“Ralph Nader says an architectural firm is now ‘putting final touches on the plans'” for his long-envisioned Museum of American Tort Law in his hometown of Winsted, Ct. “So far, says Nader, he’s raised half of the $4 million needed to open the museum — adding that he expects the rest to come from the trial-lawyer industry.” A New York Post editorial (Jun. 4) says all that needs to be said about the matter. See also John Leo’s 1998 column on the museum proposal, and our posts for Sept. 27, 1999 and May 16, 2000. P.S. Readers Troy Hinrichs and Walter E. Wallis write in to foretell the headaches the museum’s designers and groundskeepers will face as they try to prepare for opening day; the impending arrival of the world’s most litigious clientele will test to the limit their ability to anticipate slip-fall hazards, handicap compliance problems, potential injuries to burglars trying to sneak into the building after hours, and so forth.
Archive for June, 2005
Valedictorian suits
Graduation time is here. “My advice to other principals is, Whatever you do, do not name a valedictorian. Any principal who does is facing peril,” is the quote from one Florida high school principal in a New Yorker article on the subject. Subhead: “Students are suing their way to the top.” Valedictorian controversies have escalated into numerous lawsuits (which we’ve covered the last two seasons: 2004 and 2003 (also here)). (Margaret Talbot, “Best in Class”, Jun. 6).
$2M for marshmallow incident
A Glenview Elementary School teacher briefly left his sixth-grade class unattended, and the kids decided to play a game called “Chubby Bunny” to see how many marshmallows they could hold in their mouth at one time. Unfortunately, 12-year-old Catherine “Casey” Fish was a tad overambitious, and choked to death on the three or four marshmallows she had in her mouth, and her parents sued the teacher and the school district for not having a teacher physically present to deal with the consequences of their daughter’s actions. The school district decided to settle the case with insurance funds. As is inevitable, the family’s lawyer denied that money was at the center of the case, and the newspaper allows the fiction: “John and Therese Fish’s wrongful-death lawsuit involving their late daughter, Catherine, was never about money but was meant to publicize hazards of such ‘idiotic’ games, the couple’s attorney, Francis Patrick Murphy, said.” It’s not likely we’ll see follow-up on how much of the money the Fishes spend on anti-marshmallow-choking public service advertising. (Rummana Hussain, “Family of girl who choked to death gets $2 mil.”, Chicago Sun-Times, Jun. 3; Lisa Black, “Settlement reached in choking lawsuit”, Chicago Tribune, Jun. 2; Romenesko blog, Jun. 5).
Update: Brooklyn law-office-on-wheels
“It doesn’t chase ambulances. Honest.” Also quotes me (Margot Sanger-Katz, “Scenes: The Mobile Law Office”, Legal Affairs, Mar-Apr.)(see May 18, 2004).
“When Lawyers Steal the Escrow”
The New York Times reports on what can be a real estate nightmare. Jay W. Rosen stole $3.6 million from his clients, and will be sentenced to prison after pleading guilty. (Patrick Healy, Jun. 5).
Update: Bonds ball
“The fan who originally gloved and then fought to keep Barry Bonds’ 73rd home run baseball may still owe his former attorney more than what the ball fetched at auction, a California appeal court ruled May 24.” Attorney Martin Triano says Alex Popov owes him $473,530; lawyers for Patrick Hayashi, the other disputant in the squabble, agreed to roll back their fees so that he would not come out behind on the episode. (Warren Lutz, “Bonds’ Ball Litigant Strikes Out in Fee Fight”, The Recorder, May 31). See Jul. 1 and Jul. 12, 2003 and Jan. 3, 2004. And independent filmmaker Michael Wranovics has made a documentary about the whole episode entitled “Up For Grabs” which won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival and has been getting good critical reviews (Clint O’Connor, “A record-breaking hit brings out the base instincts in sports fans”, Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 27; Glenn Whipp, “Big hit, comedy of errors”, Long Beach Press-Telegram, May 12; “Film Listings: Ongoing”, San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 4-May 10; Neil Davis, “You gotta catch ‘Up For Grabs'”, Stanford Daily, May 9).
Update: Ed Fagan
The embattled New Jersey attorney, best known for international reparations claims, is now responding to charges that he mishandled money he secured for Holocaust victims. (Kate Coscarelli, “Embattled Holocaust attorney blames state”, Newark Star-Ledger, Jun. 2). More: Mar. 18, Feb. 16, Feb. 5 and many others.
Not such a great place for free speech either
“Welcome to New Jersey. A horrible place to do business,” reads the billboard message [erected by William Juliano, a discontented Mount Laurel, N.J. businessman]…
So far, the state has done nothing about the billboard, and it’s unclear whether it could. “At some point, we’ll have to consider action against him,” [Environmental Protection chief Bradley] Campbell said, implying a potential legal fight.
(Geoff Mulvihill, “A sign of the times: New Jersey ‘horrible'”, AP/Akron Beacon Journal, Jun. 2). More: Ron Coleman also noticed this one (Jun. 2).
State AGs versus smokers’ pocketbooks
AP takes a look at the relentless, money-driven efforts of state law enforcement officials and tobacco majors in league together to suppress competition from upstart cigarette-sellers, a story covered often on these columns (see Feb. 15, 2005; Feb. 28 and May 11, 2004, etc.) “‘It’s 46 state attorneys general, the 200 or so wealthiest trial lawyers in the world and the six largest tobacco companies against a bunch of very small businesses who are losing money,’ said Jeremy Bulow, an economics professor at Stanford University.” (Stephanie Stoughton, “Landmark tobacco settlement faces increasing challenges”, AP/Maryville (Tenn.) Daily Times, May 31).
Latest undignified lawsuits
More wince-making fact patterns in (for all we know perfectly meritorious) litigation: the exploding porta-potty that badly injured a hapless worker at a West Virginia coal mine, allegedly ignited by leaking methane gas (Natalie Neysa Alund, “Porta-John blast victim sues for $10 million”, Morgantown Dominion Post, Jun. 2); the instance of alleged police brutality inflicted on a Western Pennsylvania woman nabbed on suspicion of prostitution and thrown into a cop car with such force that one of her breast implants burst (according to her lawyer, Harry J. Smail Jr., who has figured in these columns before)(Matthew Junker, “Arnold police slapped with federal civil rights lawsuit”, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, May 26). More in the genre: see, for example, Jan. 7-8, 2002.