Last year it was reported (Sept. 27-29, 2002) that Kansas City Royals coach Tom Gamboa, who had been set upon and beaten by a father-son pair of spectators at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, had rebuffed lawyers who had contacted him suggesting he sue the White Sox, and said he didn’t plan legal action: “The fault is with the two people who did it,” he said. “I’m not one who looks to place blame. It’s nobody’s fault but the two idiots who did it.” Now — whoops! — AP is reporting that Gamboa has filed a suit not only against the father who attacked him but also two other defendants: Illinois SportService, a concessionaire that allegedly served the irate fan too much alcohol, and SDI Security Inc., which provides security at the ballpark. Gamboa’s suit seeks in excess of $200,000 in damages. (“Coach sues attacker, others for on-field attack “, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 19)
Archive for 2003
High-speed chase lawsuit
On May 10, in Branford, Connecticut, Sergeant John Finkle attempts to pull over a BMW that is driving erratically; the driver, Thomas Bishop, later charged with DUI, pulls into a motel parking lot, and then speeds back out. Police say they ended the chase because of bad weather, but at some point before or after that Bishop smashed his car into a van at an intersection (allegedly at 75 mph), killing one and maiming another. Naturally, the lawsuit filed by the family of the victim is against the town, the chief of police, and Sgt. Finkle. (Marissa Yaremich, “Family will sue in fatal car chase”, New Haven Register, Sep. 20; Dave Phillips, “Police facing lawsuit from injured crash victim”, Branford Review, Sep. 20). Even if one accepts the questionable premise that it is the pursuer, rather than the pursued, who should be primarily responsible for such a crash, the fact that criminals will be more likely to engage in high-speed chases that endanger people if police have a policy of stopping pursuit seems not to enter into the equation of the lawsuit or the press coverage of the lawsuit.
“KC doctor faces fraud suit in fen-phen cases”
A class action trust fund in the fen-phen cases is suing a cardiologist, accusing her of being paid $3.2 million by lawyers to issue bogus test results to permit clients to collect millions more from drug makers. (Kansas City Business Journal, Sep. 18). “When considering the thousands of echocardiograms that Dr. Crouse interpreted during the period that she worked for the Hariton and Napoli firms, her practice resembled a mass production operation that would have been the envy of Henry Ford,” a district court previously wrote in halting payments from the fund. The settlement trust is seeking treble damages. (Shannon Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer, “RICO Suit Filed in Fen-Phen Dispute,” Sep. 22; see Sept. 27-29, 2002; May 30-Jun. 1, 2003; Aug. 19, 2003). Update Nov. 30: similar suit filed against second cardiologist.
Update: immigration law fraud
In Miami, immigration lawyer Javier Lopera was sentenced to eight years in prison and faces deportation afterward for his role in operating a visa mill which may have provided as many as 3,500 persons with false papers qualifying them to enter the country as religious ministers or business executives. In another major fraud case, “Virginia lawyer Samuel Kooritzky was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison for crimes involving 2,700 applications submitted in 18 months.” (Catherine Wilson, “Probe of immigration lawyer balloons into massive visa fraud case”, AP/Atlanta Journal Constitution, Aug. 29). Last year Harvard Law-educated Robert Porges, who once ran the country’s largest political asylum practice, and his wife pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering, conspiracy and tax fraud and were sentenced to about eight years in prison for their role in filing 6,000 or more false asylum applications as well as false affidavits (see Sept. 22, 2000; Matt Hayes, “Corrupt Lawyers Aid Immigration Woes”, Fox News, Apr. 29, 2002; “Lawyer, wife admit Chinese smuggling scheme”, AP/Court TV, 2002; Elizabeth Amon, “The Snakehead Lawyers”, National Law Journal, Jul. 17, 2002).
