BOCA RATON, Fla. –

Vitacost.com, an online vitamin and health supplement retailer, said on Tuesday that a Florida judge has approved the settlement of a shareholder lawsuit alleging top company officials made false and misleading statements in connection with an initial public offering in 2009.

A judge for the state’s 15th circuit in West Palm Beach approved the settlement after granting preliminary clearance in April.

The July 2010 lawsuit alleged that certain Vitacost officers and directors made overly optimistic statements about the company’s business and failed to disclose problems before and after its September 2009 IPO. The complaint also accused certain officials of unjustly enriching themselves, and alleged a breach of fiduciary duties in the company’s election of board members and in its issuance of stock and options.

Under the settlement, the company’s board agreed to adopt a series of corporate governance “best practices” addressing the allegations. Those include a new insider trading policy covering stock personally held by officers and directors.

Under the settlement, the defendants denied breaching any fiduciary duties and maintained that no purchaser of its products was harmed as a result of the conduct alleged in the lawsuit.

Trading of the company’s shares was halted on Dec. 7, 2010, and the Nasdaq Stock Market said the next day that it would not allow trading to resume until Vitacost supplied additional information about its finances.

The Boca Raton, Fla., company also said at that time that it was postponing its annual meeting, and disclosed that an internal investigation found financial statements dating back 16 years to be unreliable.

On Tuesday, the company said it will hold its annual shareholders meeting on July 11. Also, another special meeting is planned on July 22, when shareholders will be asked to vote on amendments to the company’s bylaws and its certificate of incorporation. Vitacost said the votes are intended to ensure “that any potential defects in the company’s organization documents are unquestionably cured.”

Vitacost also said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday that it believes it will be able to become current in its filing obligations and meet other requirements for continued listing on Nasdaq on or before June 20. However, the company also said that it could give no assurances that it will be able to comply with listing requirements.

Vitacost showed signs of instability even before it made its December revelation about its financial statements. In August, the company’s chief executive officer, Ira Kerker, left the company and was replaced on an interim basis by Jeffrey Horowitz, the founder of Vitamin Shoppe Inc. That same day, the company reported a second-quarter loss, declined to issue guidance for the remainder of the year and said that its board had terminated its deal with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. to evaluate various strategic options.

The family of a University of Washington scientist killed while bicycling in Ballard after he was struck by a van has settled with the van’s owner for $1.5 million.

Kevin Black, a 39-year-old molecular research scientist at UW and father of two, died on Feb. 4, 2009, after he collided with a van at 24th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 65th Street.

Black was riding south in the 24th Avenue bicycle lane when the van crossed into the bicycle lane in an attempt to make a U-turn. Unable to stop in time, Black struck the rear of the van. The van then rolled over Black, killing him.

In a statement Tuesday, Black’s attorney, James S. Rogers, noted that the van’s driver did not see Black prior to the crash.

“Kevin was an experienced cyclist and commuted daily on his bicycle,” the Seattle attorney said in a statement.

“It’s clear that the driver of the van did not see Kevin. But as more and more people choose to commute by bicycle, it is critical that drivers understand they share our roadways with cyclists. This was a preventable tragedy.”

Rogers said the van’s owner, Ambient Control Co., agreed to pay $1.5 million to Black’s family to settle the lawsuit, which had been filed in King County Superior Court.

The van’s driver was not charged with any crime following the crash.

Black, a native of Southern California, was a specialist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and based at the UW. He moved to Seattle in 1993.

He was researching molecules that produce electrical signaling in the brain, UW professor William Zagotta said shortly after the crash. Zagotta was Black’s supervisor for 15 years, and the two had co-written four research papers together.

“He was, No. 1, a great dad. He was an excellent scientist,” colleague Legay Sheridan said. “This was his first job out of college.”

A member of the Alki Rubicon Racing Team, Black was an avid cyclist who once bicycled to California for his high school reunion.

Court documents show a King County judge approved the settlement on April 29. Under the terms of the settlement, the family’s attorneys will receive 1/3rd of the payment with the remainder being split between Black’s daughters.

Requests for comment made to the attorneys for Ambient Control Co. were not immediately returned.

McDuffie has been awarded $11.5 million in a lawsuit against his former doctor over his career-ending toe injury, according to the Associated Press. The doctor, John Uribe, used to work for the Dolphins as a team doctor. He called the damage award a travesty and will most likely appeal the decision.

The attorney for McDuffie told the news source that the award is fair compensation for his client’s lost earnings.

The lawsuit stems from the toe injury McDuffie originally suffered in 1999, which eventually forced him to retire after eight effective seasons in the NFL. Several other doctors have settled with the wideout rather than go to court.

McDuffie spent most of his playing career catching passes from Dan Marino. He was reasonably successful in this role, hauling in 29 touchdown passes in his career. His best year came in 1998 when he caught 90 passes for 1,050 yards and scored seven touchdowns. He also returned two punts for scores in his 1993 rookie campaign.

Jury selection started Monday in the trial of 29-year-old Ryan Widmer. He’s accused of killing 24-year-old Sarah Widmer at the couple’s home in August 2008.

Widmer was convicted in April 2009 of killing his wife, but the conviction was set aside by a judge after allegations of juror misconduct during deliberations.

Widmer has been free on bond while awaiting his retrial.

