Tom Philpott, whose Bitter Greens Journal is intended “as a running critique of industrial agriculture, a clearinghouse for info on sustainable farming, and a working manifesto for a liberation politics based on food” has run assorted short items on that blog under the heading “Roundup, Ready”. The phrase plays on the name of the herbicide-resistant “Roundup Ready” seed line of the giant Monsanto corporation, of which Philpott is predictably a fervent critic. Now a Monsanto lawyer has sent him a cease and desist letter warning him to drop the offending term or else. (Aug. 26, Aug. 29, Sept. 2). Monsanto is already notorious for suing a dairy in Maine on the free-speech-chilling theory that it was somehow unfair, misleading or deceptive for the dairy to boast in its advertising that its milk did not contain artificial bovine growth hormones, since there’s nothing wrong with the hormones; see Sept. 17, 2003.
Archive for September, 2005
Katrina relief and liability issues
As might be expected, local charities have run into some organizational obstacles.
Former Daytona Beach Mayor Bud Asher, for example, has gathered the names of 50 people who have offered their homes to refugees, but doesn’t know of any refugees who need places to stay. Asher cannot turn to the Red Cross, which won’t give out names because of logistical and liability issues, said Hamlin, the local spokesman.
(Jim Haug, “New Orleans family winds up here, out of resources”, Daytona Beach News-Journal, Sep. 6). NOLA Help and the somewhat unorganized Katrina Help Wiki provides one means of breaking through the red tape.
Elsewhere, Anthony Sebok suggests that Hurricane Katrina should cause us to re-evaluate the 9/11 Victims’ Fund.
Church-aided evacuation plans
Realizing that there were no good plans in place for evacuating the 100,000+ sick or impoverished residents of New Orleans in the event of a hurricane, the Red Cross and a local poverty-action group had been developing a plan to “enlist churches in a vast, decentralized effort to make space for the poor and the infirm in church members’ cars when they evacuate,” according to Bruce Nolan in the July 24 Times-Picayune (reprinted by Brad DeLong). However, Operation Brother’s Keeper had only managed to enlist four churches as participants as of this July. Logistical difficulties posed by the idea were one challenge, but according to Nolan’s reporting another factor was also at work:
although the Archdiocese of New Orleans has endorsed the project in principle, it doesn’t want its 142 parishes to participate until insurance problems have been solved with new legislation that reduces liability risks, Wilkins said.
Teacher’s pet barracuda
Via Lyle Roberts at 10b-5 Daily (Aug. 29), we learn of the latest advance in methods guaranteed to bring us a more ruthless legal profession: “Christopher Waddell, general counsel of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, said that he uses both bounty and sliding-scale fees in order to ‘incentivize’ his outside counsel to go after personal assets. CalSTRS, the nation’s third-largest public pension fund, has promised its lawyers a 2.5 percent bounty, plus an undisclosed fee, in a pending suit against the former directors of WorldCom.” (Sue Reisinger, “Securities Fraud: Attorneys Are Receiving Bounties for Pursuing Officers and Directors”, Corporate Counsel, Aug. 24). For the reasons most other countries’ legal systems consider contingency fees for lawyers to be unethical, see Chapter 2 (“A Piece of the Action”) of The Litigation Explosion (PDF).
Louisiana protecting medical volunteers
Sydney Smith at MedPundit has a list of volunteer opportunities for medical professionals, and those in a position to donate medical supplies, in the hurricane aftermath. The text of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s executive order on out-of-state medical volunteers is here (PDF) and relevant excerpts appear on the Louisiana State Medical Society site. Briefly, Gov. Blanco’s order suspends licensure requirements for professionals licensed elsewhere and brings out-of-state medical personnel (but not, apparently, those who already practicing in Louisiana) under a liability umbrella by designating them as agents of the state for purposes of tort action provided they “possess[] current state medical licenses in good standing in their respective states of licensure and that they practice in good faith and within the reasonable scope of his or her skills, training or ability.” See Aug. 31, Sept. 2. More ways to help: NOLAHelp.com (via Ernie the Attorney).
Blawg Review #22
…hosted this week by Blawg Wisdom, is inevitably dominated this week by discussions of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on lawyers and the legal system (including a link to C.G. Moore’s account on this site) and the Court vacancies.
Liability fears delayed evacuation order
Hundreds, and perhaps thousands, died in New Orleans because Mayor Ray Nagin did not issue a mandatory evacuation order until Sunday morning, well after the Saturday mid-afternoon order issued by neighboring parishes. The blogosphere has been wondering what took Nagin and the city so long; Glenn Reynolds has found the answer:
President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, authorizing federal emergency management officials to release federal aid and coordinate disaster relief efforts.
By mid-afternoon, officials in Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, Lafourche, Terrebonne and Jefferson parishes had called for voluntary or mandatory evacuations.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin followed at 5 p.m., issuing a voluntary evacuation.
Nagin said late Saturday that he’s having his legal staff look into whether he can order a mandatory evacuation of the city, a step he’s been hesitant to do because of potential liability on the part of the city for closing hotels and other businesses. [emphasis added]
(Bruce Nolan, “Katrina Takes Aim”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Sunday, Aug. 28). Once again, the lawyers got in the way of the public-safety decision-making, an issue I discussed Aug. 26.
Caesarean sections in Australia
Use of the procedure seems to be following the American path, “and could soon hit a record of 32 per cent of deliveries — far higher than in countries such as Britain and New Zealand.” Among the factors:
Andrew Pesce, consultant obstetrician at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, told the conference litigation was a factor in the caesarean rates.
No obstetrician had ever been sued for doing a caesarean, while some of the largest medical negligence payouts — including the $11 million Calandre Simpson case in 2001- – followed claims the doctor should have performed a caesarean section earlier, Dr Pesce said.
(Adam Cresswell, “Midwives left ‘powerless’ by soaring caesar births”, The Australian, Sept. 5). See Nov. 29, 2004; Jul. 18 and Aug. 13, 2003; and Feb. 5, 2001.
Katrina botch: heads must roll
Update: “Maris family, Anheuser-Busch settle lawsuit”
The beer giant agreed to pay at least $120 million in a confidential settlement to settle a defamation suit and other litigation arising from its termination of a beer distributorship held by the family of baseball great Roger Maris. (AP/Orlando Sentinel, Aug. 24; Tiffany Pakkala, “Maris deal taps Busch for $120m”, Gainesville Sun, Aug. 25). The dispute took the form of several distinct legal actions; in 2001 a Gainesville, Fla. jury awarded the Maris family $50 million following a three-month trial at which celebrated attorney Willie Gary, representing the family, was charged with repeated misconduct (see Apr. 1-2, 2002). However, a judge later threw out ethics charges against Gary (Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, 2004). In the latest round, Gary was again representing the family, this time in a defamation suit against the brewing company; a jury was preparing to return its verdict when the parties settled. (Gregory Cancelada, “Maris family, Anheuser-Busch square off in defamation suit”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch/San Jose Mercury News, Aug. 22).