Attorney/author Leah Lorber, a product liability and tort reform expert who practices with the law firm of Shook, Hardy and Bacon in Washington, joined us last summer as one of our guest bloggers (see various entries between Jul. 29 and Aug. 6). We’re happy to announce that she’ll be back for another week-long stint, starting tomorrow. I’ll be continuing to post too, but probably at a reduced pace.
Archive for December, 2003
Slip on grape = $41,000
The Iowa Court of Appeals last week upheld a jury’s award of $41,267 to shopper Judy Krenk, who said she slipped on a grape at the checkout aisle at the No Frills Supermarket. The store owners “claimed the managers hadn’t been notified about a hazardous condition and therefore were not negligent. … The ruling noted that it wasn’t clear how the grape got on the floor.” The jury awarded Krenk $82,535, but ruled that the accident was 50 percent her fault, so it was cut in half. (Frank Santiago, “Court upholds award to shopper who slipped on grape”, Des Moines Register, Dec. 25).
Vaccines, cont’d
Britain’s legal-aid commission invested ?15 million in assisting claimants who wanted to sue makers over the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, but finally decided to call a halt: “After taking expert advice, the LSC acknowledged that, given the failure of research to establish a link between MMR and autism, the litigation was ‘very likely to fail'”. Michael Fitzpatrick, writing for the UK’s Spiked Online, explores what he calls the “enormous waste of public funds” on the litigation. (“Medicine on trial”, Dec. 15). Efforts to pin the blame on the preservative thimerosal have come up short, according to an editorial in today’s WSJ: “Researchers recently examined the health records of all children born in Denmark from 1971 to 2000 for autism diagnoses. Though Denmark eliminated thimerosal from its vaccines in 1992, the researchers found that the incidence of autism continued to increase. A second research team reviewed the records of nearly 500,000 Danes vaccinated for pertussis. They also found that the risk of autism and related disorders didn’t differ between those vaccinated with thimerosal and those without.” (“The Politics of Autism” (editorial), Wall Street Journal, Dec. 29). More on vaccines and liability: Jim Copland (Manhattan Institute), “Liable to Infection”, Dallas Morning News, Dec. 14; Robert Goldberg (also Manhattan Institute), “Vaccinating against disaster”, Washington Times, Dec. 17; and see Dec. 24 and earlier posts. Update Feb. 25: Lancet regrets publication of anti-MMR study; Mar. 4, 2005: another study finds no link.
Haiti to France: pay us $21,685,135,571.48
Reparations madness, cont’d: almost 200 years after a slave revolt won Haiti’s independence, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide “has launched a controversial campaign to get France to repay its former colony billions of dollars in restitution. And he has already sent Paris a bill, down to the very last cent: $21,685,135,571.48.” A legal adviser to the Aristide administration is considering taking the case to international court (Jacqueline Charles, “Aristide pushes for restitution from France”, Miami Herald, Dec. 18; Henry Samuel, “You owe us $21,685,135,571.48”, Daily Telegraph (UK), Oct. 8; “The sad bicentennial of a once fabulous sugar colony”, The Economist, Dec. 18). No word yet on whether any reparations will be offered in the opposite direction for the 1804 massacres during which newly emergent strongman Jean-Jacques Dessalines ordered the slaughter of almost the entire French population resident in Haiti, an estimated 20,000 persons. (Update: another side of the story from Tunku Varadarajan, who argues that the government of France really was “first a brutal colonizer, and then a usurious bully”.)
In other news, the highly popular videogame “Vice City”, part of the Grand Theft Auto series, has drawn fire from New York and Florida officials “and from the government of Haiti, which has threatened to sue the game’s manufacturer, New York-based Rockstar Games, its parent company, Take 2 Interactive Software Inc., and the game’s distributors. A Miami lawyer representing the Haitian government said the game violates the hate crime laws of Florida and other states. ‘It’s the kind of thing that has no business being sold because it’s not just a game,’ attorney Ira Kurzban told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. ‘It’s a teaching device for young kids and high school students. What is it teaching them? Violence, hatred and racism.'” (“Haitian, Cuban Leaders Denounce ‘Grand Theft Auto'”, WTVJ South Florida, Dec. 16). More on videogame lawsuits: Sept. 26 and links from there.
