If you’re here in search of Ted’s post on the West Covina, Calif. chimpanzee attack, it’s here (given its popularity, maybe we should start up a regular chimp-attack beat). If you’re looking for the item about the Boston family that wants $740,000 for its electrocuted dog, it’s here. And if the story that attracted you was the one about the lawyer who accidentally sued himself, it’s here.
Archive for March, 2005
“GDR athletes sue over steroid damage”
“A big group of former East German athletes is to sue a pharmaceuticals giant over the damage they suffered under the country’s doping program of the 1970s and 80s.” The chief executive of the Jenapharm drug manufacturing group, Isabelle Roth, said the steroids in question were lawful and that the enterprise had no choice but to furnish them under the then-Communist regime: “As a part of a group of pharmaceutical companies, Jenapharm was obliged to collaborate in the State Plan 1425”. (BBC, Mar. 13). More: Tom Palmer comments. (& update Dec. 4).
Free speech prevails in “trash terrorists” case
In a case closely watched by free-speech advocates, a Missouri appeals court has dismissed as meritless a defamation suit brought by a trash company against a man who had successfully fought its plan to site a transfer station in his suburban St. Louis neighborhood. Leaflets opposing the facility had referred to the company, Fred Weber Inc., as “trash terrorists”, but the court found that “rhetorical hyperbole” of that sort, even if overheated, would not suggest to a reasonable audience that company officials engage in actual bombings or murders. Concern over the case has led to efforts in the Missouri legislature to broaden protections against being sued for taking part in public discussions. (Leisa Zigman, “County Resident Wins ‘SLAPP’ Suit Ruling Against Fred Weber, Inc.”, KSDK.com, Mar. 8; “Slapping down Weber” (editorial), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar. 9; Tim Jones, “Lawsuit trashed as threat to speech”, Chicago Tribune, Mar. 9). More: opinion is here.
Update: Judge OKs cosmetics class action settlement
“A federal judge yesterday approved a massive giveaway of free makeup and perfume at cosmetics counters across the country as part of the settlement of an antitrust lawsuit against cosmetics makers and department stores…. She also awarded $24 million in attorney’s fees to plaintiffs’ lawyers involved in the case.” (Josh Gerstein, “Judge Approves Cosmetics Settlement”, New York Sun, Mar. 9). For earlier coverage of the controversial settlement, see Jul. 21, 2003, Apr. 14, May 19, and Dec. 3, 2004, and Jan. 14, 2005.
Belated Geoffrey Fieger Report: Wills v. Dillard’s
Jameel Talley had been fired from the local police department, but the mayor of North Randall (pop. 893 and dropping) “sent what he called a ‘second chance’ letter to Maple Heights, saying Talley should not have been fired. The mayor said he ‘erred in judgment’ and ‘recommends 100 percent (that) Talley continue his career in law enforcement.'” So Maple Heights hired him for their police department, where Talley had a spotless record, and the local Dillard’s hired him for off-duty work as a security guard.
Unfortunately, Talley had been fired from North Randall for shooting at a shoplifting suspect.
And, unfortunately again, 41-year-old Guy Wills, under the influence of drugs, decided to shoplift a leather jacket at Dillard’s, and then resist arrest from the much larger Talley. So Talley smashed him upside down into the concrete floor. Unfortunately again, Wills checked himself out of the hospital, got sick at the police station, refused treatment or a trip to the emergency room–and then fell into a coma, and when he woke up, he was dead. Shortly after the incident, Dillard’s shut down the store. Talley was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for excessive force, and sentenced to three years. And Dillard’s, as the deep pocket, was sued. (NewsNet5: Jan. 18 (featuring the great line “Dillard’s attorney, who’s [sic] name is unknown at this time”), June 23, 2003; Nov. 14, 2002; “Dillard’s to close Raleigh Springs store”, Memphis Business Journal, Jan. 27, 2003).
The attorney was none other than Geoffrey Fieger (Oct. 11 and Aug. 31 and lots of links therein), but the trial wasn’t going so well, so he adopted what seems to be a standard tactic: deliberately try to alienate the judge, and then loudly complain about prejudice.
[Judge Nancy Margaret] Russo leveled a litany of legal wrongs against Fieger, including: insulting and berating lawyers and calling them liars; making faces after she ruled against him; repeatedly interrupting testimony; entering objections loudly; and threatening an insurance adjuster with the loss of his job.
“He has been nothing but bullying, loud, obnoxious and unprofessional,” Russo said. “I have tried for three weeks to rein him in. I have done my best.”
The final straw came Thursday after attorney Larry Zukerman accused Fieger of accosting him and threatening to have his client — former Dillard’s store manager Frank Monaco — arrested for obstruction of justice.
