This is a big win for Team Insurance IMHO. James and Sock called this in the comments over the weekend.
Here is Magistrate Sally Sushan’s report and recommendation and the customary Scribd embed:
[scribd id=29118871 key=key-pvzrkjoel0roky6qerf mode=list]
Kanner’s balls still hurt IMHO. If this stands all that is left is Team Rigsby here on the coast.
sop
If y’all need a diversion from the Katrina litigation universe, look up the history of James Stone and the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility. That guy went to the FBI in 1987, with 2000 pgs of documentation alleging two dozen violations of environmental and safety law/regs at Rocky Flats, including incinerating plutonium in incerators that had failed tests, dumping hazardous waste in lagoons that regularly overflowed when it rained, and gagging Rockwell employees from speaking to the Department of Energy.
100 FBI agents and EPA specialists raided Rocky Flats on June 6, 1989. It was hot news back then. There were so many violations, a special grand jury stayed in session for more than 2 years….. resulting in a Rockwell plea bargain in 1992. Most of the grand jury testimony was sealed….I think you can guess why.
Stone filed his qui tam immediately after the raid in 1989. He kept the case alive until the FED finally intervened in 1996. It went up and down through the courts because Rockwell Int’l raised every technical defense imaginable. In March 2007, Scalia stripped Stone of his relator’s share because he said “Stone did not have direct and independent knowledge of the information upon which his allegations [actually the government’s amended allegations] were based…” Stone died 2 weeks later….his brother said that he had nothing but the shirt on his back. He wanted to be remembered as a patriot. He thought Rockwell had committed treason.
Scalia’s decision stated “Because Stone was no longer employed by Rockwell at the time, he did not know that the pondcrete was insolid; he did not know that pondcrete storage was even subject to the RCRA; he did not know that Rockwell would fail to remedy the defect; he did not know that the insolid pondcrete leaked while being stored onsite; and, of course, he did not know that Rockwell made false statements to the Government regarding pondcrete storage.” United States ex rel. Stone v. Rockwell Int’l, Corp., 549 U.S. 457, 474 (2007)
The pondcrete in question is actually nuclear waste that was combined with concrete for storage purposes. James Stone did know much according to Scalia, but he knew enough that he could forsee that the pondcrete blocks would dissolve, because the nuclear sludge would undermine the integrity of the concrete….which it did, leaching into the ground water.
If Stone hadn’t been a whistleblower and stopped the insanity at Rocky Flats (just outside of Denver) who can predict what might have been.
If you’re feeling sorry for yourself, think about the sacrifice of one James Stone.
Actually, James, it’s Magistrate Shushan that I pity – the woman has such a crippling case of dyslexia she can’t process the distinction between “Claim” and “claims” well enough to see that her Report convolutes the meaning of both.
Oh Mustang Sally, you are better slow your clown ass down!
She is certainly a co-conspirator in my opinion.
I’ve read the Report several times now and it’s abundantly clear that it’s a face-saving effort to justify the Magistrate’s convoluted decision on the Second Amended Complaint – an attempt to get Judge Vance to see things her way.