- $15M to family of Oklahoma driver who flipped his car when taking a 30 mph curve at 67 mph and passing a car in a no-pass zone. [Point of Law]
- “Jungle Democracy’s appeal is as unintelligible as its complaint and also states no grounds for relief.” [Jungle Democracy v. USA (10th Cir.) (McConnell, J.) via Bashman]
- Reform coming to New York justice courts (POL Sep. 25). [NYT]
- Judge Boggs gets it right at Federalist Society conference: judicial independence is a means, not an end. [Above the Law]
- Speaking of the Federalist Society, Justice Alito gave an entertaining speech. [C-SPAN (Real Media)]
- “Among those swept up under [Georgia’s] definition of sex offender are a … mother of five who was convicted of being a party to a crime of statutory rape because, her indictment alleged, she did not do enough to stop her 15-year-old daughter’s sexual activity.” [WaPo via Tabarrok]
- Signs of a lack of remorse: “In a follow-up e-mail, [Wesley] Snipes directed me to a Web site that praised him for not paying income taxes under the theory that careful reading of the tax codes suggests that only foreign-based income is taxed.” [Orlando Sentinel via TaxProf Blog via Lat; see also ancient Usenet post—I still haven’t fully learned not to argue with idiots]
- Betcha you didn’t know that using the n-word was morally equivalent to killing two people and seeking to profit from it, but if you cut Michael Richards more slack than OJ Simpson, LA Times columnist thinks it’s because you’re racist. [Kaplan @ LA Times]
Archive for 2006
Judge agrees with exec: the Paxil made me do it
Patrick Henry Stewart stole $1.8 million from his employer before being caught, but he won’t be going to prison; U.S. District Court Judge James Moody Jr. bought his claim that the antidepressant Paxil caused his embezzling, and was sentenced Monday to 12 months of home confinement and five years’ probation instead of the 41-51 months the U.S. Attorney recommended. Stewart had originally claimed that he began embezzling because he was angry over his employer’s reneging on a promised six-digit bonus before changing his story successfully; his inability to control his actions didn’t extend to lying about the scope of the fraud when caught. (Scott Barancik, “Ex-Jabil exec won’t go to prison”, St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 21 (via Obscure Store)).
Dog food suit update
We’d like to take credit, but: After talk-radio-flamed outrage over the City Council’s approval of a $2.7 million settlement for “racial harassment” for a 6’5″ African firefighter nicknamed “Big Dog” who was pranked with a meal of dog-food-spaghetti-sauce, the mayor vetoed the settlement. The “John and Ken Show” website posted photos of the plaintiff, Tennie Pierce, engaging in other pranks. Five council members backtracked after voters started sending cans of dog food to the politicians as a protest, which makes it unlikely the veto will be overridden, even though the settlement was approved 11-1. Hurt politically: the office of city attorney Rocky Delgadillo, whose office continues to defend the settlement. (Sandy Banks and Steve Hymon, “Fury on the airwaves undid bias settlement”, LA Times, Nov. 22)
Taser as cause of death
Lisa Kohler, the medical examiner of Summit County, Ohio, twice listed Taser stun-guns as a contributing factor in the deaths of area men who came out on the losing side in confrontations with police. So now the company that makes Tasers is suing her. (Phil Trexler, “Taser sues Summit medical examiner”, Akron Beacon Journal, Nov. 18). MedPundit is dubious about the suit’s merits (Nov. 18).
Chuck E. Cheese gnat swarm
According to Kimberly Halpern’s lawsuit, her family was visiting a Staten Island branch of the kid’s pizza-and-games emporium when a terrifying cloud of flying insects emerged from a vent and repeatedly stung her son Austin, 4, sending him to an emergency room. Now he’s developed a psychological fear of the whole Chuck E. Cheese entertainment package. A spokeswoman for the restaurant “said that no one else was stung that day, and an exterminator’s visit showed ‘no evidence of a swarm of killer gnats.'” (Janon Fisher, “Suit Bites Chuck E. ‘Fleas'”, New York Post, Nov. 19).
