Okay, it’s not exactly on-topic here, but Heather Mac Donald’s piece is the one people are talking about. (American Conservative, Aug. 28).
Archive for 2006
Guestblogger thanks, welcome, etc.
Our thanks to Peter Morin, who’s been pitching in as guestblogger over the last week to supplement Ted’s efforts. Peter’s writing can be found at his blog Wave Maker. And welcome to Chris Tozzo of KipEsquire, who joins today in the same role. I’ll be posting occasionally, but probably less often than usual.
Also, over at Point of Law, check out the contributions of guestbloggers Gail Heriot (San Diego lawprof associated with The Right Coast) and Al Adomite (Illinois Civil Justice League). In particular, Gail’s post on the contrasting liability treatment accorded to “doers” and “talkers” deserves a wide audience.
Town Shuts Down “Nightcrawler Kid”
Sometimes the problem isn’t that we are “overlawyered” but rather that we are “overregulated” —
Cromwell [Connecticut] can be a hostile environment for those looking to break into night crawler vending — particularly if they advertise with a yard sign.
A worm business that Joe [Cadieux] has operated since he was 10 was shut down two weeks ago when Cromwell’s planning and zoning commission issued a cease-and-desist order because the teenager’s sign violated local zoning regulations.
“It’s ridiculous,” said the middle school student, who made $5 to $10 a month selling worms collected from his front yard, where they are plentiful after spring rainstorms.
So on the one hand we have a disgraceful new federal law guaranteeing a homeowner’s “right” to display an American flag on his property, despite any pre-existing homeowner association rules to the contrary (i.e., abridging the ability of private parties to enter into private contracts — which is what homeowner associations are), yet we cannot seem to find a right for a kid to do what kids do in their front yards.
Lovely.
Would the quality of life of Cromwell plunge precipitously if a “de minimis” exception were crafted for small signs by minors on their own property? Are the local politicians of Cromwell so busy with the rest of their packed agenda that they can’t revise the guidelines of their planning and zoning commission so that its members stop being worms petty jerks?
And can someone explain to me why judges are supposed to “defer” to politicians and bureaucrats like these?
“Pet Cemetery” Photo Lawsuit is a Real Horror Story
Let’s start my guest-blogging with a softball, lobbed right here in my own backyard of New York City:
A woman has filed a lawsuit against a pet cremation service and a photo agency, claiming they used a photo of her posing with her dogs, Chickie and Tiny, without her permission.
…
Cecala, whose lawsuit seeks $3 million, said she never gave permission to have the photo used for “something of such a morbid nature[.]”
Where to begin?
Introducing Myself
Hello everyone. Apparently Walter is leaving it to me to introduce myself as I commence my guest blogging here.
My name is Christopher Tozzo, and I am part of that ever-growing caste, the non-practicing attorney. I work in the investment bank of a very large global financial services firm, as a Supervisory Analyst — which is odd, considering that I’m neither a supervisor nor an analyst (it’s a regulatory title — go figure).
My blog is called A Stitch in Haste (long story), where I write under the blogonym “KipEsquire” (long story). I don’t just blog about law, but also a whole coterie of libertarian topics. So feel free to visit and see what you’re missing.
I am a 2003 graduate of Brooklyn Law School. I like to think that I “majored” in torts, having taken several classes in that field. On the other hand, the recent explosion of gay rights litigation has increasingly steered me away from torts and toward Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence; I’ve also always had a soft spot for the Fourth Amendment, so we’ll have some search & seizure posts. But don’t worry — I promise not to get too “constitutional” on you.
For the résumé voyeurs, I have a B.S. in Business & Economics from Lehigh University and an M.A. in Economics from Cornell University. I consider the economic analysis of liability and damages to be a far too neglected topic in the law. I do not, however, consider myself a “Law & Economics” type. I’m also a Chartered Financial Analyst. But don’t worry — there will be no financial statement analysis here (well, maybe just a little…).
