It seems Honda odometers, until recently at least, were what you might call conservative — they registered a slightly higher mileage than actually driven, by perhaps 2 or 4 percent. Given that the best known consumer-protection hazard in the odometer world has long been the danger of unscrupulous tampering with the devices so as to underestimate mileage with an eye to resale, one way to interpret the Honda settings is that they effectively leaned over to protect buyers of used vehicles. However, class action lawyers did not interpret the phenomenon that way, instead hinting at a plot to 1) get owners to come in for scheduled service slightly more often than otherwise and 2) run out mileage-triggered warranties slightly faster than otherwise. Reader James Ingram, referring to the handsome fee haul, writes: “I’m sure I am happy to pay $9 1/2 million to know that my Honda odometer which reads 10,200 to 10,400 really should read 10,000. If I drive it, say, 150,000 miles it might cost me an additional $30 oil change.” (Mary Alice Robbins, Texas Lawyer, Nov. 13).
Archive for December, 2006
“The ugliest suits…”
“…are those where lawyers sue lawyers.” Profile of Georgia attorney Frank Beltran, who specializes in filing lawsuits against lawyers: “‘When lawyers split up it’s worse than a marriage,’ Beltran said, observing that some get vindictive as ‘ego and testosterone’ kick in.” And then there are the wrangles over how to split fees (Meredith Hobbs, “Legal Malpractice Brings Unique View of Brethren’s Vices”, Fulton County Daily Report, Dec. 4).
Crazed samurai killer wins only $1 in police brutality case
Perhaps this Pennsylvania jury considered that it was steering things down the middle with its result:
Five Bethlehem police officers used excessive force to restrain a man high on crack cocaine who killed a drug dealer with a samurai sword and set him on fire, a federal jury ruled Tuesday night.
… [Sonny] Thomas, 50, who testified he suffered bruises and recurring migraine headaches as a result of the violent scuffle, sought $35 million in damages but was awarded $1….
Thomas testified he had smoked 12 rocks of crack cocaine during the four hours before stabbing [19-year-old Carlos] Garcia more than 80 times with a 4-foot-long samurai sword.
Police, who arrived at the grisly scene to find Garcia’s body set ablaze with the sword sticking out of it, said Thomas ignored an order to surrender, while Thomas countered that he put up no resistance but was beaten anyway. While finding five of the police officers at the scene responsible for excessive force, the jury exonerated five others. The federal judge who presided over the trial, John Fullam, called the jury’s verdict “remarkable”. (Matt Birkbeck, “Samurai killer wins police brutality case, $1 award”, Allentown Morning Call, Nov. 29). For more on “one-dollar” verdicts by juries in excessive-force cases filed by criminals, see my 1994 City Journal article on New York’s “mugger millionaire” case.
Daniel Edelman vs. subprime lenders
The Chicago class action lawyer, vividly remembered for his role in the notorious BancBoston Mortgage case, among others (Nov. 15, 1999, Feb. 7, 2000; see also Dec. 15, 2004 for his involvement in junk-fax litigation) is now filing suits against lenders who solicit persons with poor credit histories for more loans. The Northwest Indiana Times kindly quotes me on the subject (Joe Carlson, “Lawsuits targeting credit scams”, Nov. 27).
Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, New York landlord-tenant edition
Is the 78-year-old George Pavia a bully resident-landlord who is trying to intimidate his tenants? Or is 67-year-old James Couri, convicted on federal fraud charges in the 1980s, a litigious pro se tenant whose addition of Pavia to his list of legal adversaries is a scheme to get out from paying rent? Six years of legal battles (helped by Couri’s ability to find Pavia’s technical violations of the regulatory morass facing NYC landlords) will culminate in a jury trial in 2007, though the personal enmities involved suggest that there will be years of appeals afterwards. Couri tried to enlist other tenants against Pavia in a suit claiming that Pavia overcharges tenants, but, inspirationally, the other tenants refused, feeling that their rents were reasonable regardless of what New York’s arcane rent control laws say. Pavia has not been able to evict Couri though the former feels harassed by his involuntary neighbor and the latter hounded a gay designer out of the building; one of Pavia’s lawyers explains, “Apparently, there are certain judges in New York who would rather take arsenic than evict a tenant.” For the Coasian effects of such judges, see POL Nov. 28; but see Giacalone for an opposing view that isn’t quite responsive. Moral: tenant background checks are your friend. (Ron Stodghill, “A House Divided: Uncivil War on E. 73rd”, New York Times, Dec. 10).
The war on trans fats
Ann Althouse detects aesthetic, rather than paternalistic, origins (Dec. 9). More: Steve Chapman, “New York’s food police ride to the rescue”, syndicated/Chicago Tribune, Dec. 11; and more Althouse.
Lavely & Singer nastygrams
We’ve been entertained by these for some time (e.g., Jan. 12), and now they’re the subject of a Peter Lattman WSJ front-pager in today’s paper. One blogger admits that the firm does successfully bury some stories.
ADA: Colleges bend to accommodation demands
Amid a rapid rise in the number of students with disability diagnoses — diagnoses of learning disability, in particular — colleges and universities “have magnified services to help those students keep pace – from personal note-takers to high-tech computer equipment that reads aloud and types research papers. … The number of college students with disabilities has grown fivefold from three decades ago, when it was estimated at 2.3 percent.” At Regis University in Colorado, the number of students receiving accommodations has jumped more than fifty percent in three years, from 240 to 370. “The number of college students diagnosed with disabilities increased dramatically after the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, [Regis disability services director Joie] Williams said.” About 600 students use the “Access Center” at Denver’s Metropolitan State College: its services, which by law are free to students, include uploading textbooks onto students’ iPods. (Jennifer Brown, “More colleges helping with disabilities”, Denver Post, Nov. 26). For accommodation demands at the high school level, see, e.g., this Mar. 24 post.
Non-economic damages for animals (again)
The Vermont Supreme Court is considering the issue, which we’ve repeatedly covered (Dec. 29 and links therein); in a Fox News report, person after person argues that such damages should be available to deter animal cruelty, each of whom disregards the availability of punitive damages for intentional torts. The main effect of such “rights” would be to make pet care largely unaffordable for the poor so that a handful of wealthy pet owners would be able to collect larger damages awards from veterinarians.
Stephanie Mencimer is predictably in favor of more litigation (singling out “Ted Frank and his Overlawyered buddies” for some reason, though there is only one Walter Olson), but her reasoning is unusual. Mencimer tells the tale of her battle with a next-door neighbor pet spa, and complains that there is a shortage of kennels, which, she says, causes sub-par care of dogs. Lawsuits, she concludes, would fix this problem. That she thinks raising the cost of providing a service will solve the problem of a shortage of service providers bespeaks a certain economic illiteracy that perhaps explains her reflexive opposition to liability reform.
UK: Great moments in citizenship law
“A ‘high risk’ child rapist is to receive thousands of pounds in damages for ‘unlawful detention’ while held pending deportation to Somalia, a High Court judge ruled yesterday. The failed asylum seeker, who cannot be named and is referred to only as ‘A’, is threatened with removal after serving an eight-year prison sentence for attacking and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. But yesterday Mr Justice Calvert Smith ruled that there was a period between Dec. 3 2004 and July 20 2006 when the 31-year-old’s detention became unlawful, entitling him to compensation.” Deportation from the UK to Somalia has been difficult to accomplish until recently because airlines refused to transport deportees, and “A” refused to get on a plane voluntarily. (“Rapist wins pay-out over unlawful detention”, Daily Telegraph, Dec. 8; “A failed asylum seeker jailed for child rape receives £50,000”, Dec. 8).