lawsuit

US man wins lawsuit after being fired following unwanted birthday party

The man has been awarded US$450,000 (NZ$668,600) after his former employers threw him an unwanted surprise party for his birthday despite his objections. 

The plaintiff, Kevin Berling, was formerly employed by Gravity Diagnostics, a medical laboratory in Covington, Kentucky that conducts COVID-19 tests. 

Dominion Voting sues Fox News for $1.6bn over election fraud claims

Conservatives and Trump campaigners had claimed last year that the US company had altered its voting machines to deny re-election to Donald Trump.

The false claim of a stolen election was promoted by Mr Trump and helped fuel the 6 January attack on Congress.

Fox News said it would fight the "baseless lawsuit in court".

The lawsuit argues that Fox News, which hosted guests touting anti-Dominion conspiracy theories during the 2020 election, "recklessly disregarded the truth" because "the lies were good for Fox's business".

Mars, Nestlé, and Hershey facing major child slavery lawsuit

According to The Guardian, the young adults are all from Mali and seek damages for “forced labor and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision, and intentional infliction of emotional distress” when they were children.

This also marks the first time a class-action lawsuit is being filed against the cocoa industry in a United States court. It is also believed that this case is only one of many instances of child abuse and slave labour in the industry.

Trump camp's lawsuit struck down in Pennsylvania

Judge Matthew Brann said the suit, which rested on allegations of irregularities, was "without merit".

The move paves the way for Pennsylvania to next week certify Joe Biden's win - he leads by more than 80,000 votes.

It is the latest blow to Donald Trump, who is trying to overturn his loss in the 3 November presidential election.

He has refused to concede and made allegations of widespread electoral fraud, without providing any evidence.

The lack of a concession has upended the process that normally follows a US election.

US election results: Trump and Biden each claim victory as lawsuits brew

The Trump campaign is challenging vote counts in the critical states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The BBC projects Mr Biden won Michigan. US media forecast he has won Wisconsin. No result has emerged in Pennsylvania.

Winning all three of these Rust Belt states would make Mr Biden victorious.

     

Samoan police sued for breaching man's rights

Malo Mose claimed he was arrested and charged in February even though he told police he didn't understand Samoan.

Mr Mose said he refused to sign a written statement police gave him because it was in Samoan and he didn't understand it.

The Samoa Observer reported the charges against Mose were thrown out in August after police said they did not have sufficient evidence to proceed.

Samoan PM sued over Land Titles Registration Act

The lawsuit was filed last week by the Samoa Solidarity International Group Global, who has questioned the legality and the constitutionality of the act.

Others named in the civil claim are the Attorney General, Lemalu Hermann Retzlaff, former Attorney General, Aumua Ming Leung Wai, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Samoa Land Corporation.

The group is asking the court to void the 2008 Act and that all customary land leases be returned to their original and traditional state of ownership prior to the act.

Samoan attorney general, police sued over OLP arrest

Katerina Maria Lesatele was arrested in April 2017 on suspicion of being connected to the OLP blog.

She was reportedly initially detained at the police headquarters in Apia for a day and when she was released, the police requested to further detain her until their investigation was completed.

She was then reportedly detained at Tafa'igata prison for five days.

According to Talamua Online, Lesatele said that the police had been after her since 2015 claiming that she knew who OLP was, but it was not until April last year that she was arrested.

Date set for hearing against Samoa's Ministry of Police

The civil action stems from a police raid where the complainant, Suitupe Misa, was arrested in in front of shoppers and vendors at the Savalalo market in 2015.

The office of the Ombudsman launched an investigation into the apparent wrongful arrest in 2016 after a complaint by Misa.

The Ombudsman reported that the Commissioner of Police failed to meet basic investigation principles and placed undue consideration on second hand evidence, leading directly to the wrongful and unlawful arrest of Suitupe.

Lawsuit filed against Samoa attorney general, police officers

Katerina Auatalia Lesatele was arrested and held for five days in April last year, and accused of being the person behind the Ole Palemia Blog.

Ms Lesatele faced several charges over comments and opinions on the blog, which the police said had defamed a number of people.

However, the charges were later withdrawn for a lack of evidence.

The attorney general, on behalf of the police ministry, and the three officers are being sued for more than two hundred thousand US dollars.

The civil case is scheduled to be called for mention this week.