The Manhattan Institute, with which I’ve been happily associated for about twenty years now, has lately been celebrating its 25th anniversary, and has now commemorated the occasion with a slender (104 pp.) but impressive volume entitled “Turning Intellect Into Influence: The Manhattan Institute at 25“.
Archive for December, 2004
Behind “Boston Legal”
The new ABC show may cause the legal profession’s on-air image to sink to a new low, worries Mark Donald in Texas Lawyer (“Lawyer Prestige Hits New Low With Fall TV Season”, Dec. 8) For more on the views of show creator David E. Kelley, an ex-lawyer who also created the shows “Ally McBeal” and “Boston Public”, see Nov. 21, 2000.
A university athlete’s heirs
But the lion took the biggest share:
Relatives of an Oklahoma State basketball player killed in a university plane crash in 2001 were awarded a $1.6 million settlement, a newspaper [The Oklahoman] reported Monday….
Lawson, a 21-year-old junior guard, was one of 10 men who died Jan. 27, 2001, when an airplane carrying members of the basketball program crashed in a Colorado field on the way back from a basketball game at the University of Colorado….
Lawson’s son, Ramses B. Hereford, received $440,139, his parents, Daniel Lawson Sr. and Phyllis Lawson, each received $223,238 and the remaining money — nearly $730,000 — was awarded to attorneys for legal fees and costs, according to court records.
Contributing to the settlement are North Bay Charter, the owner of the downed airplane; the estate of the late pilot, Denver Mills; Marathon Power Technologies, a maker of airplane parts; and Oklahoma State University. Wichita-based Raytheon Aircraft did not settle, and a lawsuit continues seeking to saddle it with the blame for the crash. (“Legal wrangling not finished”, AP/ESPN, Dec. 19).
Disarming the U.K.
Scotland: In a multi-point program aimed at reducing knife crime, First Minister Jack McConnell has proposed banning the sale of swords; introducing “a licensing scheme for retailers selling knives”; doubling, to four years, the maximum jail term for possessing an offensive weapon; giving police new powers of search and arrest; and raising the age limit for buying a knife to 18, from the current 16. (“Crackdown targets knife culture”, BBC, Nov. 22). And in Yeovil, Somerset, police “have been accused of heavy handedness after arresting two young boys who were playing with toy guns.” The boys, 11 and 13, were wearing Santa Claus and Frankenstein’s-monster costumes and one of them sang the James Bond theme song as they pretended to shoot each other with the toys while rolling around on the floor at a youth club. “One of the boys was held in a cell for five hours.” (Simon de Bruxelles, “Playing with toy gun puts boy, ll, in a cell”, The Times (UK), Dec. 3).
Should have taken the Happy Meal
John Gregg of Shaker Heights, Ohio wasn’t satisfied with the $30,000 that an arbitrator awarded him for supposedly slipping on soap and water in the men’s room of a McDonald’s restaurant. He insisted on a jury trial instead, but as the trial date approached the restaurant chain investigated the case further and found that Gregg, “who had a 2002 arson conviction connected to burning a relative’s car for insurance money,” wasn’t telling the strict truth when he said he didn’t know the customer who was serving as his key witness in the claim. In fact, the man had worked with Gregg at a construction firm and the two had both collected payments from Geico two years earlier after claiming that their cars had collided with each other. Calling his actions “fraudulent”, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy J. McGinty found Gregg in contempt of court, “ordered him jailed for 30 days and fined him $250.” (Jim Nichols, “Pass up $30,000, go directly to jail”, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 17; “Outcome of McDonald’s suit should be modeled” (editorial), Richmond, Ind., Palladium-Item, Dec. 22).
Old-timers
That’s what we are, it seems.
Welcome newspaper readers
Catching up on some overdue thanks to newspaper reporters and contributors who’ve mentioned this site, quoted me, or done both in the past few months (several of them, alas, without currently active links):
* David Boaz, “New York’s Big Think”, New York Post, Dec. 5 (an excellent piece on the Manhattan Institute);
* Jon Robins, “A pair of lawyers who could change the world”, The Times (London), Nov. 2 (on John Edwards’s debate performance);
* Itai Maytal, “Too Early To Give Up on Edwards’s Star”, New York Sun, Nov. 4 (on Edwards’s prospects on departing the U.S. Senate);
* Heidi J. Shrager, “State’s law guardian system in need of overhaul”, Staten Island Advance, Sept. 28 (on the need for reform of New York’s law guardian system, under which lawyers are appointed to represent the interests of minors and others not able to look out for themselves);
* Kate Coscarelli, “Police protect, serve — and sue”, Newark Star-Ledger, Sept. 12, reprinted at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer site (on legal doctrines allowing police officers injured in the course of their duties to sue allegedly negligent private parties (see Aug. 31);
* David Isaac, “USG Corp.: Election And Elation For Wallboard Maker”, Investor’s Business Daily, Nov. 5 (on post-election prospects for asbestos legislation);
* Ed Wallace, “Wheels: You Can Fool Some of the People…”, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Oct. 3 (on network crash-test journalism).
For other press mentions, check our “About the site” page.
Forbidden Broadway
The latest installment in the beloved musical spoof series sending up Broadway shows opened this month at the Douglas Fairbanks Theater in New York. As founder Gerald Alessandrini makes clear in his liner notes to vol. II, the series is made possible by the good-natured forbearance of many in the theater community: “Also special thanks to the real composers and lyricists and writers (alive and past) who have let us make mince meat out of their beautiful and well-crafted work. Without their reluctance toward lawsuits there would certainly be no Forbidden Broadway.”
The Lawyers of “Spamalot”
Continuing Broadway Monday at Overlawyered, Eric Idle reports that the musical production of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” has spent more money on lawyers than the comedy troupe did on the entire budget of the original coconut-laden film. No word on whether last year’s threatened action by “Camelot” producers complaining about possible confusion is behind those expenses. Hormel, producers of food-like substance Spam, has adopted the more productive approach of co-optation, rather than litigation, and is offering a “Collectors’ Edition” Spam tin. (Eric Idle, “The Tale of Spamalot”, Daily Llama, Sep. 6; AP/USA Today, “‘Spamalot’ heads to Broadway”, Dec. 3; Ernio Hernandez, “‘Monty Python’ Musical Spamalot Urged to Change Title by Broadway-Bound Camelot”, Playbill, Nov. 14, 2003; “Monty Python Star Faces Costly Broadway Wrangle”, WENN, Nov. 12, 2003).
Update: emotional-distress claim against divorce lawyer
Bad news for the disgruntled divorce client in the case reported on here Nov. 17: a state appellate court has ordered San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay to reconsider his ruling allowing the client to claim emotional distress damages over the attorney’s alleged mishandling of his divorce (which the attorney denies). Ryan Kent of San Rafael, Calif., representing defendant attorney Joseph Pisano, said a claim for emotional distress damages “just opens up a whole bag of worms”. And: “It’s too open-ended. It’s not predictable.” We know plenty of defendants in other professions that must wish they had the benefit of that logic. (Pam Smith, “Calif. Appeal Court Unmoved by Emotional Distress Claim in Malpractice Case”, The Recorder, Dec. 22). More: George Wallace and David Giacalone comment.