In brief: Judge’s decision backs BlueRay

BlueRay Technologies Inc. will not be forced to reveal more corporate records to its former chief financial officer, a Spokane County judge ordered Friday.

Superior Court Judge Michael Price denied a motion by BlueRay shareholder and former CFO Yelena Simonyan to make the company offer up financial records Simonyan had requested in a lawsuit filed last month. BlueRay responded by accusing her of wrongfully disclosing confidential documents and not revealing she had been convicted of a federal crime. The company asked for damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and sanctions against Simonyan and her attorney.

BlueRay supplied “all information” mandated by state law in response to Simonyan’s request, Price wrote in a letter to attorneys for both parties. The company also has “shown a good faith basis to believe” Simonyan’s motive for the suit “is in fact hostile to the corporation and is now being presented to the Court in an attempt to leverage the Plaintiff’s buy-out from the corporation,” he wrote.

The order does not address the counterclaims by BlueRay, which intends to manufacture and distribute Blu-ray discs from a downtown plant.

Parker Howell

New York

Google Health offers medical records

Google Inc. is now offering the general public electronic access to their medical records and other health-related information.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Web search leader announced the public launch of Google Health during a Webcast on Monday. It lets users import records from a variety of care providers and pharmacies.

Google tested the service by storing medical records for a few thousand patient volunteers at the not-for-profit Cleveland Clinic.

Associated Press

Chicago

Airline passenger satisfaction sinks

Passenger dissatisfaction with airlines’ customer service has sunk to its lowest level in years at a time when carriers are charging more and more for tickets and services.

An annual survey being released today by the University of Michigan found customers giving airlines the worst grades since 2001, with the industry’s overall scores dropping for the third straight year.

United Airlines and US Airways Group Inc., which are in talks to potentially combine into a single carrier, finished next-to-last and last, respectively, in the university’s American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Continental Airlines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc. registered the biggest declines from 2007, both experiencing double-digit percentage drops.

A familiar bright spot in the results was Southwest Airlines Co., which led the industry in passenger satisfaction for the 15th consecutive year.

Associated Press