Court Digest

Washington
$5.5M settlement reached in nurse lawsuit over wages
BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) — A class-action lawsuit brought by thousands of nurses who said they weren’t properly paid for lunch and other breaks has settled with Kitsap County’s main health care system, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.

Under the $5.5 million settlement, nurses will receive an average payment of $510, their attorneys said. The actual amounts depend on wages and other factors, the Kitsap Sun reported.

The case filed by a nurse at the former Harrison Medical Center included more than 7,000 employees of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. The lawsuit, filed in 2019, accused the health care system of violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state law.

The suit claimed nurses who worked shifts of 12 hours or more, “experience significant amounts of pre- and post-shift off-the-clock work, including unpaid, on-duty time preparing for their days before clocking in as well as completing charting and patient paperwork after clocking out.”

Virginia Mason Franciscan spokesperson Cary Evans said they’re committed to the fair compensation of its employees.

“We strongly deny that we have violated any wage and hour laws,” he said. “However, we believe the best use of our resources is to move forward and focus on providing top-quality patient care, rather than further extending a costly and time-consuming legal case.”

North Dakota
Ruling: State to pay tribes’ legal fees in dispute over voter ID
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal appeals court panel has upheld a ruling that orders North Dakota to pay more than $450,000 in plaintiff’s attorneys fees and costs stemming from tribal lawsuits over state voter identification requirements.

Last year, the state agreed to settle longstanding legal disputes with Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes.

The tribes sued over North Dakota’s requirement that voters have identification with a street address. The tribes said it creates a disadvantage for Native Americans who live on reservations where street addresses are hard to come by. The dispute at one point reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

An 8th U.S. Circuit of Appeals panel on Friday upheld a federal judge’s May 2020 order that the state pay $452,983, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland had approved an agreement, which sought to ensure Native American voters have valid IDs and can meet the address requirement.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys also sought more than $1 million in attorney fees and expenses. The state argued the claim was unreasonable. Hovland sided with the tribes but reduced the amount by 60%, saying some claimed expenses were excessive.

The state appealed, saying the request had been filed too late. The appellate judges agreed but said the gaffe was “excusable.”

“There is no evidence that the plaintiffs acted in bad faith,” the panel wrote in its decision upholding Hovland’s order.

Georgia
Judge exonerates man who served 20 years in church slayings
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A judge on Monday dismissed all charges against a man convicted of the 1985 slayings of a couple at a south Georgia church, exonerating him after he spent two decades behind bars, the man’s attorneys said.

Glynn County Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett granted a motion by prosecutors to dismiss the case against Dennis Perry, 59. Scarlett last year gave Perry the chance for a new trial after DNA recovered from the crime scene matched a different suspect during reinvestigation of the case. He also ordered Perry’s release from prison while prosecutors decided whether to refile charges.

Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins, who took office in January, decided not to pursue the case.

“There are times when seeking justice means righting a wrong,” Higgins said, according to WTLV-TV. “While this case was prosecuted prior to my administration, the new evidence indicates that someone else murdered Harold and Thelma Swain.”

Perry, who had maintained his innocence, said in a statement he “knew that eventually someone else would see the truth.”

“This indictment has been hanging over my head for over 20 years, and it’s such a relief to finally not have to worry about being accused of this awful thing,” he said.

The Swains were killed inside Rising Daughters Baptist Church in Waverly, Georgia, in 1985.

Perry was convicted in 2003 largely on the testimony of his ex-girlfriend’s mother, who said Perry had told her he planned to kill Harold Swain. The state didn’t disclose to the defense that the woman was paid $12,000 in reward money for her testimony. Perry received two consecutive life sentences in prison.

The new DNA evidence has cast suspicion on another man in the slaying. Authorities were led to that suspect after reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found his alibi was fabricated, Perry’s attorneys say.

“We are thrilled that Dennis and his family can now begin the long process of recovery and healing,” said Jennifer Whitfield, an attorney with the Georgia Innocence Project, which along with the King & Spalding law firm helped secure Perry’s exoneration. “It takes so little to convict, and yet so much to undo a wrongful conviction.”


South Carolina
Judge OKs distribution for $192M nuclear project settlement
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Investors who lost fortunes in the failure of a multi billion-dollar nuclear reactor construction deal in South Carolina will soon begin to see their portions of a $192 million settlement, under a recently approved distribution.

Last week, a federal judge signed off on a plan to disperse the funds among former shareholders in SCANA Corp., the former parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas. The settlement itself was the largest securities class action recovery obtained in South Carolina when a judge approved it last year, according to attorneys for the investors.

The utility company became embroiled in controversy after announcing in summer 2017 that it was shuttering a nuclear reactor construction project at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Columbia, following the bankruptcy of lead contractor Westinghouse.

