In May 2013, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway hired Meyers Nave

California Powerhouse: Meyers Nave

Bennett meets CHP Youngstrom
Bennett's Truck Towed
Bennett Witness Murdered
Oscar Grant Witness Murdered
Meyers sues PG&E
San Bruno Wins
Bennett loses before he starts

By Jeff Sistrunk

Law360, New York (July 24, 2014, 2:55 PM ET) -- In less than three decades, Meyers Nave Riback Silver & Wilson has grown from a small municipal law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area into one of the leading firms for local governments and public agencies throughout the state as well as private clients focused on complex, public-facing transportation and development projects.

From winning landmark pension reform litigation for some of the state's largest local governments to marshaling the city of San Bruno through the aftermath of a devastating pipeline explosion to representing the city of Sacramento in its ongoing efforts to build a new home for the Kings NBA franchise, Meyers Nave has flexed its muscle in the areas of environmental, labor and employment, land use, eminent domain and constitutional law.

Meyers Nave's ability to get large projects completed, secure major litigation wins and resolve crises landed the six-office firm a spot among Law360's California Powerhouses.

"One of the things that sets us apart is the complex, high-profile, bet-the-farm litigation matters that public and private entities come to Meyers Nave to handle," said David Skinner, Meyers Nave's managing partner, adding that the firm also is "on the cutting edge of handling the largest infrastructure projects in the state."

Meyers Nave was founded in San Leandro in 1986 by Steve Meyers, Michael Nave, Libby Silver and Mike Riback, who came from small or solo practices and from public agencies.

"The idea of the founding partners at the time was to start a firm that was going to be practicing public law — those areas of law that pertain to the operations of government," Meyers said. "We all had some expertise in that area and thought we could provide those services to clients through a law firm that was exclusively dedicated to that kind of work."

Some of the firm's early work included serving as city attorney for municipalities in the Bay Area and beyond, including San Leandro, Dublin, Novato and Cloverdale.

Meyers Nave relocated its San Leandro office to Oakland in 2003, a move that coincided with the firm's expansion into new practice areas and regions. Today, Meyers Nave boasts a bench of 75 attorneys practicing in 18 distinct areas of law, with 50 lawyers located in the firm's Oakland headquarters and the others spread among offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno and Santa Rosa.

Amrit Kulkarni, chair of Meyers Nave's land use practice group, noted that the firm's expansion in the 2000s was driven by greater demand by clients for multidisciplinary legal services in connection with some of the largest and most complex transportation and development projects around the state.

Although Meyers Nave has broadened its reach, it has remained firmly in touch with its roots in public agency service, currently serving as city attorney for more than 20 California municipalities and as special counsel for many more.

The firm has taken the lead in helping local governments in California address issues relating to public employee pensions and retiree health care coverage.

"We've helped a number of agencies that have faced crises in which you had long-term labor contracts and very significant post-employment benefit obligations, and the agency sought to restructure those," said Art Hartinger, chair of Meyers Nave's labor and employment practice group. "We've helped to fashion long-term plans for fiscal sustainability and helped put those plans in place."

After a decade of budget shortfalls, the city of San Jose enlisted Meyers Nave to analyze its authority to tweak its retirement system via ordinances or charter amendments. The firm's analysis led the City Council to propose a ballot measure, known as Measure B, to create "second-tier" benefits for new city employees and increase contributions by current employees to their retiree benefit plans. The initiative passed with 70 percent of voters in favor.

But the city's plan was targeted in a slew of lawsuits by unions and retirees, which were consolidated and tried. Meyers Nave prevailed on a significant number of the issues, with a state court in 2014 validating 12 of the measure's 15 provisions. The case is now before an appeals court.

"A lot of eyes are on that case in terms of potentially making new or different law in the areas of pension reform," Hartinger said.

In another prominent case, the Ninth Circuit in February held that thousands of retired employees of Meyers Nave client Orange County don't have an implied contractual right to pool their health insurance premiums with those of current employees, affirming a lower court’s ruling in favor of the county.

Orange County had developed a multipart program to address an unfunded liability for retiree health insurance that was initially estimated at $1.4 billion, prompting the 6,000-member Retired Employees Association of Orange County to sue in an effort to force the county to reinstate a practice that had subsidized retiree health insurance premiums for many years.

Meyers Nave's expertise in representing public agencies also extends to the realm of crisis management. The city of San Bruno retained the firm immediately after a deadly pipeline explosion in September 2010 that killed eight people, injured several dozen more and destroyed 38 homes.

