Gideon Kanner recalls how the forcible 1950s displacement of a modest Mexican community made way eventually (after the dropping of a public housing scheme) for the construction of L.A.’s baseball stadium. Some of the residents resisted: “Their principled fight became a footnote in the wretched history of eminent domain law which holds that once a condemnor acquires title to private property by eminent domain, it is not bound to put it to the ‘public’ uses for which it was taken.” ["The Curse of Chavez Ravine"]
In other eminent domain news, voters in the Indian state of West Bengal have ousted the long-ruling Communist party; a rival party “began to gain momentum when angry farmers erupted in protest against the Communist government in 2007 and 2008 after it seized farmland to set up an automobile factory.”
Tagged as:
baseball,
eminent domain,
India,
Los Angeles
“Jurors deliberated a little more than an hour before finding that the Royals were not liable for injuries suffered by a Kansas man when he was hit in the eye by a foil-wrapped hot dog at a game in September 2009.” [Kansas City Star via Lowering the Bar, earlier]
Tagged as:
baseball
- Artist Jeff Koons drops his lawsuit against maker of resin balloon dogs [Legal Blog Watch, BoingBoing, earlier]
- The car pile-up happened fast, the come-ons from lawyers and chiropractors were almost as speedy [Adler/Volokh]
- Andrew Thomas update: former Maricopa County Attorney intends to sue former bar president and ethics investigators [ABA Journal, Coyote]
- Litigation finance: “Poker Magnate, London Firm Bankroll Chevron Plaintiffs” [Dan Fisher, Forbes] Case for champerty pleaded before ethics commission [Podgers, ABA Journal] The experience in Australia [Karlsgodt]
- Judge: Kansas City stadium mascot hot dog toss suit can go to trial [OnPoint News, earlier]
- How National Enquirer matched wits with John Edwards to expose scandal [David Perel, HuffPo] More: Justice Department building a case? [AW]
- “The Whooping Cough’s Unnecessary Return” [Paul Howard/Jim Copland, City Journal] Theodore Dalrymple reviews new Paul Offit vaccine book [same]
- Many trial lawyers yank funding from Ralph Nader operations in pique over his role in depriving Al Gore of White House victory [ten years ago on Overlawyered]
Tagged as:
Arizona,
art and artists,
baseball,
champerty,
Chevron,
John Edwards,
litigation finance,
vaccines
- Thomas Sowell on EPA dairy-spill regulations [NRO, earlier at Cato here and here] It’s the miracle federal agency: “What doesn’t the EPA do?” [ShopFloor]
- President’s State of the Union medical malpractice gesture, cont’d [PoL, more, Ted Frank/Examiner, NJLRA, related, earlier here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.]
- Fired minor-league Yankees mascot files wage-hour suit [ESPN]
- Ohio sheriff prepares criminal complaint against reporter for asking him questions [WHIO via Balko]
- It all happened so suddenly: Henry Waxman now disapproves of the use of subpoenas for fishing expeditions [Mark Tapscott, Examiner; earlier]
- Should hospitals ban cameras from childbirth? [NYT "Room for Debate" with contribution from Jim Harper, Cato Institute]
- Non-”flagrant” trespassing OK? Tort liability shift in Third Restatement [PoL]
- Nope: “At this time, I would like to formally accuse Walter Olson of having an intern or something.” [Ron Miller]
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
Barack Obama,
baseball,
Environmental Protection Agency,
Henry Waxman,
hospitals,
medical malpractice,
Ohio,
privacy,
trespassers,
wage and hour suits
- Will they get group discounts on lawyers? Groupon vs. MobGob patent brawl [TechCrunch]
- Why American courts should sometimes recognize Islamic law [series of Eugene Volokh posts]
- No, it’s not a “public health issue”: “The Case Against Motorcycle Helmet Laws” [Steve Chapman, syndicated/RCP]
- Failed system of justice on some Indian reservations [McClelland, Mother Jones]
- Ten years ago: Morgan Lewis & Bockius handed mlb.com domain over to its client Major League Baseball [Ross Davies, SSRN]
- City of Boston adds insult to injury after employee runs into building [TJIC, Popehat]
- Citing fans’ drug use, feds seek forfeiture of farm used for Grateful Dead tribute concerts [Greenfield]
- Johann Sebastian Bach, serial copyright violator [Cavanaugh, Reason]
Tagged as:
baseball,
Boston,
copyright,
forfeiture,
Indian tribes,
international law,
music and musicians,
patent litigation,
public health
Prince George’s County, Maryland: “The jury found that the tournament organizer, Baseball Players Association, built the pitcher’s mound too big and too deep.” [Ron Miller]
Tagged as:
assumption of risk,
baseball,
Maryland
Derek Jeter gets to first base by misleading the umpire, and debate ensues over his lack of apparent scruple. A parallel to lawyers’ ethics in adversary factfinding? [Freedman and Vischer, Legal Ethics Forum]
Tagged as:
baseball,
ethics
- “Father demands $7.5 million because school officials read daughter’s text message” [KDAF via CALA Houston]
- How many different defendants can injured spectator sue in Shea Stadium broken-bat case? [Melprophet]
- Prominent trial lawyer Russell Budd of Baron & Budd hosts Obama at Texas fundraiser [PoL]
- DNA be damned: when actual nonpaternity doesn’t suffice to get out from under a child support order [Alkon, more]
- “Sean Coffey, a plaintiffs’ lawyer-turned-candidate for New York Attorney General, made more than $150,000 in state-level campaign contributions nationwide over 10 years.” [WSJ Law Blog] “Days before announcing a shareholder lawsuit against Bank of America, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli accepted $14,000 in campaign donations from a law firm hired to help litigate the case.” [WSJ]
- Big new RAND Corp. study on asbestos bankruptcy trusts may spur reform [Lloyd Dixon, Geoffrey McGovern & Amy Coombe, PDF, via Hartley, more, Daniel Fisher/Forbes, background here and here] Update: Stier.