Update: something burning in Mississippi
The series of unfortunate occurrences continues in the Magnolia State: “An early morning fire at former Judge John Whitfield’s law office may have destroyed some documents he was preparing to use in his defense of federal fraud and bribery charges, his lawyer said. Authorities said the fire remains under investigation, but a private fire investigator hired by Whitfield concluded it was arson.” (Beth Musgrave, “Whitfield’s office burns”, Biloxi Sun-Herald, Sept. 16; Jerry Mitchell, “Lawyer says house fire an act of intimidation”, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Sept. 16; WLOX, Sept. 15)(via Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy). For background on the Mississippi judicial investigation, see Jul. 27, Aug. 19 and links from there.
Last month, the same newspaper reported that “Mississippi Supreme Court officials were seen shredding documents as federal prosecutors flooded the high court with subpoenas for judges’ tax forms, records of the cases over which they presided and how cases are assigned”; but a spokeswoman for the court denied that any documents were shredded that were responsive to the subpoenas, and Chief Justice Edwin Pittman called the allegations a “deliberate and false attack being waged against the Supreme Court of Mississippi by people with intimate knowledge of the workings of the court.” Pittman also said “there has been no unusual document shredding at the court and that the court’s computer system is able to retrieve any written communication.” (Beth Musgrave, “Witnesses: documents shredded”, Aug. 21; “Chief Justice: ‘Deliberate attack waged against court'”, Aug. 22; Pittman statement; “Allegations need to be investigated” (editorial), Hattiesburg American, Aug. 23). See also Jerry Mitchell, “FBI questions law clerks on rulings in high court probe”, Jackson Clarion Ledger, Aug. 29.
But there was no rule against it
“Let’s say a 13-year-old girl admits she performed oral sex on a 13-year-old boy, while returning from a field trip on the school bus. In front of classmates who she was trying to impress. What do you do, Mom? Naturally, you go to court to claim suspension is unjust for the lovebirds because the school is ‘not clear in its written policies that oral sex on a bus was unacceptable behavior.’ Where does it say: ‘No oral sex on the bus,” huh?” (Joanne Jacobs, Sept. 16) A Pennsylvania judge dismissed the mother’s lawsuit (Bob Bauder, “Pupil’s expulsion appeal denied”, Beaver County (Pa.) Times, Sept. 3). Kimberly Swygert comments: “Um, mom? Fighting your child’s expulsion on these grounds is not what you should be concentrating on right now.” (Sept. 16)
Class action roundup: tires, Western Union, jam
At the new multi-author blog Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabarrok writes that he’s angry: “The lawyers will get $19 million, the plaintiffs have no damages and I have been involved in an abuse of justice. I received notice yesterday that I was a plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Bridgestone/Firestone that is about to be settled. I was never injured by Firestone but that’s ok because injured people have their own lawsuit the one I am involved in is for people who were not injured. The lawsuit reads ‘Plaintiff Does Not Seek To Represent And This Litigation Does Not Involve Any Person Who Alleges That He or She Suffered Any Personal Injury or Property Damage Because Of A Failure Of One Of The Tires’ (capitalization in original.) Bear in mind that Firestone has already replaced all four of my tires with a competitor’s brand for free and similarly for many of the other plaintiffs.” (Sept. 16) Co-blogger Tyler Cowen at the same site isn’t any happier to discover that he is a member of the class in a suit against Western Union over its wire-funds-abroad service charging that, according to the legalese, “…the Defendants [made] misrepresentations about or otherwise failing to disclose to customers the fact that they received a more favorable exchange rate for converting U.S. dollars to foreign currency and foreign currency to U.S. dollars than they provided to their customers.” “Imagine that” — writes Cowen — “a middleman buying and selling at different prices!” (Sept. 17). (More: see KrazyKiwi, Oct. 8).
