Lawsuit

1: Burbank Police’s year of problems:  A barrage of outside investigations, lawsuits filed against the city by current and former officers, a police sergeant taking his own life on a residential street and a no-confidence vote in the police chief just days after he announced plans to retire made for a turbulent year at the Burbank Police Department. For a city still grappling with the 2003 shooting death of Officer Matthew Pavelka, the series of events has pummeled morale and left many inside the department in limbo as they await the outcome of probes by the FBI and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

A court-ordered injunction issued Thursday against a planned Walmart in Burbank could sideline the project and force the city to prove the world's largest retailer won't cause significant harm to local roadways and businesses. Walmart had been planning to renovate the former Great Indoors site adjacent to the Empire Center in time to open in mid- to late 2013, but the Los Angeles County Superior Court injunction on Thursday effectively stops all work until the claims raised in a lawsuit filed by three Burbank residents earlier this year are settled.

GLENDALE ? A Long Beach-based law firm has settled a class-action suit with the management of a nursing home with facilities in Burbank and Glendale. The suit alleged the company provided its patients with substandard care. Attorney Stephen Garcia, whose firm the Garcia Law Firm filed the suit against Longwood management Corp., would not discuss the details of the settlement. The settlement was confirmed by a source in Garcia's law office. The source said that the settlement's terms are confidential.

A black police officer does not have a discrimination case against the Burbank Police Department, a judge ruled Thursday, dismissing Jamal Childs as a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by five minority officers in May. The ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joanne O’Donnell does not affect the other four plaintiffs, who allege numerous instances of race- and gender-based bias, harassment and retaliation, and that the department allowed...

Laura Sturza BURBANK -- Lockheed Martin Corp. will pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit with 40 residents who allege the company's chemical runoff contaminated Burbank water, causing illness, death and property damage. While the firm said it was able to "scientifically prove that we didn't harm anyone," Lockheed spokeswoman Gail Rymer said solvents did enter the ground water as the result of 60 years of operations. But she said "there is no cause and effect."

Paul Clinton MEDIA DISTRICT WEST -- Residents of a Media District apartment complex have sued the building's owner, alleging conditions in the housing units caused health problems. Six current and former residents of Lakeside Apartments have put their names to the class-action lawsuit, which could eventually include several hundred people who lived in the complex at one time or another, Los Angeles attorney Mike Arias said. "We have a lot of people who have become sick and ill because of conditions at Lakeside Apartments," Arias said.

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- A federal district court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a community activist claiming that city officials violated her civil rights when she was charged with obstructing a police officer at a City Council meeting. U.S. District Judge Ronald Lew dismissed Theresa Karam's case on Monday, adding there was no evidence to support her claim, officials said. Karam argued that city staff violated her civil rights when she was prosecuted for ignoring an officer's order to stay outside an overcrowded City Council Chamber in August 1999, officials said.

Mark R. Madler The Walt Disney Co. was hit Monday by a lawsuit filed by two former board members claiming investors were misled during selection of the company's incoming chief executive. Roy E. Disney and Stanley P. Gold seek a judge's order voiding the February election of the Disney board of directors and a disclosure of the process that led to naming Robert Iger as Chief Executive Michael Eisner's replacement later this year. "The representations made by the defendants that they would engage in an open and objective selection process, that no predetermination had been made, and that external candidates would be seriously considered were false and/or misleading," the 13-page complaint reads.

Local school boards are throwing their support behind a lawsuit filed Thursday that claims the California education system has been underfunded by billions for years in violation of the state Constitution. The lawsuit represents years of work by the California School Boards Assn. and state Parent Teacher Assn. organizations, who have the full backing of local boards in Glendale and Burbank, officials said. A successful outcome would force state legislators to create a new mechanism to fund public education according to levels proscribed in the Constitution, said Glendale school board member Mary Boger, who serves as vice president of the California School Boards Assn.