"Public agencies often find themselves dealing with areas of law that one might not easily predict, and this is one example," Meyers said. "I doubt that the city of San Bruno thought that they would be spending up to four years before state and federal pipeline regulatory agencies, and yet that's exactly what's happened."

Initially, Meyers Nave's job was to guide the city through the National Transportation Safety Board and federal regulatory processes, and that led to negotiations with the pipeline's operator, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. The firm secured a two-part settlement with PG&E — $70 million to compensate San Bruno for the disaster and $50 million to help the city defray the costs of rebuilding and dealing with the aftereffects of the blast.

In public investigatory hearings before the NTSB and the California Public Utilities Commission, Meyers Nave developed and presented much of the evidence that would later form the backbone of federal prosecutors' April 2014 criminal complaint against PG&E. The firm also prepared and filed San Bruno's request that the CPUC impose $2.25 billion worth of fines and penalties against PG&E for alleged safety violations leading up to the explosion.

"We still don't have some of the decisions out of the Public Utilities Commission on the prosecutorial matters that we've been participating in, but we have confidence that the results will be the largest fine of an investor-owned public utility in California's history," Meyers said.

While the San Bruno matter "has taken a great deal of our time and effort," it has resulted in "some pretty significant achievements working to the direct benefit of the city, but also helping California deal with aging infrastructure and pipeline safety," Meyers said.

"Ultimately, this will affect all cities in California that have gas distribution systems," he said.

Meyers Nave's work with San Bruno has led to other assignments from California cities and counties dealing with similar subjects and utility issues.

"The specifics of this case are probably not as important as the overall consequences of the assignment, in terms of building a practice area and building a firm that can deal with hot issues that require a multidisciplinary approach," Meyers said. "I think our experience with San Bruno has greatly benefited the firm and given us a whole new practice area within which to expand our operations statewide."

Meyers Nave's representation of both public and private entities in their development of large-scale projects around the state requires extensive coordination among attorneys across practice areas, as the projects involve land use, eminent domain, environmental, labor and employment, construction and other issues, Kulkarni said.

"We are very fortunate that we have a broad depth of expertise in these areas spread throughout our offices," Kulkarni said. "Our experts are available to our clients anytime, anyplace, regardless of where they're located."

In Southern California, Meyers Nave was retained by Los Angeles International Airport to advise on environmental compliance for its $3.2 billion master plan and runway expansion. That work led to the firm's retention by the Port of Los Angeles as outside counsel on transactional and litigation matters related to the port’s plans to expand the capacity, increase the efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts of its container terminals.

In May 2013, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway hired Meyers Nave to represent it in connection with the development of a $500 million high-tech intermodal facility that would allow goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to be transferred onto trains closer to the ports. The firm is defending BNSF in seven now-consolidated suits challenging the adequacy of the eight-year environmental review prepared for the project, in what Kulkarni said is one of the biggest California Environmental Quality Act suits currently pending in the state.

Further up the coast, Meyers Nave has been retained by the city of Sacramento to help implement its plan for revitalizing the city's downtown area, which includes a highly contentious proposal for a $477 million basketball arena for the Kings NBA franchise. In March, the firm secured a ruling granting the city possession of the vacant Macy's store presently sitting where the planned arena will be built.

"Our land use and eminent domain lawyers are working hand in hand with the city to ensure that the facility will be built on the schedule that is part of the deal to keep the Sacramento Kings in town, rather than moving to Seattle," Kulkarni said.

Meyers Nave is representing Sacramento in several suits stemming from the arena project, including environmental challenges. The project is so significant that the California State Legislature passed special legislation governing the litigation of the CEQA suits.

"We take great pride in being part of a team with our clients and we like to get results," Kulkarni said. "When lawsuits are filed, as is often the case with major projects, we litigate aggressively to ensure that our clients' plans and visions become a reality. Ultimately, the firm's greatest reward is seeing these projects built and contribute to the vitality of the state."

--Editing by Jeremy Barker and Katherine Rautenberg.

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Wilson Cobbold Bennett father of Peter Carver Bennett was senior sales for Continental Can Company (CCC)

Wilson Cobbold Bennett father of Peter Carver Bennett was senior sales for Continental Can Company (CCC)

The Dubious Phone Call and Time Wasting Project

The folks at TPG will have to answer to my Whistleblower Complaints on the truly odd collection of RFPs emanating from companies connected to Richard Blum, William McGlashan, CBRE, Regency Centers, Trammel. Crow, Lennar, Catellus.