Russo threatened Fieger with contempt, and Fieger responded by pulling himself off the case and asking for a mistrial. For some reason, Russo rewarded the antics with exactly what Fieger wanted, and now Fieger gets to start all over with another judge, and a second bite at correcting whatever problems he saw with the first trial. (James F. McCarty, “Lawyer quits case on judge’s threat”, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Jan. 29; James F. McCarty, “Mistrial in wrongful-death case of shoplifter”, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Feb. 1). And shame on our Cleveland readers for not letting us know about this one sooner.
Michael Zwebner gets a prior restraint injunction
Michael Zwebner regularly sues critics and people remotely related to critics of his penny-stock corporation, UCSY, which has a track record easy to criticize (Feb. 17). He claims in a press release to have persuaded a Florida state court to enter a constitutionally suspect order:
Defendants, Dembovich and Villasenor … are forever barred from making, stating, mentioning, posting on the Internet anything which included the words “UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.” and “Airwater Corp.” “UCSY” or “Michael Zwebner” or any derivations thereof.
The defendants are further ordered to remove and cause to be removed from all web sites and any all references caused to be posted by them under the above and any other alias all postings which reference either Plaintiff and/or Plaintiffs’s President Michael Zwebner.
The purported order (which, in the press release, misspells “tortious”) also purports to bar third parties from “publishing” these posts (and arguably extends to linking to the posts) so it will probably be struck down as soon as Zwebner goes after a deep-pockets defendant (like, say, Google) that defends itself. (Universal Communications Sys. Inc. v. Dembovich, No. 2004-27383-CA-01 (Miami-Dade Cty., Fla.)). Where’s the SEC in all of this?
Amazingly, I see that the federal District of Oregon has agreed to enter a stipulated injunction barring another Internet poster from ever mentioning Zwebner in any context, true or otherwise. Related story: Polly Sprenger, “Dirty Laundry Airs on Stock Site”, Wired.com, Dec. 11, 1998.
In N.M. for now, no “Right To Eat Enchiladas”
By enacting “cheeseburger bills” (see Mar. 13, Mar. 17 and Dec. 3, 2004) state legislators can attempt to make clear (in case courts had any doubt about the matter) that there is no cause of action against food purveyors for causing obesity in those who partake of their wares. Such bills have been making progress around the country, with 12 state legislatures enacting them in 2004 and others likely to follow this year. New Mexico, however, will not be among those states: both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee have voted to shelve the idea on narrow party-line votes, with Democrats opposed to the legislation and Republicans in favor. “I don’t dispute the idea of personal responsibility, but I dispute the notion that any tort action is on its face frivolous,” said Rep. Gail Beam (D-Albuquerque), who chairs the House consumer committee. The bill had earlier passed the Senate Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. Its sponsors, Sen. Steve Komadina (R-Corrales) and Rep. Terry Marquardt (R-Alamogordo), had given it a locally adaptive title: the “Right To Eat Enchiladas Act”. (“Legislative roundup”, The New Mexican (Santa Fe), Feb. 23; Erin Madigan, “‘Cheeseburger’ bills fill state lawmakers’ plates”, Stateline.org, Feb. 15).
Hey, that’s our line
“‘We are overlawyered and underrepresented,’ said Deborah Rhode, a Stanford law professor.” (Bob Egelko, “State Bar registers 200,000th member”, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 21).
Reservists’ child support
More harsh consequences of our laws aimed at “deadbeat dads” (see Feb. 19 and links from there): Radley Balko, Matt Welch, John Hawkins. Some attempts at relief: California, Illinois.
Attorney accidentally sues himself
By reader acclaim, from the Illinois county that furnishes so much material for this site: “Alton attorney Emert Wyss thought he could make money in a Madison County class action lawsuit, but he accidentally sued himself instead.” Representing a client who’d bought and then refinanced a house, Wyss advised her that she might be entitled to file a lawsuit against the company that wrote the original mortgage over the $60 fee it charged for faxing two payoff statements, and soon signed her up for a class-action suit to be handled by himself and several other law firms, including the prominent Lakin firm. However, it developed that a company called Centerre Title, owned by Wyss himself, had been the party that collected the allegedly improper fees at closing, and when the mortgage-company defendant learned of this it moved to add both Centerre and Wyss as third-party defendants, much as Jerry, in the old cartoons, sometimes succeeds in bringing Tom’s tail around in circular fashion and presenting it for him to bite. The judge granted the motion, and rather than persist in a suit against himself Wyss resigned the client’s representation. The Madison County Record’s coverage includes deposition-transcript excerpts that serve as a reminder of how essentially passive clients often get steered into class actions in which the lawyers are the real parties in interest (Steve Corris, “Alton attorney accidentally sues himself”, Madison County Record, Mar. 8).