Up to that point, SCANA and state-owned utility Santee Cooper, a minority partner in the project, had spent nearly $10 billion on it. The failure cost ratepayers and investors billions and left nearly 6,000 people jobless.

The abandonment spawned multiple lawsuits, some by ratepayers claiming company executives knew the project was doomed and misled consumers as well as regulators as they petitioned for a series of rate increases. State and federal authorities launched investigations, which have led to guilty pleas from two top-level SCANA executives.

More than 737,000 SCE&G customers had already paid more than $2 billion toward the project, which never generated any power. Customers did ultimately see retroactive credits applied to bills after lawmakers passed a temporary rate cut that knocked about $25 a month off the average residential customer’s bill.

SCANA shareholders accused the company of assuring them the project was above board, even as costs and delays spiraled out of control. This, investors alleged, caused SCANA stock to be traded at artificially inflated prices, numbers that plummeted once the project was mothballed. In July 2016, SCANA stock was trading at $76.12 a share but dropped more than 50% after news of the project’s failure, and the investigations surrounding it, became public, according to the investors’ attorneys.

The settlement includes $160 million in cash, with the remaining $32.5 million covered by cash or stock in Dominion Energy. The Virginia-based company took over SCANA in 2019, paying more than $6.8 billion to buy out the company’s stock and assuming its consolidated net debts of $6.6 billion.

Claimants will be required to cash their checks within 120 days or forfeit the award, according to the order.

“We are pleased that the court has approved the settlement distribution plan, and look forward to the distribution of the settlement funds to eligible class members according to the plan,” said Marlon Kimpson, a state senator and attorney representing the investors.

Montana
Man given possibility of parole for killings when he was 17
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man who was serving a life sentence for killing three people when he was 17 now has the opportunity to seek parole.

District Judge Amy Eddy resentenced Steven Wayne Keefe, 53, on Friday in Great Falls, the Great Falls Tribune reported.

Keefe petitioned for resentencing in 2017 based on U.S. Supreme Court rulings between 2012 and 2016 that require judges to take into consideration a juvenile’s lack of maturity, undeveloped sense of responsibility, and their family and home environment when sentencing them.

Keefe was three months shy of his 18th birthday in October 1985 when he broke in to the home of David and Constance McKay south of Great Falls, killing them and their daughter, Marian McKay Qamar, 40, who was visiting from Seattle. Qamar’s 3-year-old daughter was in the house but wasn’t injured.

Former District Court Judge Greg Pinski upheld Keefe’s life-without-parole sentence at the end of a 2019 hearing though a psychologist, a former Montana State Prison supervisor and a former warden testified that Keefe had matured, made progress toward rehabilitation and could be successful outside prison.

The state argued that the court did not have to consider post-offense evidence of rehabilitation. Still, the state presented evidence of Keefe’s early bad behavior in prison and that he had three skull tattoos, which they argued showed a lack of remorse.

While Keefe had 47 convictions prior to the killings, he also had a rocky and abusive early childhood, his attorney argued before Pinski.

The Montana Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing in January, saying Pinski had written his decision before the hearing and did not take into consideration Keefe’s rehabilitation in prison.

On Friday, Keefe called his actions deplorable and reprehensible and apologized to the victims’ families for the killings and for bringing them back into court. He said that at the time of the crime, he was a liar and a cheat looking for easy money who did not consider consequences and how his behavior affected others.

Tavie McKay, another daughter of the McKays and sister to Marian Qamar, described Keefe’s “wanton execution” of her family.

Muña Qamar, who was in the house when her mother and grandparents were killed, broke down, saying she couldn’t remember her mother. She said Keefe caused her lifelong trauma.

A probation and parole officer testified that the Department of Corrections will have to do some calculations to determine when Keefe would be eligible to seek a hearing before the parole board.

West Virginia
Court order shuts down used car dealerships
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Four used car dealers have been permanently blocked from selling vehicles in West Virginia under a recent court order.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Monday his office won a lawsuit that accused the defendants of misrepresenting odometer readings and unlawfully selling vehicles “as is” despite mechanical defects and fraudulent inspection stickers.

The lawsuit also alleged the dealerships operated without a state license and violated repeated cease and desist orders from the Division of Motor Vehicles.

According to the court order, the defendants must void all vehicle contracts, release all liens on titles to sold vehicles, and cannot collect payments or repossess any vehicles that they sold.

Morrisey said in a statement that defendants Karen and Brian Richmond operated Richmond’s Quality Cars LLC in western Kanawha County and face a joint civil penalty of $20,000.

Morrisey said defendant Glenville Ratliff owned Maplewood Auto Sales in Lewisburg, while Corey Smith owned CMS Pre-Owned Auto Sales in Huntington.