Nancy Grace sued for guest’s suicide
I’m not a big Nancy Grace fan, but this lawsuit by the parents of Melinda Duckett seeking to hold Grace liable for Duckett’s decision to commit suicide is ludicrous. One hopes that Deratany is not unethically raising the hopes of his clients in bringing a lawsuit with no hopes of success for his own publicity-seeking benefit, under which circumstances mentioning the lawsuit here only furthers that problem. The parents’ lawyer, Jay Paul Deratany, was previously in the news for threatening a parasitic lawsuit seeking $1 million from Knicks player Antonio Davis because Davis went into the stands to protect his wife from being attacked by an aggressive Chicago fan, even though Davis made no physical contact with anyone; the dispute settled within a week without actual litigation after bad publicity for Deratany’s client (the son of a prominent political operative) caused the attorney to backtrack from the million-dollar damage claim. (A Jay Paul Deratany is also the author of the poorly-reviewed Chicago theater production “Two Grooms and a Mohel.” Perhaps a coincidence.)
November 21 roundup
- Today at AEI: Panel (and webcast) on Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court argument on carbon dioxide regulation. [AEI]
- Paulson to Economic Club of New York: “Legal reform is crucial to the long-term competitiveness of our economy.” [Paulson; WSJ; WaPo; NYT; American]
- One who reposts on Internet allegedly libelous news article immune from liability in California. One hopes this deters a certain attorney complaining about a six-year-old Overlawyered post recounting a 2000 LA Times article. [Point of Law; Volokh]
- It’s an obvious point, but many judges simply refuse to acknowledge it in failure-to-warn litigation: overwarning can be counterproductive. [WaPo]
- Congress holds that Psalms 37:21 trumps Leviticus 27:30; Senator Obama objects. [WaPo]
- Russia: woman successfully sues Coca-Cola for causing gastrointestinal distress. [Kevin M.D.]
- More on breast implants. [Bernstein @ Volokh]
- More on the New Zealand no-fault med-mal system. [Point of Law]
- Posner on Friedman. [Posner]
- John Edwards seeks to cut in front of line to purchase Playstation 3 at Wal-Mart. Which of the Two Americas is that again? [Taylor @ Reason via Kirkendall]
UK: 43-year legacy battle empties estate
“For the past 43 years the Weston family of Stoke-on-Trent have been in and out of court arguing over a legacy. They should have known better. What must be one of Britain’s longest running legal battles ended in the Court of Appeal yesterday with a judgment that means, in effect, that most of the £480,000 the clan were fighting over will disappear into the pockets of lawyers. …If the Weston family business was now to celebrate by producing a sign, it would read: ‘Don’t go to law unless you absolutely have to.’ And it would be in red neon, as a warning.” (Alan Hamilton, “Lawyers take the lot as family keeps £½m legacy feud going for 43 years”, Times Online, Oct. 26).
“Charles Rangel Thinks He Owns You”
Gina Cobb (Nov. 20) and many other bloggers are appropriately angry about the prominent New York Democrat’s proposal to reintroduce draft conscription. I have one relatively small point to add, which is that no one who respects the English language should ever again refer to Congressman Rangel as “pro-labor”. Someone who proposes to take away the individual’s right to decide for himself or herself for whom to work, and at what calling, is an enemy of the rights of labor, not a friend. (Maybe “pro-union” still works, as a description.) More: Angry Bear.
When a judge sues for defamation, cont’d
Reacting to the recent case in which a jury awarded Illinois chief justice Robert Thomas $7 million against a suburban newspaper, the Kane County Chronicle (Jun. 22, Jul. 19, Nov. 3, Nov. 7, Nov. 14, Nov. 19). the New York Times recalls a 1983 case in which “a Supreme Court justice in Pennsylvania sued The Philadelphia Inquirer for defamation. The case was finally dismissed this summer — a full 23 years after it began. … [Reporter Daniel R.] Biddle, who is now an editor at The Inquirer, said he had learned through lawyers that some of the biggest law firms in Philadelphia declined to represent the paper, in part ‘because they were afraid’ that fighting a Supreme Court justice might jeopardize their other clients.” (Katharine Q. Seelye, “Clash of a Judge and a Small Paper Underlines the Tangled History of Defamation”, New York Times, Nov. 20). More: Mar. 16, 2004. The Times piece also discusses a lawsuit’s silencing of the Alton Telegraph, which once was an outspoken voice in Madison County, Illinois; Ted covered that episode on Point of Law Dec. 28, 2004.