News in brief

Northwest Airlines breached its contract with labor unions when it refused to repurchase shares of stock in 2003 as it had promised, a New York judge rules.

The New York Appellate Division has affirmed a $550 million contract judgment won by Jones Apparel against Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.

A California jury hands Lexar Media a $380 million judgment in a trade secrets dispute with Toshiba Corp.

Financier Ron Perelman has won summary judgment on the liability phase of his fraud suit against Morgan Stanley, because the defendant investment bank "deliberately" violated repeated discovery orders.

Graduate students at the University of Michigan are locked in a dispute over salaries and benefits with the Ann Arbor school.

The purchaser who bought a Gustav Stickley sideboard once owned by Barbra Streisand for $600,000 is out of luck on its claim that the sideboard had undisclosed damage, since it waited more than four years to bring its claim and the piece had been sold "as is."

After a fourteen-year strike, California's Diamond Walnut Cooperative has agreed to a new five-year contract with the Teamsters Union.