Telegraph:
The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that sending the Bolivian man back to his homeland would breach his human rights because he was entitled to a “private and family life”, and joint ownership of a pet was evidence that he was fully settled in this country. …
The Bolivian’s identity has not been disclosed and even the name of the pet cat was blanked out in official court papers to protect its privacy.
Delivering her decision on the case, which is thought to have cost the taxpayer several thousand pounds, Judith Gleeson, a senior immigration judge, joked in the official written ruling that the cat “need no longer fear having to adapt to Bolivian mice”. …
More: Rougblog (”We are all familiar with the term “anchor baby,” but the “anchor cat” is a new concept for me.”)
Tagged as:
animal rights,
animals,
immigration law,
privacy,
United Kingdom
Work To Ride Inc. is a celebrated philanthropic program in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park meant to give at-risk urban kids experience working with horses. Now a jury has awarded $2.36 million against the program to a boy whose jaw was broken when a horse kicked him in the face while being loaded into a trailer. There was some dispute over the circumstances:
Both the plaintiffs and defense papers said that [plaintiff] Williams hit the horse with a stick on the hindquarters and the horse kicked Williams in the face after being hit with the stick. But the plaintiffs said Williams was asked by [program employee] Shuler to use the stick on the horse’s hindquarters to get the horse to go onto the trailer. And the defense said that Williams hit the horse without any instruction from Shuler, Shuler commanded Williams to not hit the horse and Williams then hit the horse a second time in defiance of Shuler’s command.
The jury attributed 10 percent of the negligent responsibility to Williams, who was 12 at the time of the accident, and 90 percent to Work To Ride. Work To Ride’s insurance limit is $1 million, and plaintiffs are talking about going after its insurer, Lloyds, for the remainder on a bad faith theory. [Amaris Elliott-Engel, Legal Intelligencer]
Tagged as:
animals,
Philadelphia,
recreation
A New Jersey couple who never married fought for three years over custody of Dexter the pug. Now they can look forward to having not only the canine in question, but also lawyers, in both of their lives for the indefinite future. [Gloucester County Times, Philadelphia Inquirer]
Tagged as:
animals,
family law
The Chicago Zoological Society and Brookfield Zoo, according to Allecyn Edwards’ suit, “recklessly and willfully trained and encouraged the dolphins to throw water at the spectators in the stands making the floor wet and slippery,” among other derelictions. [Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times, Riverside/Brookfield Landmark] More: Lowering the Bar (”based on my extensive Discovery Channel research, most dolphins live in water, either a pool of it or, in some extreme cases, an entire ocean. It appears to be not uncommon for surfaces near these bodies of water to become wet and slippery.”)
Tagged as:
animals,
Chicago,
slip and fall
George Wallace reports:
Late [July 31], the California Court of Appeal issued its decision in the case of McMahon v. Craig, holding unequivocally that California law does not permit an animal owner to recover damages for his or her emotional distress at the injury or death of an animal caused by negligence, and that there can be no recovery of damages for loss of the companionship of a non-human companion.
The report is first-hand, for it was blogger Wallace who represented the winning side in the case. Congratulations are in order.
Tagged as:
animals,
California,
damages for animal companionship,
noneconomic damages
A lawyer for the conductor set upon by the angry fowl argued unsuccessfully that CSX should have detected and removed the goose nest, or at least put orange cones around it. [On Point News, Lowering the Bar]
Tagged as:
animals,
railroads
“The San Francisco Zoo agreed Thursday to pay $900,000 to two brothers who survived the fatal attack by an escaped tiger on Christmas Day 2007, sources familiar with the case told The Chronicle.” Earlier here, here, etc.
Tagged as:
animals,
San Francisco
From Dog Scoop, a followup on that “hazardous pet door” story we covered last week (with a hat tip to the skill of Overlawyered readers in, well, digging).
Incidentally, Consumer Reports was really impressed with the dog-door-dangers story, promoting it on at least three of its blogs, with no hint whatsoever of the law-firm provenance of the PetAccessDangers.org website or any other trial-lawyer connections to the story.
Tagged as:
animals,
chasing clients
The controversial farm-animal tracking proposal NAIS seems to be marching ahead at a rapid pace toward mandatory adoption. La Vida Locavore: 
“During the hearing, I never once heard that there was any distinction between large commercial, small commercial selling direct to consumers, homesteaders or hobbyists. All I ever heard was that everyone wants a mandatory NAIS. For everyone.” The tagging and paperwork would apply not only to four-footed livestock, but to poultry, fish, shellfish “and some crustaceans. Just about any animal you might find on a farm except dogs, cats and rabbits.” Earlier here and here.
