Plaintiffs

Paul Clinton CIVIC CENTER -- Although the original group of plaintiffs has been whittled down from 2,400 to about 200, an attorney representing current and former Burbank residents who blame Lockheed Martin Corp. for their health problems said Tuesday that the fight is not over. "We feel very confident on the remaining cases," Santa Barbara attorney Thomas Foley said. On Friday, in the latest action to pare down the litigant pool, Los Angeles County Superior Judge Court Carl West threw out 200 claims against Lockheed.

Paul Clinton BURBANK -- Lynnell Madrid is livid. Two days after a judge tossed out lawsuits brought by 140 Burbank-area residents who believe their health problems were caused by Lockheed Martin Corp., Madrid vowed to fight on. "It was just earth-shattering," Madrid said. "For four years we have been hoping for Lockheed to be held accountable for what they did to us." On Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl West said attorneys for the 140 residents -- picked from a pool of nearly 3,000 because of the seriousness of their ailments -- didn't prove the aerospace firm was directly responsible for their health problems.

Laura Sturza LOS ANGELES -- Lockheed-Martin Corporation is facing trial after being sued by four plaintiffs alleging the company's chemical runoff contaminated Burbank water, causing illness or death. The firm paid $60 million in 1996 to 1,350 residents and $5 million in 2000 to 400 residents in out-of-court settlements related to cancer-causing chemicals first found in 1980 in Burbank. "These are the first ones (lawsuits) to actually go to trial," Lockheed Spokeswoman Gail Rymer said.

Laura Sturza LOS ANGELES -- Lockheed-Martin Corporation settled a lawsuit with forty plaintiffs who alleged that the company's chemical runoff contaminated Burbank water, causing illness, death or property damage. Terms of the settlement will be disclosed after they have been finalized in about two weeks, Lockheed spokeswoman Gail Rymer said. The trial was postponed when Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer broke her hip. This meant the case could be declared a mistrial, and that the parties might wait as much as a year for a new trial, Rymer said.

Laura Sturza AIRPORT DISTRICT -- The most recent agreement between Southwest Airlines and plaintiffs in the crash of one of its 737 jets at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport in March 2000, was reached last Friday, officials said. In an effort to keep legal costs to a minimum, officials at Southwest admitted late last year to pilot negligence. This admission has helped move several cases to settlement, which are confidential, Southwest Attorney Christopher Young said.

Paul Clinton BURBANK -- A group of Burbank residents suing Lockheed Martin Corp. has accepted a $5-million settlement offer from the aerospace giant, according to their attorney. Lockheed had offered to pay approximately 400 current and former residents the money if they drop their "toxic tort" lawsuits claiming chemical byproducts from the firm's manufacturing operations caused cancer and other illnesses. The plaintiffs reluctantly accepted the money because the statute of limitations on their claims was running out. "I don't think any of my clients are happy with the settlement," attorney Thomas Foley said Tuesday.

GLENDALE — A Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a Metrolink request on Thursday to throw out more than 100 cases against the agency in connection with a 2005 train wreck that killed 11 people and injured nearly 200 others, officials said. There are 113 active lawsuits against Metrolink in connection with the incident, and 29 plaintiffs have settled, said attorney Edward R. Pfiester, who represents the wife of the conductor killed in the Glendale crash, among others. Judge Emilie Elias denied two motions made by Metrolink on Thursday — one to essentially throw out the cases, and another motion to uphold federal regulations over state law on the use of the controversial "push-pull" method, in which a locomotive pushes the train from behind in one direction but pulls in the other direction, Pfiester said.

It's been nearly 10 years since Lockheed Martin Corp. pulled up its remaining stakes in the city and left Burbank residents to sort through a complicated and conflicting legacy. Few would argue with the tremendous accomplishments of Lockheed and the other aerospace companies that once made this city their home. Their engineering and manufacturing prowess earned Burbank a spot in the nation's collective consciousness long before Johnny Carson began making jokes about "beautiful downtown Burbank."

BURBANK — As their attorneys shuffle between four similar lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chromium 6 and other toxic chemicals, stories of ill health from the plaintiffs are beginning to emerge. In the latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Sacramento-based firm Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP on behalf of 16 people with strong ties to the Rancho District, the plaintiffs claim Disney dumped wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems down the centerline of Parkside Avenue, toward Parish Place and across Riverside Drive into the so-called Polliwog, an 11-acre parcel near the studio’s Imagineering facilities.

The family of a Burbank teenager who had a sexual relationship with his middle school teacher has filed a lawsuit against the school district alleging that it failed to safeguard the student from an aggressive predator. In March, Amy Beck, a sixth-grade teacher at Jordan Middle School, shocked the Burbank community when she turned herself in to police for having sex with her then-14-year-old student, who has not been identified. The liaison took place from March to September 2009, and involved sex acts at the teacher's Burbank home and on the Jordan Middle School campus, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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...

GLENDALE ? Metrolink has agreed to pay roughly $39 million to settle all but one of the lawsuits filed against the agency in the aftermath of a January 2005 derailment that killed 11 passengers on the Glendale border, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Wednesday. Of the 186 complaints filed against the agency in the wake of the accident, all but one of the suits have been resolved, said Jerome Ringler, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. All 11 wrongful death lawsuits have been settled, and 15 of the 16 serious-injury lawsuits have been resolved.

Plaintiffs should ease up on Disney In your June 10 and 13 editions you ran articles regarding claims that the Walt Disney Co. supposedly contaminated groundwater (“Disney dumped illegally, suit says,” June 10). The articles continued on regarding the opinions of the Burbank Rancho Homeowners Assn., the plaintiffs, who seek damages and penalties and are alleging violations by Disney despite a concurrent investigation by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control that revealed chromium levels in the area to be “below levels of concern” and within California environmental limits.

BURBANK — As their attorneys shuffle between four similar lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chromium 6 and other toxic chemicals, stories of ill health from the plaintiffs are beginning to emerge. In the latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Sacramento-based firm Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP on behalf of 16 people with strong ties to the Rancho District, the plaintiffs claim Disney dumped wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems down the centerline of Parkside Avenue, toward Parish Place and across Riverside Drive into the so-called Polliwog, an 11-acre parcel near the studio’s Imagineering facilities.

BURBANK — The Walt Disney Co. for decades has contaminated groundwater with toxic chemicals, including cancer-causing chromium 6, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit, brought by the watchdog group Environmental World Watch Inc. and Burbank homeowner Dennis Jackson, alleges that Disney had been dumping wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems since 1988. On Tuesday, the same Sacramento-based law firm representing Jackson and Environmental World Watch, Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP, filed another lawsuit in Superior Court expanding the number of plaintiffs against Disney for similar allegations by 16 people.