- Public contingency suits? Of course the elected officials are in control (wink, wink) [The Recorder via Cal Civil Justice]
- Copyright enforcement mill appears to have copied its competitor’s website [TechDirt via Eric Goldman]
Tagged as:
asbestos,
bankruptcy,
Barack Obama,
baseball,
baseball bats,
child support,
contingent fee,
copyright,
Fred Baron,
New York,
politics,
privacy,
schools,
shotgun defendant selection
- “Kagan refused to identify anything the government couldn’t do under its Commerce Clause power” and “consciously left herself plenty of breathing room to cite foreign law inappropriately” [Ilya Shapiro, more]
- Multiple civil/criminal hats? “The odd responses of the attorney general to the oil spill” [WaPo editorial]
- Phillies Phanatic, “‘Most-Sued Mascot in the Majors’ Is Back in Court” [Lowering the Bar, which also hosts Blawg Review #271 this week]
- Federalist Society has a new blog;
- California will pay $20 million to woman abducted for nearly two decades [AP]
- Charges dropped against teen who tried to help lost kid in shopping mall [Lenore Skenazy, earlier]
- Two libertarians arrested after videotaping police in Greenfield, Mass. [Balko, earlier here and here]
- “‘Ambulance Chaser’ Lawsuits Hound Apple Over iPhone 4″ [Atlantic Wire]
Tagged as:
Apple,
baseball,
BP Transocean oil spill,
California,
cellphones,
Elena Kagan,
Federalist Society,
police
“Slo-pitch player sues field owner after being struck by ball” reads the headline of the Globe and Mail’s story from Hamilton, Ontario. A judge is allowing the suit to go forward, noting “that diamond officials had talked about putting up sun screens at the field.”
Tagged as:
assumption of risk,
baseball,
Canada
- Patent trolls are thriving, one study finds [271 Patent Blog, The Prior Art, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PDF]
- One plaintiff’s lawyer’s view: Did Rep. John Murtha Die From Medical Malpractice? [Turkewitz]
- “Rubber stamps for two [class action] settlements” [Ted Frank, Center for Class Action Fairness, AOL and Yahoo cases]
- Little League and baseball bats: “America’s favorite pastime collides with favorite pastime of personal injury lawyers” [Bob Dorigo Jones]
- States push home day-care providers into unions [Stossel]
- U.K.: “Cardiologist will fight libel case ‘to defend free speech’” [Times Online] More on British libel tourism: Frances Gibb, Times Online (”It’s official – London is the libel capital of the world” ), Citizen Media Law, Gordon Crovitz/WSJ, N.Y. Times.
- From a half-year back, but missed then: FBI says Miami lawyer bought stolen hospital records for purposes of soliciting patients [HIPAA Blog, Ambrogi/Legal Blog Watch]
- Would-be Green Police can be found in Cambridge, Mass., not just Super Bowl ads [Peter Wilson, American Thinker via Graham]
Tagged as:
baseball,
baseball bats,
chasing clients,
environment,
HIPAA,
hospitals,
labor unions,
libel slander and defamation,
Little League,
Massachusetts,
medical malpractice,
patent trolls,
Ted Frank,
United Kingdom
- “Trial lawyer group hails Senate health care bill as ’stunning victory’” [Point of Law]
- Christopher Hitchens on our leaders’ absurd reaction to the attempted plane bombing [Slate] More: Stewart Baker on the security challenges [first, second]; Mark Steyn [first, second]
- Lots of coverage for Ted Frank’s Center for Class Action Fairness and its objection in a Yahoo! settlement [Zywicki/Volokh, Stier/Mass Tort Lit, CCAF, Turkewitz; Drum] And the Center has also filed objections in an AOL settlement of claims arising from advertising copy placed in the footers of emails;
- Sad: “Texas Man Freed by DNA Sues Over ‘Excessive’ Attorney Fees” [AP/Law.com]
- Litigious creationists: promoters of “intelligent design” back in court yet again [L.A. Times via WSJ Law Blog]
- “One Possible Class-Action Defense Strategy: Disappear and Live in a Tent” [Lowering the Bar]
- “Softballer can’t slide, wants money” [Elie Mystal, Above the Law; Queens, N.Y.]
