Content about judge

Houston-based hardlines co-op Handy Hardware Wholesale submitted papers for their much-anticipated plan of reorganization March 6.

The 1,300-member regional co-op filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. Whether Handy can return to its place as a meaningful and profitable player in the hardware business remains to be seen. This much is certain: What was once $27 million in member equity in Class A and Class B shares has vanished.

The National Retail Federation is continuing its fight against credit card swipe fees by asking a judge to reject a proposed class-action settlement of a federal antitrust lawsuit, saying it would not bring the fees charged by Visa and MasterCard under control and does not give retailers who oppose it an adequate mechanism to opt out.

The fact that contractors and remodelers have been losing bids over pricing should come as no surprise. They’re under tremendous pressure for price concessions from homeowners, and if they want to stay in the game, contractors have to lower their prices somehow. But how they choose to cut costs through purchasing, and what goes into their decision-making process, is the subject of a newly released study by L.E.K. Consulting, a global management consulting firm.

KB Home is being sued by a group of homeowners in Cary, N.C., because it installed weather barriers behind fiber cement siding in some residential developments but not others, according to a case summary provided by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly. 

A Business Court judge certified the lawsuit, describing the class as "all persons in the state of North Carolina who own a home that was constructed by KB Homes without a weather-restrictive barrier behind the exterior veneer of Hardiplank cement fiber lap siding."

A San Diego-area man convicted of killing a Home Depot manager during a robbery attempt will face lethal injection after a judge upheld a jury’s death sentence recommendation, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.