Plaintiffs who filed a securities fraud case against HCA Holdings Inc., the Nashville-based hospital giant, were granted class-action status in a suit stemming from the company’s $4.3 billion initial public offering in 2011.

The list of defendants includes HCA’s top executives — Chairman Richard Bracken and CEO Milton Johnson — as well as several high-profile investment banks, including J.P. Morgan Securities, Lazard Capital Markets and Goldman Sachs & Co. A private equity group owned by affiliates of Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co. and Merrill Lynch’s private equity arm is also named in the suit.

The claim, brought by New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund as lead plaintiff, alleges HCA failed to disclose the company was experiencing a decline in Medicare and Medicaid revenues and had improperly accounted for previous reorganizations in a “false and misleading” initial public offering registration statement.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp granted the class action status to HCA shareholders who owned common stock that was bought before the date of filing on Oct. 28, 2011. Based on the drop in the stock price from the IPO to the filing of the claim, the group has suffered more than $1 billion in damages, according to the complaint.

“That information was not disclosed, and when it was disclosed, the…

Costco Wholesale’s receipt-checking policy states: “To ensure that all members are correctly charged for the merchandise purchased, all receipts and merchandise will be inspected as you leave the warehouse.” (Oregonian/file photo)

A story about a Costco Wholesale shopper who wouldn’t show his receipt as he was leaving the chain’s Northeast Portland store — and ultimately ended up with a broken leg — has generated lots of debate among readers and civil attorneys alike.

Timothy Walls filed a $670,000 lawsuit last week against Costco, claiming store employees wrongly held onto his shopping cart — full of his newly purchased items — when he refused to show his receipt. The store has a blanket policy of checking receipts at the exit.

When Walls tried to remove one employee from his shopping cart by grabbing onto the employee’s shirt collar, a second employee executed a martial-arts style strike to Walls’ leg, breaking it in several places, according to the suit.

The details of the case have spurred many readers to wonder exactly when a store can detain and search a customer as part of loss-prevention efforts — and just what a customer’s rights are.

Nearly 5,000 votes had been cast in an OregonLive.com poll, and three out of four respondents were siding with Costco — that stores should be able to have blanket receipt-checking policies in an effort to prevent…

Story Highlights

• A federal judge in San Francisco denied in part the company’s bid for dismissal of the case
• The case proposes to represent everyone who arranged for a ride through Uber and paid the gratuity

Uber Technologies, the smartphone-summoned car service, must face a consumer lawsuit challenging its 20% gratuity surcharge on rides, handing the embattled company its latest setback as the nascent industry faces legal attack in the U.S. and Europe.

Uber retains “a substantial portion” of the gratuity as additional revenue rather than giving it to drivers, according to a complaint this year by an Illinois resident who accused the ride-share company of misleading customers about the true cost of its service. The lawsuit seeks group status on behalf of Uber users.

A federal judge in San Francisco denied in part the company’s bid for dismissal of the case, letting it go forward on claims the company violated unfair-competition and consumer-protection laws. The judge threw out a breach-of- contract claim.

Uber, Lyft and other car-booking companies face a growing number of legal challenges as they seek to crack open the U.S. taxi and…

Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, Ghawi’s parents, appeared with attorneys and representatives of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence Tuesday to announce the lawsuit against Lucky Gunner and other businesses. Doing business as BulkAmmo.com, that business sold the shooting defendant 4,325 rounds for various weapons less than a month before the shooting, according to an ATF special agent’s testimony during the preliminary hearing in the criminal case.

“We’re putting them on notice, we’re coming after you,” said Lonnie Phillips.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is a 501(c)(3) organization that represents victims of gun violence in cases against gun sellers or owners. They say this pending lawsuit is part of a national campaign against gun dealers they call “bad apples.”

“A company should not be able to sell tear gas with the same procedure it would use to sell a pair of shoes,” said Kelly Sampson a Brady Center Attorney.

The lawsuit accuses the four online suppliers of ammunition and military-grade equipment of failing to screen the gunman and making it too easy for him to buy ammunition, tear gas and body armor.

The formal…

Her lawsuit states that Dr. Alan Sadah, a urologist who practices at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, told Edward Hines he was cancer-free after removing a tumor on his bladder in early 2011. A week later, a pathology report showed the Oak Park man had bladder cancer, but Sadah didn’t inform his patient, according to the suit.

Hines didn’t learn he had cancer until he visited another doctor a year later, said his daughter, Amber Hines, of Lyons, who is pursuing a medical malpractice suit her father filed a few months before his death in April 2013 at age 58. Attorneys from each side are to meet Friday to discuss details of the case.

Amber Hines says her father’s chances of survival would have been better if he had known the diagnosis earlier. “We went an entire year without treatment, which was extremely devastating,” she said in an interview.

In court documents, Sadah contests Hines’ account of what happened after he removed the tumor on Jan. 24, 2011. The doctor says a cancerous lesion was found that day and that he told Hines he had cancer. Hines failed to follow up as Sadah instructed, he said.

Sadah also said Hines did not ask for the pathology report later. “Edward Hines failed to seek or obtain the results of the pathology report…

Weimer said a man at the bar started jostling and taunting him.

“I was being poked in my back, my spine and by that time I’d had enough,” said Weimer, “I turned with my elbow and nudged him, threw an elbow at him.”

A scuffle broke out just as Sequim police were coming in. Weimer said one of the officers told him he wanted to talk to him outside.

“I started to walk out the door and that’s when I got thrown into a planter box in front and started getting punched by a police officer,” Weimer said.

Surveillance video shows two officers leaning over Weimer who’s pinned against the planter. Weimer said his face was smashed into the dirt and one arm was pinned underneath of him.

“He says, relax your arm. I said ‘officer,’ and before I could say ‘officer I can’t’, he threw the first punch.”

Cell phone video taken by an onlooker shows an officer, later identified as Grant Dennis, punching Weimer three times in his back.

“I didn’t understand the force being used,” Weimer said. “After two or three blows I thought this guy is going to hurt me bad and I don’t know why.”

Weimer filed a federal lawsuit…