Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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Better lock ‘em up? A Florida appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit against the city of Boca Raton over its police department’s decision to release from police custody a highly intoxicated 24-year-old, Christopher Milanese, who then walked onto railroad tracks and was fatally struck by a train. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel; opinion courtesy Leagle]
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They could drive you to drink — especially if you’re not politically well-connected [Coyote]
Ontario: “A judge has reopened a major legal controversy by ruling that accused people can claim they were too drunk to be found culpable of committing crimes.” [Globe & Mail]
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A moratorium on new liquor licenses in Washington, D.C.’s popular Adams-Morgan neighborhood might account for why an existing license appears curiously valuable. [Matthew Yglesias]
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“A judge has awarded more than $6.7 million to the family of a Northeastern University student who fell down a set of stairs at a Boston bar in 2007 and died after a night of drinking. The judge’s award comes about three months after a jury ruled the bar violated the city building code but was not liable for the 21-year-old man’s death.” [Boston Globe; Herald; MyFoxBoston]
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In Oregon “all homemade alcoholic beverages must be consumed where they’re made,” so unless the law changes, beer and wine competitions and taste-offs aren’t going to be legal. [KATU]
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By reader acclaim: the family of a Pennsylvania woman who attended — but did not participate in — a New Jersey “Polar Bear Plunge” charity event has sued the event sponsors and many others. Tracy Hottenstein was last seen alive around 2:15 a.m. on the night of drinking after the festivities, and was later discovered in the bay having, per Cape May County authorities, “died accidentally from hypothermia and acute intoxication.” In addition to the event sponsors, the suit names “the owners of two bars she was at on the night she died and the couple who invited her to dinner at their home that evening. Also named is the hospital where she died and the doctor who pronounced her dead, as well as the Sea Isle City Police Department and individual officers who — the suit claims — did not allow rescue workers to perform lifesaving treatment for hypothermia after they discovered Hottenstein had no pulse.” [AP/NJ.com]
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After a pedestrian was hit by a truck and suffered a broken elbow and other injuries, he began to drink excessively and developed clinical alcoholism with serious health consequences. Doctors testified that the man’s “pain and mood” following the injury contributed to this development, in combination with genetic predisposition (both his parents were alcoholics). A judge in the province of British Columbia found that the “alcohol abuse was caused by the Accident and that such alcohol abuse was reasonably foreseeable,” so that compensation for it could be recovered as part of the lawsuit. [BC Injury Law]
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Alcohol and obesity risk, together: Jacob Sullum may have identified the next target of ire for the disapprovers of fun. [Reason "Hit and Run"] Related: “The Case Against Health” [Richard Klein, Chronicle of Higher Education]
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Inevitably, personal-injury lawsuits have arrived over a much-maligned caffeinated alcoholic energy drink targeted by FDA regulators. [Jacob Sullum, Reason] More: Chris Moody, Daily Caller; Ron Miller; more from Sullum.
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“I don’t feel bad about being a scofflaw — our distillation laws are preposterous.” [Cooking Issues]
Austin’s police chief wants to criminalize driving on 0.05 blood alcohol — which for many people means a beer or two — and state senator John Whitmire of Houston is sympathetic: “Some people shouldn’t be driving after one drink.” A MADD spokesman applauds, too. [Austin American-Statesman]
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The New Jersey Supreme Court will take up the appeal of a case where a Brick, N.J. man hurt in a motorcycle crash was allowed to proceed with a suit against the Toms River restaurant that had served him. [Asbury Park Press via NLJRA, earlier]
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