---

My story is about witness murders, private equity, mergers and acquisitions linked back to the Matter of Bennett v. Southern Pacific lost in 1989.  It was a winnable case as long the witnesses testified.  

xxxx9

Continental Can Company

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Continental Can Company (CCC) was an American producer of metal containers and packaging company, that was based in Stamford, Connecticut.^[1]

The Continental Can Company was founded by Edwin Norton^[2] T.G. Cranwell in 1904,^[3] three years after the formation of its greatest rival, American Can Company.^[3]Continental acquired the patents of United Machinery Company, one of the few companies producing can-making machinery that had not been bought by American Can. CCC began shipping product in 1905.^[3]

During World War II, Continental Can Company helped the war effort by building aircraft parts and bombs in their manufacturing plants.^[3] The United Steelworkers of America was the union representing hundreds of manufacturing workers at Continental Can Company.^[3]

In 1956, CCC acquired the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, the third largest producer of glass containers, which led to the United States v. Continental Can Co. Supreme Court ruling in 1964.

Contents

• 1History
  • 1.1Continental Group
  • 1.2Deals
  • 1.3Facilities
  • 1.4Chairmen
• 2References

History[edit]

The company bought the Standard Tin Plate Company in 1909 to ensure that they would have a steady supply of tin. Continental's original business consisted only of packers' cans for fruits and vegetables. Given the seasonal nature of this work, the company decided to expand to general canning in 1912. By 1913 the company had acquired all of the interests of a New Jersey corporation also called Continental Can Co., as well as the Export & Domestic Can Co. and the Standard Tin Plate Co. The same year, Continental was incorporated in the state of New York.^[3]

During the 1920s Continental expanded rapidly, purchasing almost twenty competing companies. It opened its first West Coast plant in 1926. In 1928 Continental acquired the third-largest can company in the country, the United States Can Company. By 1934 Continental and its rival, American Can, were producing approximately two-thirds of the 10 million cans made annually in the country. At this time, the company was operating thirty-eight plants in the United States and Cuba. Continental suffered a drop in its income during the Depression; even so, by 1932 the company had never reported a money-losing year.^[3]

By the mid-1930s, with 38 plants nationwide, the company employed about 1,800 men and 1,200 women around the Chicago area.^[2]

Continental bounced back from the Depression years, and by 1940 its operating revenue had increased to $120.7 million from $80.9 million in 1935. In 1940 the company built plants in Canada as well. Continental continued to expand during the following decade through acquisitions, and the company entered the fields of paper and fiber containers, bottle caps, and synthetic resins. By the end of the 1940s, the company had sixty-five plants, including eight plants producing fiber and paper containers, four plants producing crown caps, and one plant producing plastics. By 1954 the company's gross sales reached $616 million, and its net income was approximately $21 million. At that time, Continental was operating eighty-one plants.^[3]

During the company's first fifty years of existence, it had purchased and absorbed twenty-eight independent can companies, as well as other concerns producing fiber drums, paper containers, and bottle tops. In 1956 Continental acquired Hazel-Atlas Glass Co., the third-largest U.S. manufacturer of glass containers. Continental then became the first company with a full line of containers in metal, paper, and glass. It also purchased Cochrane Foil Company, a manufacturer and distributor of aluminum plates and rigid foil packages for the frozen-food industry and other food suppliers. The company also bought Robert Gair Company, a leading producer of paperboard products, that same year. Due to such acquisitions, Continental briefly surpassed American Can's annual sales, topping $1 billion in 1957. By 1960 the company operated 155 plant facilities.^[3]

The introduction of the easy-to-open metal can top in 1963 led to an increase in the use of metal cans rather than glass bottles for beverages. By the end of 1966 over 45 percent of U.S. beer and over 15 percent of U.S. soft drinks were packaged in metal cans. That same year Continental introduced the first commercially practical welded can. In 1969 the company acquired Schmalbach-Lubeca-Werke A.G., the largest packaging producer in the European community. By that time, Continental had 228 manufacturing plants.^[3]

By 1973 the metal can industry was in a crisis due to oversupply and tough competition. Both Continental and American Can were said to have made the wrong decisions in the previous decade by adding capacity for both tin plate and tin-free steel production while the aluminum can was gaining popularity. Another problem was growing public opposition to throwaway cans. Continental's profits from domestic can-making dropped from $115 million in 1969 to $52 million in 1973. The company then closed many old-style integrated manufacturing plants in favor of large automated metal-processing centers and separate can-assembly operations situated near its customers' plants. In 1973 the company developed a system for the ultraviolet curing of inks and coatings on metal plate, and installed a number of such systems.^[3]

