Birthday Bash Goers Collect Claims For Class Action Suit - FOX 17

More than a thousand cars were stranded in the flooded lot for more than a week. And now more than four months after the Birthday Bash that wasn't, arguments will be heard regarding a class action lawsuit.

An Ionia County Circuit judge will decide whether to certify the class action Tuesday against the Grand Rapids radio station owner, Clear Channel.

That means, the first steps will be taken to assemble about 150 people's claims together as one, in a class suit.

Back on June 20, about 1,400 vehicles were stranded in a parking lot next to the Grand River. Estimates say that about 70 percent of the vehicles were damaged in some way. Many people did not have complete car insurance coverage that would include flooding damage.

When making a decision on the case, the judge will take into consideration the liability of the responsible parties and the number of claims.

Clear Channel contends, as they have from the beginning, that the flooding was an act of God, and that it couldn not have been anticipated.

The concert goers say that the radio station owner should have warned them that the area was prone to flooding.

More information will be available on Fox 17 News after the hearing Tuesday.

Source: Birthday Bash Goers Collect Claims For Class Action Suit - FOX 17

Solving a car break-in takes luck

03.11.09

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - You've often heard car alarms, in parking lots or on the street. But when was the last time you called the police about it?

Few people do, police say.

Counting on my car alarm was just one of the many lessons I learned when my car was broken into while on vacation. I thought I did everything right while traveling through the Cleveland area: locked my car in a well-lit hotel parking lot and kept most of my valuables in the trunk.

The next morning, nearly all of it was gone , except for some books and tennis racquets. Among the stolen items was my daughter's custom-made violin , worth thousands.

But I got it back, plus some of my other things. While car break-ins are usually hard to solve, police made arrests in this case.

My first break, if you can call it that, was the thief stole something truly identifiable. My daughter's name was placed inside her custom violin by the maker, Tim Jansma Source: WOOD-TV