The jury found Allstate – which claimed most of the damage was due to storm surge, an event not covered in its policy – did not pay Robert Weiss enough money to cover wind damage to his home. The verdict included a $1.5 million penalty for the company’s failure to pay the claim quickly enough.

Allstate lawyer Judy Barrasso said in closing arguments that Katrina’s winds were not strong enough to do the damage.

The lawyer for the Weiss, whose home was in the Slidell area on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, told the jury in closing arguments that the house was too high above sea level to have been destroyed by Katrina’s storm surge. The eye of Katrina passed just east of Slidell on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005. He also argued that the house was 17 feet above sea level and that engineering data suggested only 14 feet of surge hit the area. “It never reached the bottom of the house,” he said.

Weiss had an Allstate homeowner policy with limits of $343,000 for the dwelling and $240,100 for personal property.

The company, blaming the majority of damage on Katrina’s storm surge, paid $29,483 for structural damage and $14,787 for additional living expenses.

Allstate’s Barrasso said sustained winds at the house did not exceed 100 mph. “There was plenty of evidence to show the winds were not strong enough to topple this house and the storm surge was,” she said.

Jim Neva, a surveyor and engineer who inspected the house for Allstate, initially told Robert Weiss, who is listed as the policy holder, that wind may have destroyed the home before the surge of water washed away its remnants.

He later backed off that conclusion, however, and deferred to engineering consultant Craig Rogers of Rimkus Consulting Group. Rogers, who wrote the final report on the home for Allstate, convinced Neva that storm surge demolished the house.

Rogers said he didn’t personally inspect the property until after he wrote the report. He said he based his conclusions in part on evidence gathered by other Rimkus engineers – a practice he described as common. But Trahant questioned the move.

“Why did Allstate elect to rely on the one engineer who never set foot on the property until long after he stamped his report?” Trahant said in closing arguments.

Comair Incorporated has reached the first two settlements in the August 27^th crash of a Comair regional jet at Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport.

Comair released documents that it filed Friday in U.S. District Court, which include a letter informing the court it has settled claims from the estates of Priscilla Johnson, 44, of Lexington, and Mary Jane Silas, 58, of Columbus, Miss.

Parties in those cases are still finalizing terms of the agreement and “have agreed to keep details of the settlement confidential at this time,” the letter said.

Johnson and Silas were two of the 49 people on Comair Flight 5191 who died in the crash that occurred after the plane attempted to take off from the wrong runway. The plane tried to take off from a 3,500-foot runway used by small planes, although it was supposed to use a runway twice as long.

“The terms of the settlement are confidential, but I can tell you that the agreements provide fair compensation to the families for their loss,” Comair spokesperson Kate Marx said.

Marx said that 29 lawsuits have been filed so far on behalf of 38 passengers. The letter shows that the estate of Silas settled before it filed suit against Comair.

“We are fulfilling our commitment to ensure the settlements are prompt and fair to the families of this tragic accident,” Marx said. “We also remain committed to doing what is reasonable for each of the passenger families, and we have every motivation to continue to pursue fair compensation for victims.”

The Polk County Circuit Court jury found the prescription error caused a cerebral hemorrhage resulting in permanent bodily injury, disability and physical pain. The mother of three died in January at the age of 46.

A 19-year-old pharmacy technician, with little training, misfiled the prescription, according to court documents.

The lawsuit was filed in 2003 by Hippely, her husband Deane Hippely and their children against the Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen Co. for negligent breach of duty and wrongful death.

“Beth Hippely died unnecessarily because this tenfold overdose with Warfarin by the pharmacy she trusted caused her cancer to come back with a vengeance and it interrupted all of her cancer treatments,” her lawyer Chris Searcy said. “They have been seeking justice for almost five years and this was a case that screamed out for justice.”

A statement released by the company expressed sympathy for the Hippely family.

“We’re truly sorry for what the Hippely family has been through, and we’ve personally apologized to them,” Walgreens spokeswoman Carol Hively said in a statement. “We have been, and continue to be, the leader in pharmacy safety initiatives. We had hoped the verdict would have been fair and reasonable.”

Hively said the company had not decided if it would appeal the decision.

A Broward County jury awarded more than $2.4 million to a first-grade teacher who lawyers said was left permanently disabled after doctors left a foot-long sponge in her body.Karlene Chambers, of Pembroke Pines, was scheduled for a routine Cesarean procedure on Sept. 11, 2001, at Memorial Hospital West. Nearly two weeks after her surgery, Chamber was readmitted to another hospital and placed in intensive care after she had severe abdominal pain.A CAT scan revealed that the surgeon who performed the C-section, Dr. Joseph Becerra of the Pembroke Pines OB/GYN Associates, had left a foot-long surgical sponge in Chambers’ body.