court has ruled. The groundbreaking ruling comes in a Knoxville lawsuit that sought to extend the state's negligence laws, long applied to those who hawk alcohol to drunks, to those who provide them gas. In the case, Gary L. West and Michell B. Richardson suffered severe injuries in July 2000 when their vehicle was struck head-on by drunk driver Brian Lee Tarver, 49, in a crash on Rutledge Pike. Tarver later pleaded guilty to charges including...

TORONTO - Mitra Gopaul has trouble sleeping. Eddie Ho has repeated flashbacks. And some children are still clinging to their parents more than a week after surviving the Air France crash on the runway of Canada's busiest airport. JoAnn Cordary Bundock, a business executive who must get back on a jet next Tuesday and fly to South Korea for work, worries she'll collapse in fear. Air France, they say, has not done enough to compensate or reassure them. So they are considering joining a class-action lawsuit filed last week in Ontario Superior Court, which seeks $269 million in damages for...

LOS ANGELES - California's Supreme Court has affirmed a state appeals court decision to slash in half a $100 million damage award against Philip Morris Inc. in a lawsuit by a smoker who later died of lung cancer. The justices voted 5-0 on Wednesday not to review the decision by a 2nd District Court of Appeal in April, which reduced the damages in the civil trial to $50 million but also let stand $5.5 million in compensatory damages to Richard Boeken. Boeken, a two-pack-a-day smoker since he was 13, died in 2002. He was 57. Attorney Michael Piuze said it...

LOS ANGELES - A judge threw out a $6.5 million award to a former gang member who sued his public defender for failing to convince a jury he didn't assault two corrupt police officers. Judge Tricia Ann Bigelow on Monday also ordered a new trail after finding that a juror committed misconduct and the panel improperly found Javier Ovando's former defense attorney was liable. Ovando, 27, was convicted in 1997 of assaulting Rampart division officers Rafael Perez and Nino Durden and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He spent more than two years behind bars until it was revealed that...

ORLANDO, Fla. - A jury in a $200 million lawsuit cleared Learjet of responsibility Wednesday for the 1999 death of pro golfer Payne Stewart in a charter plane crash. The twin-engine jet went down in a cow pasture in South Dakota after flying halfway across the country on autopilot, as Stewart and the four others aboard apparently lay unconscious for lack of oxygen. Everyone was killed.Stewart's widow, Tracey, and their two children sued the aircraft manufacturer, claiming a cracked piece of equipment caused cabin air to escape as plane climbed.Learjet argued that the plane lost pressure in another way, and...