- Litigators advised to use social media to snoop on players in their cases [Trial Lawyer Tips]
Tagged as:
baseball,
class action settlements,
class actions,
politics,
social media,
Ted Frank,
terrorism
- Judge vacates $1.2 billion default judgment against PepsiCo [Watertown, Wisc. Daily Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, earlier]
- “Democrats’ first spokesman on medical malpractice: former head of the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association.” [Ponnuru, NRO, on Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley] Related: Carter Wood at Point of Law, Washington Times, David Frum, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (on provision in health bill discouraging states from adopting limits on lawyers’ fees or awards).
- Doubts about “scent lineups” in which police dogs are supposed to sniff out perps [Schwartz, NYT]
- Claimant in Staten Island Ferry crash ran into trouble when he couldn’t prove he was on the boat [NYLJ]
- New York courts strike out baseball injury claims on assumption of risk grounds [Hochfelder first, second, third posts; NYLJ]
- “Microsoft frowned on for smiley patent” [Slashdot via Coleman]
- “Step out of the loop, do something unusual” and run into an army of drones “whose sole job is to prevent their bosses from being sued.” [Never Yet Melted quoting British TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson on the U.S.]
- “A veterinarian’s view on ‘defensive medicine’” [Patty Khuly, USA Today]
Tagged as:
assumption of risk,
baseball,
defensive medicine,
medical malpractice,
Microsoft
A Montana jury decided that the aluminum baseball bat manufactured by “Louisville Slugger” maker Hillerich & Bradsby was not a defective product, but that the company should have warned of the dangers from its hitting balls at a higher speed, and awarded a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son at a baseball game. [Helena Independent Record, AP] Early commentary: Russell Jackson (doubting that a warning would actually have altered the behavior of those in the game) and Eugene Volokh (before verdict). Earlier here. More: Jim Copland discusses on CNN; Above the Law.
Tagged as:
baseball,
baseball bats,
Montana
- Speech-curbing proposals continue to get polite academic reception: NYU’s Jeremy Waldron, big advocate of laws to curb “hate speech”, delivered Holmes Lectures at Harvard this past week [HLS, schedule]
- Lawsuit over collectible baseball hit into stands by Phillies’ Ryan Howard, his 200th career homer [Howard Wasserman, PrawfsBlawg; NJLRA]
- Orchid-importer prosecution a poster case for the evils of overcriminalization? Maybe not [Ken at Popehat]
- Texas State Fair and city of Dallas don’t have to allow evangelist to distribute religious tracts inside the fair, judge rules after three years [Dallas Observer blog]
- Drug maker: FDA’s curbs on truthful promotion of off-label uses impair our First Amendment speech rights [Beck and Herrmann and more, Point of Law and more]
- Did plaintiff Eolas Technologies go to unusual lengths to ensure Eastern District of Texas venue for its patent litigation? [Joe Mullin, IP Law and Business via Alison Frankel, AmLaw]
- Update: “Lesbian Denied Infertility Treatment Settles Lawsuit” [San Diego 6, earlier]
- Even in the Ninth Circuit, “psychological injury resulting from a legitimate personnel action” is not compensable [Volokh]
Tagged as:
baseball,
crime and punishment,
Dallas,
Eastern District of Texas,
emotional distress,
FDA,
forum shopping,
free speech,
Harvard,
hate speech,
law schools,
off-label,
patent litigation,
prosecution,
workers' compensation
- Florida man and attorney file multiple ADA complaints against businesses in Seminole-Largo area [Tampa Bay Newspapers]
- “The growing ambitions of the food police”:
dietary paternalism in Bloomberg’s NYC and Washington, D.C. doesn’t go over well with writers at Slate [William Saletan, Jacob Weisberg, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Glenn Reynolds]
- Assumption of risk is alive and well in New York cases over sports and spectator injuries [Hochfelder first, second, third posts, NYLJ]
- Favorable review of William Patry, “Moral Panics and the Copyright Laws” [BoingBoing]
- Kentucky high school case: “Coach Acquitted in Player’s Heatstroke Death” [ABA Journal]
- Olivia Judson on the Singh case and the many problems with British libel law [NYT; earlier here, here, etc.]
- Kids behave stupidly with girlfriends/boyfriends or dates, then the law ruins their lives [Alkon, Balko, Sullivan]
- “Report a bad doctor to the authorities, go to jail?” [Orac/Respectful Insolence, Texas; disclosure of patient and official information alleged against nurses]
Tagged as:
ADA filing mills,
assumption of risk,
baseball,
crime and punishment,
nanny state,
New York,
obesity,
privacy,
sports,
United Kingdom