Meanwhile, a Wisconsin man has filed an intended class action lawsuit against jam maker J.M. Smucker after the Washington-based anti-business group Center for Science in the Public Interest published a report claiming that Smucker’s “Simply 100 Percent Fruit” products were falsely labeled because only a minority of the actual contents of a jar of strawberry or blueberry “Spreadable Fruit” consisted of those berries, the remainder consisting (as Smucker’s labeling makes clear) of syrups, concentrates and extracts derived from other fruits such as apple, grape, lemon and pineapple. (“Smucker’s Spreads Not All Fruit, Lawsuit Says”, AP/FoxNews, Sept. 5 — if you’re looking for a deceptive claim, how about the one conveyed by that headline?). The food-industry-defense Center for Consumer Freedom levels an interesting accusation against CSPI, namely that bounty-hunting lawyers suing under California’s Proposition 65 law seemed to have mysterious psychic powers to divine in advance exactly what was going to be in a CSPI report on supposed killer french fries — either that, or CSPI shared the information with them before it went public with its allegations. See “We, the jury, find the defendant ‘starchy'”, CCF, Jul. 17 (third from last paragraph); “CSPI: 100 Percent Litigious”, CCF, Sept. 8; “Latest Acrylamide Panic Based on Fudged Numbers” (press release), CCF, Jul. 10. For more on the French fry suit, see Dec. 27-29, 2002.
“N.C. Senate approves medical malpractice bill”
Interesting medical malpractice reform bill passed in the North Carolina Senate just before Hurricane Isabel (which is about to take out my power now) hit –supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans. “Pretrial reviews in malpractice cases would come from a three-member panel appointed by a judge but with input from lawyers in the case. Panel recommendations would be entered into evidence, and a plaintiff or defendant who took a case to court despite a negative recommendation and still lost would have to pay attorney fees to the opposing side.” Insurers and Republicans seem to be unhappy with the creation of a state insurance fund, increased reporting requirements for insurers, and the lack of a damages cap. (Scott Mooneyham, AP, Sep. 16; “AIA: NC. Senate Med-Mal Bill Lacking”, Insurance Journal, Sep. 18). “A special House committee will consider the medical liability issues, but the full House will not act on any measure before May.” (Matthew Eisley, “Malpractice changes offered”, The News & Observer, Sep. 17). Game theory scholars will be interested to note that the bill requires juries who find negligence to choose between a plaintiff’s proposed damages figure and a defendant’s proposed damages figure–what is sometimes called “baseball arbitration.” This effectively constrains rational trial attorneys to perform a balancing act and make reasonable requests–the higher the demand (or the lower the counter), the more reluctant a jury to go along. This alone should encourage settlements by narrowing the difference between parties. In conjunction with what will likely be a persuasive pre-trial panel expert report, it is hard to imagine circumstances when attorneys would ever let a case get to a jury verdict.
New batch of reader letters (and new letters format)
We’ve now launched a new letters page for Overlawyered.com based on a weblog format. We hope this will enable us to be more diligent in posting readers’ letters. We’ve started off with four letters, on the following topics: David Giacalone disagrees with Gene Healy on the fairness of using “imputed income” in computing child support obligations; Gulf War Syndrome and who, if anyone, should pay for it; how to succeed as a student with a little help from a disability designation; and why the liability crisis is now reaching NYC midwives.
Oh, that medical privacy
Police have arrested 42-year-old Juvenal Caballero Guerrero, formerly a patient-care assistant at Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, on charges of “selling about 12 pages of patient information for $500 to a representative of Industrial Safety Consultants, a company that advertises ‘investigations regarding accidents and injuries’ from its Houston offices. According to court documents, investigators were told the company has sold stolen patient records to personal-injury lawyers. … Prosecutors said the arrests won’t stop with Guerrero…’There are lots of other people involved,'” Harris County prosecutor Lester Blizzard told the Houston Chronicle, including employees of other health institutions. Lawyers might also face charges if they can be proved to have directly solicited business from accident victims. (“Former Houston hospital worker arrested”, AP/Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Aug. 28; “Hospital Employee Charged With Theft, Sale of Patient Information”, BNA Health Law Reporter, undated Sept.; Annie Blanco, “Hospital worker arrested for medical record theft”, News 24 Houston, Aug. 28)(via SickOfLawsuits.org)