Archive for April, 2008

Weyerhaeuser Co. has been ordered by a U.S. District Court jury in Portland to pay almost $28 million in damages — which can be tripled to $84 million under antitrust laws — in the latest of a series of lawsuits alleging the wood products giant illegally manipulated the prices of alder logs and finished lumber.

“It’s another instance in which regular folks are able to take a stand against a large company doing something wrong and win,” said Portland lawyer Steve Crew, who was on the legal team for plaintiffs in the case. “We made it clear that the policies were not right and the jury agreed that you cannot take advantage of people and businesses just to get ahead in the business world — you have to play fair.”

Weyerhaeuser’s top lawyer said in a written statement that the company will appeal the verdict on the same grounds it cited in a successful appeal of a separate case. A Portland jury awarded $79 million in that 2003 case, but the verdict was vacated a year ago by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark competitive bidding and pricing decision.

Sandy McDade, a senior vice president and general counsel for Weyerhaeuser, said his company is disappointed by the latest jury verdict but eager to test the precedent set by the high court last year.

“We are confident it will be reversed on appeal because last year the U.S. Supreme Court decided in our favor a case presenting virtually identical issues,” McDade said. “We fully expect that the Court of Appeals will apply that precedent.”

In the earlier case, Weyerhaeuser was accused of “predatory buying,” for purchasing logs at above-market prices as a means of forcing competitors out of the market. The Supreme Court, in a 9-0 decision, sided with Weyerhaeuser and several business interests who argued in supporting briefs that plaintiffs failed to show Weyerhaeuser sold its resulting products at below-cost prices, and that both consumers and the economy benefit when companies bid up the prices of raw goods.

The biggest difference in the most recent case is the allegation that Weyerhaeuser monopolized the market for finished alder lumber, rather than logs. Morelock Enterprises Inc., of Bend, filed the suit four years ago and the case was later granted class-action status to include all direct purchasers of alder lumber from Weyerhaeuser.

The jury agreed with plaintiffs, who charged that Weyerhaeuser’s domination of the market for alder logs allowed it to raise prices above competitive levels for alder lumber — which is used for furniture, cabinets and flooring.

In addition to the two lawsuits that have been decided by federal juries, Weyerhaeuser has agreed to out-of-court settlements in two other cases involving its alder pricing policies.The company agreed to pay $34.5 million to four small alder mills in Oregon and Washington to settle one lawsuit in March 2004, and a month later agreed to a $14 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by a British Columbia-based timber company.

Weyerhaeuser, based in Federal Way, Wash., is among the world’s largest wood products companies. Its 2007 sales reached $16.3 billion.

The Seattle Times

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004381925_weyco30.html

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

Weyerhaeuser to appeal jury decision in class action lawsuit claiming unlawful monopoly

CNNMoney.com

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Weyerhaeuser Co. said late Monday it plans to appeal a jury decision in a class action lawsuit claiming that the forest products company unlawfully monopolized a market for finished alder lumber.

Weyerhaeuser said a jury in Portland, Ore., awarded the plaintiffs about $28 million.

"We are very disappointed with the verdict," said Sandy D. McDade, senior vice president and general counsel in a statement. "Our business conduct has been and remains within the spirit and letter of the law, and we will continue to vigorously defend this case."

Weyerhaeuser shares fell $1.20 to $64.97 in morning trading.

In a surprise move Tuesday, Portland Archbishop John Vlazny released 2,000 pages of documents on priests accused of sexually abusing Oregon children.

Vlazny described the release in a statement as "part of the healing process and in the interest of transparency."

Bud Bunce, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Portland, said the release had nothing to do with Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the United States or the pope’s apology for the priest sexual abuse scandal.

ortland attorneys who have filed sexual abuse suits against the archdiocese said they were baffled by the unscheduled release, which comes less than two weeks after one round of failed mediation and a day before another is set to start.

"I don’t know how the archdiocese thinks," said attorney Kelly Clark, who represents dozens of people who say they were sexually abused by priests. "I just don’t get it."

Erin Olson, another plaintiff’s attorney who is scheduled to begin mediation today, also said she has no idea what was in the new batch of documents. But Olson said she doubts the release includes documents that name priests who haven’t been identified and are still working in parishes.

In 2004, the Portland archdiocese became the first in the country to seek bankruptcy protection from priest sexual abuse litigation. A 2007 settlement plan set aside about $70 million for priest accusers. And Vlazny promised to release church personnel files involving abusive priests.

The archdiocese released a batch of documents a few months later, but lawyers for the church and plaintiffs’ attorneys have been fighting over what else to release ever since.

In his statement, Vlazny explained that he opposed releasing documents involving priests where the accusations were weak or uncorroborated.

"We have made what we believe is a fair decision on document disclosure based on sound guiding principles and will continue on this course," Vlazny wrote. "We hope that the continuing release of documents in the spirit of healing and reconciliation will bring peace to the lives of those who have been harmed."

To read the documents, go to www.archdiocesedocuments.org/Documents.html

You can reach Ashbel S. (Tony) Green at 503-221-8202 or by e-mail at tonygreen@news.oregonian.com.

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A year after the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Portland settled its bankruptcy case for about $50 million, it has released more of its files on priests accused of sex abuse -- including some confidential personnel records.

The documents were expected to be released shortly after the settlement. But negotiations over the release stalled, sending the church and lawyers for the victims back to federal bankruptcy court.

An attorney for some of the alleged abuse victims criticized the latest release as piecemeal and said the archdiocese failed to provide any explanation or tie the documents together in a meaningful way for victims or the public.

"This is not the way to do it," said Kelly Clark. "This is how you do it if you want to frustrate that purpose."

Clark also said that releasing the documents out of context makes it look like the church did not find out about the alleged abuse in many cases until much later than it actually received complaints.

Mediation sessions on the release have been continuing before both sides were scheduled to head to U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan to ask for a decision. Hogan was one of two judges who mediated the settlement.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris sealed most of the documents after the archdiocese became the first Catholic diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection in July 2004.

She has scheduled hearings for arguments on lifting her order but is not expected to rule until October.

Archbishop John Vlazny says he authorized the release of about 2,000 pages of additional documents on Tuesday as "part of the healing process and in the interest of transparency."