Ex-Massey Energy Chief Executive Officer Donald Blankenship downplayed the threat that miners develop black-lung disease in shafts choked with coal dust, jurors in the executive’s criminal trial heard in a recorded phone call. Blankenship, a vocal opponent of government regulations, …
Donald Blankenship’s own words may come to haunt the former Massey Energy Co. chief executive officer at his criminal trial as a federal judge said prosecutors can let the jury hear conversations secretly recorded while he led the company. U.S. …
Massey Energy executives used an advanced warning system at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine to alert workers as soon as federal inspectors arrived on site, a former miner testified Thursday at the criminal trial for ex-chief executive Donald Blankenship. …
Before death came to Upper Big Branch Mine, Donald L. Blankenship managed his patch of Appalachia like King Coal incarnate. Outside homes in rural West Virginia flew the banner of his company, Massey Energy Co.: a flame leaping out of …
When BASF SE acquired Engelhard Corp. nine years ago for $5 billion, executives unknowingly inherited a ticking legal time bomb. It all began decades ago over the seemingly mundane industrial product talc, used in everything from wallboards to handling auto …
General Motors Co. directors don’t have to face investors’ allegations that lax supervision allowed the company to make cars with faulty ignition systems blamed for more than 100 people their lives. GM’s board had adequate risk-assessment systems in place even …
Abbott Laboratories was ordered to pay $23 million in punitive damages to a Minnesota girl whose family blamed the company’s epilepsy drug Depakote for causing her birth defects. It was the first verdict against the drugmaker over the medication. A …
Pfizer Inc.’s Zoloft antidepressant didn’t cause a boy’s birth defects, a jury concluded in the first trial of more than 1,000 lawsuits over what was once the U.S.’s most popular mood-altering drug. Jurors in state court in St. Louis Friday …
Pfizer Inc. researchers concluded last year that pregnant women taking Zoloft risked having babies with heart defects, according to evidence made public by a lawyer at the first trial of more than 1,000 lawsuits over the drug. The May 2014 …
General Motors Co. investors urged a judge to let their lawsuit proceed against the automaker’s board that they say was asleep at the switch while the company produced cars with faulty ignition systems that led to fatal accidents. More than …