He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after his conviction in the first trial. Widmer has maintained his innocence, saying he loved his wife and didn’t hurt her.

The panel’s decision, made public today, reversed the finding of a Morris County civil jury that found the FDU campus in Florham Park-Madison shared responsibility, 50-50, for the death July 1, 2005, of student Keith Orzech, 21.

At the time of trial, a Superior Court judge rejected FDU’s claims that it was protected under the Charitable Immunity Act by opining that Orzech’s fall was alcohol-related and FDU’s public safety department allegedly failed to enforce alcohol policies. The case proceeded to a jury trial under wrongful death, negligence statutes.

The appeals court, instead, found that FDU’s negligent failure to enforce its alcohol policy and Orzech’s violation of that police ”do not negate Orzech’s status as a beneficiary of FDU’s educational works at the time of the accident.”

The appeals court said: ”We fail to see how Orzech’s violation of the alcohol policy altered his relationship to FDU as a beneficiary of its works while he was living in the dormitory and thus receiving FDU’s educational benefits….”

The jury awarded total damages of $520,000 but since both FDU and Orzech were found equally at fault, Orzech’s parents were awarded $260,000.

 The young student was from Sudbury, Mass., and was serving as a resident adviser in his dorm during a summer session when he partied through the night of June 30 into July 1, 2005. When his body was found outside under his third-story dorm window, he had a blood-alcohol content of .166 percent.

BP spokesman Ronnie Chappell said the company was “shocked and outraged” by the verdict and would appeal.

“We believe the evidence showed that BP did not cause harm to anyone on April 19, 2007,” Chappell said in a statement. “The verdict, and punitive damages award in particular, is utterly unjustified, improper and unsupportable.”

“They’re like an ostrich with its head in the sand,” said Tony Buzbee, the workers’ attorney, of BP. “They don’t understand the meaning of responsibility.”

The workers said they were exposed to the chemicals while repairing two refining units damaged in a plantwide 2005 shutdown prior to Hurricane Rita’s strike on the Texas Coast.

They said BP had a poorly maintained workplace and lacked sufficient monitoring to detect toxic chemicals or warn workers of a release.

BP countered that the plant did not release a toxic substance, and the company had no control over the “odor event” that stemmed from another unidentified party’s negligence.

Buzbee represents another 133 workers suing BP over the chemical release.

Originally his clients asked BP for $5,000 each in damages, Buzbee said, but went to trial when BP wouldn’t budge from a $500 settlement offer to each worker.

BP declined to discuss the settlement negotiations.

The 475,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant, the third-largest in the United States, has a troubled and costly history.

An explosion at the refinery on March 23, 2005, killed 15 workers and injured 180 others, prompting extensive civil litigation and a federal criminal plea to violating the U.S. Clean Air Act.

BP paid more than $2 billion to settle hundreds of blast-related lawsuits and a $50 million fine to resolve the criminal case.

In addition, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has imposed record fines on BP for safety violations at the plant. In 2005, BP agreed to pay OSHA $21.4 million. This year the agency fined the company another $87.4 million for failing to live up to its 2005 agreement to fix safety violations at the refinery. and BP is contesting the 2009 fine.

BP is serving a three-year probation as part of the company’s criminal penalty, and compliance with that 2005 agreement with OSHA is a key part of the probation.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is negotiating a settlement to a lawsuit that could cost BP more than $100 million for violations of pollution regulations at the refinery between 2005 and 2008.

The wrongful death lawsuit was brought against Coastal Anesthesia, Dr. Randal Boudreaux and Nurse Don Ortego following the January 2006 death of Paulett Pettaway Hall. The complaint alleged that Bourdreaux and Ortego, the anesthetist, failed to identify that Hall had risk factors for breathing fluid into her lungs, despite the information being available in her medical record.

Hall was preparing to receive exploratory surgery to determine the cause of severe stomach pains when she received the anesthesia. Once anesthetized, she began breathing bile into her lungs and later died. According to a report in the Mobile Press-Register, the family alleged that the defendants did not examine Hall’s abdomen or medical records before giving her anesthesia, which could have prevented her death.

Following trial, a Mobile County jury ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and awarded $20 million in damages.

Anesthesia deaths accounted for more than 2,200 deaths between 1999 and 2005, according to a study published this year in the medical journal Anesthesiology. The study found that anesthesia is the underlying cause in about 34 deaths each year in the U.S., and a contributing factor in about 281 other deaths. A little over 46% of those deaths are due to anesthesia overdose, while anesthesia complications like Hall’s accounted for just under 11% of such deaths.

The money was paid to employees who were injured at work.

Back injuries, road accidents and falls were among the most common type of claims supported by Unison.

A union spokesperson said in some of the instances, its members had been left with some sort of permanent disability.

Despite regaining consciousness and undergoing therapy, Ms. Lymon continues to require 24-hour care and supervision. Ms. Lymon, who was attending South Florida Community College, majoring in psychology, could speak six languages and was working as a residential aide for Florida Institute of Neurologic Rehabilitation. The injuries from the crash left her unable to care for herself. During a normal day, family members must help the woman bathe, dress, eat, go to the bathroom and do other routine tasks. She has trouble walking and sometimes requires a wheelchair. Her mother says her daughter isn’t able to speak much and that family members read to her, take her to the store and assist her with physical therapy exercises.