Update: Oz court nixes DVT suit
Bad news for lawyers suing airlines over “economy-class syndrome” (see Dec. 13-14, 2000): an Australian court of appeal has disallowed a test case against Qantas and British Airways over the deep vein thrombosis suffered by a passenger after a long flight. Brian William Povey, a Sydney businessman, “had alleged that flight conditions — including a confined and restricted physical environment, impediments to getting out of his seat, a lack of warning about the risk of DVT, and the supply of alcohol — had caused his injury.” (Peter Gregory, “DVT damages claims in doubt”, Melbourne Age, Dec. 24). The judgment was consistent with a court decision in Britain; a U.S. federal judge in San Francisco, on the other hand, has allowed such claims to proceed (see Aug. 16). Update Sept. 12: high court agrees to review case.
Med-mal roundup
Lack of malpractice insurance is threatening to close the only obstetrics practice in Virginia’s rural and economically depressed Northern Neck region. The closure of Rappahannock General Hospital’s OB unit, which delivers about 250 babies a year, would be “absolutely devastating” to community health, says Albert C. Pollard Jr., who represents the region in the Virginia House of Delegates: “we’d lose a lot of babies if somebody has to drive to Richmond or Newport News.” (Frank Delano, “Crisis presses OB docs”, Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star, Dec. 21). “While the governor and Legislature dither over fixing the state’s medical malpractice system, the [Philadelphia] region’s doctors have been voting with their feet,” reports the Philadelphia Daily News. “And they are choosing states that cap damages in malpractice lawsuits — or have other strong reforms to keep malpractice insurance premiums low.” (Michael Hinkelman, “Pa. docs are moving to ‘cap’ states”, Philadelphia Daily News, Dec. 8). Hard numbers on malpractice payouts are often in short supply, but the Missouri state department of insurance has some: it says insurance companies operating in the state “reported paying $135 million to cover 524 claims closed last year”. Self-insured entities, mostly hospitals, “reported paying $6.6 million to close 42 claims, but the actual number of claims and the amount paid may be understated in the data, department spokesman Randy McConnell said. … The average malpractice claim takes more than four years to reach resolution, so the 2002 claims data capture injuries sustained over a period of years. Only 15 of the 566 claims went to a court verdict.” Most of the paid cases involved claims that medical misadventure led to permanent injury or death. (Judith Vandewater, “566 medical malpractice claims were settled in Missouri in 2002”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 4). The American Medical Association rates Missouri a “crisis” state. (M. Steele Brown, “Malpractice ‘crisis’ drives docs from Missouri”, Kansas City Business Journal, May 5).
Update: PetsWarehouse suits
Robert Novak of Long Island has suffered yet another setback in his series of lawsuits against aquarium hobbyists and others arising from criticism of Novak’s business in online forums (see Oct. 5 and links from there). Last month federal judge Denis Hurley granted a motion to dismiss most of the defendants in one of Novak’s actions for lack of personal jurisdiction (case summary at defendant’s site). Update Oct. 16, 2004: Novak prevails in an Alabama action and regains domain.
Disabled-friendly playground damages claim
“Twin Meadows, designed to be the first playground in [Stamford, CT] where disabled children can play safely, opened in October amid fanfare.” But a few weeks later, two-year-old Konrad Mader collided with a green railing while running towards a treehouse. This is, apparently, the city’s fault for not picking a different color for the railing in the playground. “In her claim, Mader does not specify the amount she is seeking from the city on her son’s behalf, only saying she wants compensation for his medical bills, pain and suffering and a ‘lost wage amount due to his inability to audition or take modeling or commercial jobs while his head heals.'” (Donna Porstner, “Child model, actor seeks compensation after playground mishap”, Stamford Advocate, Dec. 26) (via Bashman).
Update: the corporation counsel for Stamford tells the New York Times “It seems like it’s a fairly obvious guardrail. It’s not like it’s up against bushes.” (Avi Salzman, “Playground Injury Harmed Son’s Career, Mother Says”, Dec. 27) (also via Bashman).
Further update: the mother has publicly backed down in response to public outrage; it remains unclear whether she was bluffing in the first place. (Donna Porstner, “Mother of bruised toddler explains complaint”, Stamford Advocate, Dec. 30). A playground supporter comments on the story. (“Mom at home” weblog, Dec. 26 and Dec. 28).
Democratic candidates and tort reform
A reader asks, in the wake of our discussion of Dr. Dean’s 1988 letter, whether other candidates have spoken out on tort reform.
Patents and stem cell research
Ronald Bailey reports on prominent Luddite Jeremy Rifkin’s attempt to hijack the patent system as a staging ground for litigation against biotech projects he disapproves of — including the efforts of a Nevada professor to save lives by using sheep embryos to generate human liver cells for eventual patient-specific transplants. So far the Patent Office is resisting the efforts. (“Shimmering Chimeras”, ReasonOnline, Dec. 24).