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
animals,
food safety
The judge said Inez Sparks, of the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe, should not have named a police dog as defendant in her dog bite claim against the Warren, Mich. police department and its officers. [WDIV/ClickOnDetroit.com]
Tagged as:
animals
- Hospital can be sued for releasing mental patient who killed his wife ten days later [ABA Journal, Michigan]
- Pet-sitter draws probation on animal cruelty charges after letting pig overeat and get too fat [AP/Austin, Minn. Post-Bulletin]
- The government pressured states to raise drinking age to 21. So why didn’t the move save lives? [Miron/Tetelbaum, Forbes]
- “Goldman Sachs Tries To Bully Blogger” [Marc Randazza, Cit Media Law and Legal Satyricon; Ron Coleman, Likelihood of Confusion; Brian Baxter, American Lawyer; Martin Schwimmer, Trademark Blog ("I Don't Think It's The Dumbest Trademark Demand Letter I've Ever Seen")]
- Dangers in using Title IX to go after sex imbalances in science and engineering, as Obama is said to want to do [Christina Hoff Sommers, Washington Post]
- Thomas Mundy and his attorney, frequent Overlawyered mentionee Morse Mehrban, have filed more than 200 ADA lawsuits against California merchants and other businesses, settling them for an income that opponents estimate as in excess of $300,000 a year each [L.A. Times back in January, California Civil Justice] But an Orange County jury took 18 minutes to dismiss Mundy’s suit against Del Taco [OC Register, MoreLaw, Ken @ Popehat and his followup] Noni Gotti’s 45-day spree of 41 lawsuits against 111 businesses and landlords in Santa Ana area [Jan Norman, OC Register; more on ADA filing mills]
- Police payouts up but hospital payouts down: “[New York] City Paid Out $568 Million for Lawsuits Last Year” [NY Politics; Ted yesterday]
- Another lawyer disclaimer with a sense of humor [Nicole Black/Legal Antics citing Kelly Phillips Erb/TaxGirl; earlier]
Tagged as:
ADA filing mills,
alcohol,
animals,
colleges and universities,
Morse Mehrban,
nastygrams,
NYC,
psychiatry,
Title IX,
trademarks
CPSIA-reminiscent: a pending proposal to require all owners of livestock and poultry to tag each creature with a radio ID, and do a lot more paperwork besides that, could spell an end to small-scale backyard animal husbandry. (Shannon Hayes, “Tag, We’re It’, New York Times, Mar. 10). More: Timothy Carney, D.C. Examiner; Jack Kittredge, Mother Earth News, 2007.
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
animals
- Uninjured patients of California, unite to demand the money you have coming to you! [Russell Jackson via PoL]
- Lawyer’s nastygram to blogger Patterico: how dare you talk to my witnesses as part of your research on my case? [Ken @ Popehat, Sheffner/Copyrights and Campaigns, Volokh, Hricik/Legal Ethics Forum; lawyer Kathy Kelly retracts and regrets her threat; the underlying article by Radley Balko, alleging extraordinary misconduct by Mississippi-based medical examiners in a Louisiana case, is here [caution, disturbing images and videos]; reactions to that from Patrick @ Popehat, BoingBoing, Coyote]
- Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) being helpful to trial lawyers? Old news to Overlawyered readers [AmLaw Daily, Wood @PoL, our earlier coverage of Specter]
- California lawyers are obliged to pay $500 annual dues to the state bar, which leaves one member irritated when the official bar publication showcases a predictable brand of politics [Bookworm Room on CLAY awards, California Lawyer] More: Discriminations on the Virginia state bar;
- So is the New Jersey Law Journal going to start printing regular tutorials on how to take unlawful action against blogs that criticize one’s client, or is it just going to be the one time? [Ron Coleman]
- New blogger Andrew Grossman joins Point of Law, expert on the “overcriminalization” of life [intro, proposed we-must-do-something-about-chimps "Captive Primate Safety Act"]
- R.I.P. Murray Teigh Bloom, author of The Trouble With Lawyers (1968), whose obituary appeared in the New York Times the other day;
- Eric Turkewitz continues his investigations of online solicitation of victims of the Continental #3407 Buffalo crash; might the New York anti-chasing rules be working? [fifth and sixth posts in series]
- Stadium patdown case: California constitution “does not grant courts a roving commission to micromanage” security arrangements at private facilities [Egelko, Chronicle]
Tagged as:
animals,
Arlen Specter,
bar associations,
bloggers and the law,
California,
chasing clients
