It Figures

$2 Million

Verdict amount awarded to a Wal-Mart pharmacist who claimed she was fired by the retail chain after asking to be paid the same as her male colleagues. Cynthia Haddad was fired in 2004 after more than 10 years at a Wal-Mart store in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 2007, a jury found that the company discriminated against Haddad, and awarded her $1 million in compensatory damages and another $1 million in punitive damages. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the ruling earlier this month.

$2.2 Million

Amount a New York court has ordered a hospital to pay to a quadriplegic man who developed bedsores “all the way down to the bone.” An attorney Raymond Keegan for Eric Trainor says caregivers at Westchester Medical Center failed to turn every two hours during his six-week stay and that the bedsores severely hampered Trainor’s rehabilitation.

$700,000

Amount of settlement reached between the family of late Holy Cross football coach Dan Allen and two insurers for the contractor the family alleges contributed to his fatal illness. The agreement, approved by a judge this month, requires AIG and Zurich to pay Allen’s family $681,250. Allen died in May 2004 at age 48. The family claimed work done by Martin Surfacing Inc. at the school’s field house in 2001, where his office was located, accelerated the coach’s death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, by exposing him to toxins

$10,000

Alleged daily profits from New York crime ring that, among other things, ran an extensive staging scheme. Prosecutors accused the group of filing false claims on luxury cars by staging wrecks and accidents, and by replacing undamaged interior parts with damaged ones, and then reporting to police that the cars had been vandalized. The group would then file claims with insurance companies to have the parts replaced.

41

Number of workers who were sickened by carbon monoxide fumes at a banking office in Richmond, Virginia, earlier this month. Officials said the fumes apparently seeped into the SunTrust Mortgage building from a generator after a power failure. Ten of the 41 were taken to area hospitals for additional treatment. Some were vomiting or having difficulty breathing.