I am licensed to practice law in New York State, though I have never set foot inside a courtroom, except for jury duty (and I have never actually been seated on a jury).
I have a bio page here for those interested. You can reach me at kipesquire@yahoo.com.
I’d like to thank Walter for his kind invitation. Overlawyered is far and away one of my favorite blawgs — except when he beats me to the punch and blogs about something before I do (which is all too common). I hope I can live up to his standards.
Overlawyered Chile edition
The mayor of Valparaiso is looking into suing in the US over a National Geographic documentary that shows what the effects of an earthquake would be on the Chilean town. (Matt Malinowski. “Valparaiso considers lawsuit against National Geographic”, Santiago Times, Aug. 8). Hat-tip to reader F.R., who reports “The following article in Spanish adds some information. The city is consulting with Chilean politician and lawyer Jorge Schaulsohn (who per other sources studied at Benjamin Cardozo Law School and is admitted to practice in New York). Schaulsohn states that it makes sense to bring this lawsuit only in the U.S., and that the damages that can be recovered there are ‘of a different nature and amount’ (presumably compared to those recoverable in Chile).”
De-villainizing Dr Pepper
Commentary on soda-tax proposals that’s equally applicable to the obesity litigation wars:
…soda, by itself, isn’t making us fat. According to numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, regular soda consumption has been falling every year since 1998, but at the same time obesity has skyrocketed. In 2004, we actually drank less soda per person than in 1995, long before obesity was making headlines.
(Sara Cseresnyes and Andrew Chamberlain, “Soda Tax the Wrong Way to Help Curb Obesity”, Denver Post, Jul. 21, reprinted at Tax Foundation site) (via Radley Balko, who adds, “Yep. In fact, the beverage that has by far seen the largest increase in consumption since about 1980 is bottled water. Diet soda is second.”) Related: Lorraine Heller, “The Obesity Blame Game”, Beverage Daily, Aug. 7, and reader feedback at that publication.
Cruel and Unusual Sex
Elevating the quality of prisoner-initiated Constitutional claims, Boxer X claims that he was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment when he was “forced” by a female guard to masturbate in front of her.
The 11th Circuit denied rehearing en banc a review of the lower court’s decision that this did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Discuss.
Summary Judgment Like a Good Wine
The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently vacated a “substantial” jury verdict in a defamation case against The Boston Phoenix, finding that the lower court was too quick to earlier rule on summary judgment that the plaintiff, a Maryland state prosecutor, was not a “public figure” for purposes of libel law.
Judge Selya chose an interesting metaphor to open the Court’s opinion:
“The oenologist’s creed teaches that we should drink no wine before its time. Much the same
principle applies to summary judgment; it is a deliciously helpful device if properly timed, but one that can leave a sour taste if brought to bear on an insufficiently fermented record.”
Orson Wells introduced us to that motto on behalf of that tower of oenological perfection, Paul Masson. But like the wine of Paul Masson, I find Judge Selya’s stretching of the metaphor a little dry on the palate.
Deep pocket files: Wal-Mart on $4.2 million hook for carjacking
Katoria Lee refused a carjacker’s command to surrender her car-keys in 2001, so he shot her in the back. This, a Georgia state court jury decided, was the fault of Wal-Mart, who owned the parking lot where the shooting occurred. Eric Deown Riggins, 22, was caught within minutes, and is serving a 15-year sentence in state prison for the crime.
Lee’s attorney, Lance Cooper, mentioned the 398 visits by police to the Riverdale Wal-Mart in the twenty months before the accident as evidence that there should have been “more” security that made Wal-Mart at fault for a third-party’s malicious crime, but that figure is highly misleading, because, until very recently, Wal-Mart had a zero-tolerance shoplifting policy to press charges for even the most minor of shoplifting crimes. (Kathy Jefcoats, “Woman shot in Wal-Mart lot awarded $4.2 million by jury”, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Aug. 10).