Continental Group[edit]

In 1976, CCC changed its name^[4] to the Continental Group, a conglomerate with operations in many countries,^[2] but kept "Continental Can" as its packaging unit within Continental Group.^[5] In 1987,^[6] the remnants of Continental Can became part of the United States Can Company^[2] (a subsidiary of Inter-American Packaging)^[6] and two of its executives left to form Silgan Holdings. Continental Group was dismantled in 1991 and, in early 1991, Continental Can Company was ordered to pay out $415 million to some 3,700 former employees and members of the United Steel Workers of America, when the courts found that the company had attempted to defraud the employees of pensions during the late 1970s.^[5] The rights to the name "Continental Can Company" name and logo were sold in 1991 and renamed to the Viatech Continental Can Company, Inc. in October 1992.^[5] In June 1998 Suiza Foods Corporation completed its acquisition of Continental Can.^[5] In July 1999, Suiza sold all of Continental Can's U.S. packaging operations in partial exchange for a minority interest in the purchaser, Consolidated Container Company.^[7] As of 2000, the only remaining business of Continental Can is Dixie Union, a small flexible film business based in Kempten, Germany.^[7]

Deals[edit]

(source^[3])

• 1945 Continental Can Company, Inc.: 150,000 shares of $3.75 cumulative preferred stock
• 1951 Continental Can Company, Inc.: 104,533 shares $4.25 cumulative second preferred stock (without par value) $15,000,000 3¼% debentures due October 15, 1976
• 1960 Continental Can Company, Inc.: $30,000,000 4⅝% debentures due October 1, 1985
• 1970 Continental Can Company, Inc.: $60,000,000 principal amount 8½% sinking fund debentures due August 1, 1990
• 1974 Continental Can Company, Inc.: 8.85% sinking fund debentures due May 15, 2004

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Bennett posts about Walnut Creek Officer Thompson on September 8, 2014, then on September 23 addresses Contra Costa Board of Supervisors, then on September 27, 2014 someone murders five of his relatives

UPDATE: WCPD Officer Pleads No Contest to Beating Woman with Baseball Bat in Richmond

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 16:21 PM · 55 COMMENTS

A Walnut Creek police officer pleaded no contest in a Martinez courtroom this afternoon to charges that he donned a mask and beat a woman with a baseball bat in Richmond last month.

Gregory Thompson, a 54-year-old Martinez resident and 30-year Walnut Creek police veteran, entered the no contest pleas in Contra Costa County Superior Court to charges of felony assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, felony vandalism and being armed in the commission of the crimes.

Dressed in a suit and tie, Thompson appeared out of custody next to his attorney in court today, weeks after bailing out of county jail in Richmond following his Aug. 16 arrest.

Thompson refused to answer questions from reporters outside the courtroom this morning and left in a waiting car.

Deputy District Attorney Barry Grove said prosecutors will ask for a one-year county jail sentence for Thompson but that he could face up to five years in state prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 10.

Grove said Thompson went to his father’s vacant home on Clinton Avenue in Richmond in the early morning hours of Aug. 16, knowing that the house had been burglarized recently, according to Grove.

When he saw an unknown woman walking near the home, he believed she was an intruder, donned a ski mask and “he took the law into his own hands and beat her with a baseball bat,” Grove said.

The woman’s car had run out of gas and she was walking in the area when Thompson attacked, prosecutors said.

Richmond police received several reports around 2 a.m. on Aug. 16 of a woman screaming and a man with a bat in the 4000 block of Clinton Avenue.

As officers arrived on the scene, witnesses pointed out Thompson, who was sitting nearby in his parked car. He wasn’t wearing his police uniform or in a patrol car at the time, police said.

Officers approached the suspect and noticed a mask lying on the car’s floorboard. A search of the car turned up a baseball bat, two guns and zip ties, police said.

The victim, who had been hiding in the bushes until police arrived, was taken to a hospital for injuries suffered in the beating and is expected to recover.

Police last month were attempting to locate a second woman who was apparently wounded when she stepped in to try to stop the attack. An off-duty firefighter also witnessed part of the attack, according to Grove.

Thompson, who identified himself as a police officer, was arrested, taken to county jail and released on bail the following day.

Walnut Creek police have said Thompson was put on paid administrative leave soon after his arrest and that the department is conducting its own investigation.

He was working most recently as a patrol officer, according to Walnut Creek police Capt. Mark Perlite.

Walnut Creek police officials were not immediately available this afternoon to comment on Thompson’s employment status.

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