Overlawyered » hotels

Hotel chain will pay $132,500 for dismissing autistic desk clerk

Walter Olson — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:07:04 +0000

The EEOC says Comfort Suites dismissed the clerk when it should instead have accepted the services of a state-paid “job coach” who might have “helped the clerk learn to master his job by using autism-specific training techniques.” [EEOC press release, Fox San Diego]

Tags: autism, disabled rights, EEOC, hotels

Class action: I thought USA Today at my hotel was free

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:06:43 +0000

“A guest at a Hilton hotel in Santa Rosa who was upset that he was billed 75 cents for a newspaper he assumed was free has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the hotel chain, saying he was deceived by a scheme that also hurts the environment.” [San Francisco Chronicle] More: Jeff Bercovici, Forbes.

Tags: class actions, hotels, newspapers

June 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:20:49 +0000

Supreme Court disbars Bill Lerach [Richard Samp, WLF] And check out the byline of the former class-action king’s recent contribution to The Nation; do you think it omits anything material? [h/t Bob Lenzner]
Ted Frank guessed right on outcome of Wal-Mart case but still lost big betting on it [PoL]
After feds seize online bettors’ money, Anne Arundel County, Maryland police department crows over windfall [CEI] And c’mon Maryland, surely we in the home state of H.L. Mencken and Frederick Douglass can do better in the liberty rankings than this;
“Wrongful-Death Lawsuit Filed After Man Killed by Rooster” [Lowering the Bar]
Hotel union behind California bill mandating fitted sheets [Daily Caller, earlier]
Fifth Circuit upholds constitutionality of Texas law banning barratry (stirring up litigation) [Christian Southwick, Legal Ethics Forum]
A Linda Greenhouse column I agree with? One of us must be slipping [vagueness in criminal statutes, see related Harvey Silverglate]

Tags: animals, Bill Lerach, chasing clients, crime and punishment, gambling, hotels, Maryland, New York Times, Ted Frank, Texas

California bill would mandate fitted, rather than flat, sheets on hotel beds

Walter Olson — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:57:49 +0000

Because, really, there’s no detail too small for the government to regulate (via Virginia Postrel). More: Coyote.

Tags: California, hotels, workplace

“Mount Washington Hotel to businesses: Stop using mountain’s name”

Walter Olson — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 05:20:08 +0000

“A state lawmaker tells WMWV-FM that the Mount Washington Hotel and Resort has told other businesses with ‘Mount Washington’ in their name to stop using it or face a legal challenge.” The hotel says it has challenged only three lodging businesses and does not intend to go after other local businesses named after the mountain. [AP, WMUR, Boston Globe]

P.S. Commenter Mannie: “It gets better. The IOC routinely harasses businesses on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula for using the name ‘Olympic.’”

Tags: hotels, New Hampshire, trademarks

Update: New York bill banning short-term rentals

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:04:27 +0000

Advocates have been hawking the ban in the state legislature as a tenant protection measure. To their dismay, however, Gov. Paterson has signaled that he intends to veto the bill. [NYT, earlier] The Times travel section had a story over the weekend praising the new kind of “Social B&B” arrangement as a welcome travel bargain, but the newspaper does not seem to have realized that there is any connection between its two articles.

Tags: hotels, New York, New York Times

New York may ban informal short-term rentals

Walter Olson — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:04:27 +0000

Is it too cynical to detect a whiff of hotel-protection in this crackdown? [Sean O'Neill, Newsweek Budget Travel]

Tags: hotels, New York

“David Carradine’s Widow Files Wrongful Death Suit”

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:16:58 +0000

“A year after ‘Kung Fu’ actor David Carradine died from a dangerous sex practice, his wife has filed suit, claiming he would still be alive if he hadn’t been left alone in a hotel that night.” California attorney and Overlawyered favorite Mark Geragos is representing Anne Carradine. [ABC News]

Tags: celebrities, hotels

Deep pockets files: 1956 edition

Ted Frank — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:22:39 +0000

Decedent, Lloyd A. Wiseman, a vice president of a San Francisco bank, died of asphyxiation and burns in a hotel room in New York City. He was in that city on bank business, and his traveling expenses, including his hotel bills, were paid by the bank. A woman, not his wife but registered as such, was found unconscious in his room and died shortly thereafter. There was evidence that they had been drinking. Sometime between 4 and 5 in the morning of his death, Wiseman telephoned the hotel manager for help because of a fire in his room. After calling the fire department, the manager went to the room but was unable to open the door with his passkey. Firemen arrived shortly thereafter and broke into the room but were too late to save the occupants. It was the opinion of the assistant fire marshal that the fire was caused by careless smoking by either one or both of the occupants.

The California Supreme Court went on to hold that Wiseman’s widow and children were entitled to death benefits from his employer because his death “was proximately caused by the employment”—a remarkable definition of proximate cause. The Court reasoned that Wiseman might have died while entertaining a legitimate guest in the hotel room (at 4 in the morning?), so the fact that the death occurred in the course of nookie was irrelevant. That seems to me to prove too much: Wiseman might have died smoking in his bed at home, too, and he just happened to be in a hotel when his bad habits killed him. But this was part of Judge Traynor’s successful remaking of tort law in the 1950’s, and the death of proximate cause is a large part why we have the mess we have today. Wiseman v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1956) 46 Cal. 2d 570.

(You can tell that this is still over fifty years ago, though, because the widow didn’t sue the hotel or cigarette company.)

Tags: California, deep pocket, fire, hotels, proximate cause

“Woman’s Death Blamed on Hotel Exec’s ‘Hedonism’”

Walter Olson — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:35:01 +0000

OnPoint News: “Taking employment law into uncharted waters, a $645 million lawsuit alleges the operator of the Hard Rock resort in Las Vegas is liable for the death of its former CEO’s girlfriend because it consented to his ‘hedonistic lifestyle.’” Family members of the 23-year-old woman, who overdosed on drugs in the former CEO’s suite, say the hotel should be responsible because it knowingly cultivated an image of high living, drug use and promiscuity, which made his conduct with respect to her something “within the course and scope of his employment”. The former CEO has already settled a wrongful-death suit brought by the woman’s father.

Tags: hotels, Nevada, personal responsibility

Overlawyered » hotels

Hotel chain will pay $132,500 for dismissing autistic desk clerk

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