New York Landmark Legal Settlements
Family of Amadou Diallo gets $3 million settlement
The family of an unarmed West African immigrant killed by undercover police in a hail of 41 bullets in 1999 agreed in 2004 to a $3 million settlement of its civil lawsuit against the city of New York.
Amadou Diallo, a street vendor from Guinea, was shot 19 times and killed in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building by officers who said they mistook his wallet for a gun.
The 22-year-old's death turned into an international symbol of police brutality, heightened racial tensions and sparked massive protests, and inspired legendary rock and roll performer Bruce Springsteen to write a controversial song about the case.
Out-of-court settlement reached over Love Canal
In 1994 the company that buried chemical wastes at Love Canal reached a $98 million out-of-court settlement with the state of New York, closing a major chapter in one of the nation's most notorious environmental disasters.
The company, Occidental Chemical Corporation, also agreed to take on cleanup work that will extend for decades and cost of millions more.
The state and federal governments declared an environmental emergency at Love Canal in Niagara Falls in 1978, moving 239 families from the neighborhood, and they agreed to buy more than 500 more homes from fleeing families in 1980. Families began returning in 1989.
The case prompted Congress to enact the Superfund law, designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances.
Government lawyers settle $2.3 billion Pfizer fraud lawsuit
The Department of Justice in 2008 reached a $2.3 billion settlement agreement with New York-based Pfizer in the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.
The settlement came after allegations that Pfizer and its subsidiaries paid kickbacks and engaged in off-label marketing campaigns that improperly promoted numerous drugs.
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