The New York City council has overridden Mayor Bloomberg’s veto and passed its Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act, notwithstanding critics’ warnings that the bill will stack the deck in favor of liability lawsuits against Gotham’s rental property owners (see Dec. 15). My Manhattan Institute colleague Julia Vitullo-Martin sounds the alarm (“Killing housing”, New York Post, Feb. 5). Update Jun. 2: housing market thrown into turmoil.
Archive for February, 2004
“No damage award for shot burglar”
Connecticut: “A Superior Court jury has rejected a burglar’s bid for damages for being shot when he broke into a house five years ago. Clarence Wiggins of Waterbury had sued Louis Steponaitis Jr. of Torrington for shooting him in the right arm with a shotgun on Dec. 16, 1998.” (AP/WFSB (Hartford), Feb. 12).
Ninth Circuit judge: sure, sue over ozone damage
“Although the earth’s evaporating ozone layer affects millions of people, the damage is concrete enough that an individual can sue violators of the Clean Air Act, according to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge. … [Judge Ronald] Gould opined that an individual can have standing to sue for global injuries which affect millions of people, such as ozone depletion, despite some precedent that widely shared injuries are so broad that they preclude individual damages.” Though it’s only a concurrence, it’s likely to encourage the global-warming-suit movement described in this space Feb. 6-9 and Jun. 12-15, 2003; Jul. 31 and Aug. 10-12, 2001, and Aug. 19, 1999. (Alexei Oreskovic, “Global Standing for Ozone Suits”, The Recorder, Feb. 9).
Economic Report of the President
This year’s Economic Report of the President, just published, includes a chapter (large PDF, look for chapter 11) on the economic impact of the U.S. tort system, its growth, the mixed evidence on its success in hazard-reduction, and its impact on particular fields such as medicine and light aviation (via Alex Tabarrok).
Climbing on dump trucks isn’t negligent
Or at least so it’s being argued: freelance photographer Robert Levin is suing carting company Waste Management LLP for $50 million over injuries he suffered after he climbed on one of its garbage trucks to take pictures of Ground Zero and fell off. Levin’s attorney, Howard Klar of Manhattan, denied that his own client was negligent in the matter: “he never thought in a million years the truck would move.” (John Marzulli, “Ground Zero gawker sues for garbage-truck injury”, New York Daily News, Feb. 10).
“Patents out of control?”
PanIP, the firm that demands five-digit sums in licensing fees from small companies using e-commerce upon threat of vastly more expensive patent infringement litigation (see Feb. 4-5, 2003), gets coverage in USA Today as part of a larger story on the costs of questionable patents. (Paul Davidson, Jan. 13). A defense fund claims to have successfully moved the Patent Office for reexamination of the Lockwood e-commerce patents last summer; PanIP’s infringement lawsuit has been stayed in the interim.
Others, however, continue with the same strategy. At least three game designers have reported receiving a demand letter from a lawyer representing Sheldon Goldberg, who purports to have patent claims on, among other things, computer solitaire, on-line game rankings, and pop-up advertising. (A Shareware Life blog, Jan. 31; SCWatch.net, Jan. 24; LawGeek blog, Jan. 26; copy of demand letter).
Another posting lull
I’m headed out on the road again, to (among other places) a conference put on by the Center for Constructive Alternatives at Hillsdale College in Michigan. I’m not likely to do any posting until Friday at earliest.
NFL draft age ruling
Gregg Easterbrook (Feb. 6) takes a dim view of U.S. District Judge Shira Schindlin’s ruling that it’s an antitrust violation for the National Football League to place limits on the age at which players can be drafted. See Andrew Bagnato, “NFL teams may alter way they do business”, Arizona Republic, Feb. 6.
Eenie meanie minie moe
The Southwest Airlines case (see Feb. 11, 2003, Jan. 22 of this year) turns out not to be the first time that the childhood counting-out rhyme has been cited as inflicting a hostile environment, with far-reaching repercussions. David Bernstein at Volokh Conspiracy (Feb. 5) prints a letter from a woman who lost her job over it in University City, Mo., near St. Louis. See Jeff Starck, “Can’t wait for end of P.C. age”, Webster Journal (Webster University), Dec. 5, 2002.
Update: Family can’t sue over priest’s funeral remarks
Updating our July 17 story: a New Mexico family’s lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and Rev. Scott Mansfield alleging that he gave a eulogy that suggested the deceased Ben Martinez was hell-bound has been dismissed; the court ruled that it could not mediate the underlying theological claim behind the complaint. (AP, Jan. 27; Christine Haughney, “Coast to Coast”, Washington Post, Jul. 20, 2003).