Yes, it does happen: “A Florida urologist killed himself a few hours after a jury awarded a former patient $1 million in a malpractice claim.” And this part is especially charming: “Timothy Moran, a Jacksonville lawyer who represented the plaintiff, blamed [Dr. Lawrence] Grey’s insurance company for not settling the case.” (UPI/M&C, May 5)(via KevinMD).
Archive for 2006
Suing an Islamic moderate
In its many lawsuits against critics of its activities (see Jan. 5) the Islamic Society of Boston has added as a defendant Muslim reformist Ahmed Mansour, a former visiting fellow at Harvard Law School. (Jeff Jacoby, “Muslim reformer still a target”, May 17; Dean Barnett, “Mosque meltdown”, Weekly Standard, Mar. 24; Miss Kelly, Mar. 24).
New Tabarrok/Agan med-mal study
Today the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy (with which I’m affiliated) released a major new paper by Alexander Tabarrok and Amanda Agan of George Mason University’s Department of Economics. It’s titled “Medical Malpractice Awards, Insurance, and Negligence: Which Are Related?” As summarized by my colleague Jim Copland this morning at Point of Law, Tabarrok and Agan reach the following conclusions:
1. They show that medical malpractice premiums are closely related to medical malpractice tort awards. …
2. They show that medical malpractice premiums are not explained by insurance industry price gouging. …
3. They show that medical malpractice tort awards are related to some factors not rationally related to injuries. …
4. They show that malpractice tort awards and thus insurance premiums can vary dramatically for reasons having little or nothing to do with negligence.
When is a plane more like a boat?
The crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in a quiet residential neighborhood nearly five years ago is subject to general maritime laws, a judge ruled Tuesday, allowing potentially higher damages for dozens of people who sued.
If the result was piquant, the rationale was priceless:
U.S. District Judge Robert W. Sweet said it did not matter that the plane crashed on land in Queens, killing 260 people on the plane and five on the ground. He noted that the plane was on a 1,500-mile transoceanic flight to the Dominican Republic.
“There can be no question that, but for the development of air travel, this trip or some portion thereof would have been conducted by a waterborne vessel and that it therefore bears a significant relationship to traditional maritime activity,” the judge wrote in a 78-page opinion analyzing the issue.
Besides, a piece of the aircraft, though not one containing passengers, did land in Jamaica Bay. So that would seem to settle it. (Larry Neumeister, “Plane that struck Queens neighborhood subject to maritime laws”, AP/WINS, May 9) (via Taranto).
“Mexico Threatens Suits Over Guard Patrols”
Now here’s a great way to pour oil on troubled waters: “Mexico said Tuesday that it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops on the border become directly involved in detaining migrants.” (Marina Montemayor, AP/Niagara Gazette, May 16).
Party like you’re a tobacco lawyer
To celebrate Beaumont tobacco/asbestos lawyer Walter Umphrey’s seventieth birthday, fellow Texas Tobacco Five member John Eddie Williams took over a private aircraft hangar — Umphrey’s own, in fact — “moved out the two private jets and the helicopter, added on a two-story party tent and threw a no-holds-barred tribute to Umphrey.” Music was provided by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Rotel and the Hot Tomatoes, performing on two different stages, and there was some pretty decent food too. Among the 400 attendees: gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn. (Shelby Hodge, “Wild soiree in hangar was Western to the hilt”, Houston Chronicle, May 14). Of course it was a mere kaffeeklatsch compared with a Willie Gary or Mark Lanier party.
Now back to your previously scheduled news story about excessive CEO compensation.
Duke lacrosse case, cont’d
Thomas Sowell nominates the controversy’s low point:
According to Newsweek, the young man at NCCU [North Carolina Central University] said that he wanted to see the Duke students prosecuted, “whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past.”
(“The Biggest Scandal in the Duke University Rape Case”, syndicated/Capitalism Magazine, May 17). The comment was hardly representative of anyone’s views but the one student’s, though, contends John Schwade in the Durham News (“Article opts to sensationalize with its color commentary”, Apr. 29). More: Dr. Helen, Apr. 22. Stuart Taylor Jr. has a powerful column on the subject which however is online only to National Journal/The Atlantic subscribers (“An Outrageous Rush to Judgment”, May 2). And guess who’s involved himself in the case, as an advisor to the complainant’s family? None other than ace money-extractor Willie Gary, long familiar to readers of this site (Wendy McElroy, “Is ‘Duke’ Case Headed to Civil Court?”, FoxNews.com, May 16).
NYC sues out-of-state gun dealers
Bloomberg’s crew says the city carried out “sting” operations that proved dealers in Pennsylvania, South Carolina and elsewhere were selling to “straw purchasers” in violation of federal law. (Diane Cardwell, “New York City Sues 15 Gun Dealers in 5 States, Charging Illegal Sales”, New York Times, May 16). David Hardy at Arms and the Law (May 15) says that even if the city can prove such allegations, “I still see major barriers in terms of (a) duty (b) causation and (c) damages. Not to mention (d), standing. I mean — if you can prove a dealer on a certain day was willing to make a strawman sale, does that prove he ever did so in the past? How many times? What crimes were caused or not caused?”
Trolls-B-Gon?
Forbes says “patent trolls” will be deterred by the Supreme Court’s new ruling in the eBay case, in which “the justices ruled unanimously that federal courts must weigh several factors before barring a patent infringer from using a contested technology or business method.” (Jessica Holzer, “Supreme Court Buries Patent Trolls”, May 16)(& Lattman)(opinion, PDF).
18-year legal malpractice suit
Adeline Scomello of Suffolk County, N.Y. engaged five attorneys to represent her in divorce proceedings, and sued all five for legal malpractice. Now a judge has finally thrown out, with strong words as to its lack of merit, her pro se suit against lawyer #2 in the series — a suit that lasted for eighteen years. Dismissing her 329-page application for reargument, Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Arlen Spinner wrote that New York’s public policy of “unfettered access to the courts” must give way at some point. (Mark Fass, “Judge Halts Pro Se Litigant’s ‘Abusive Litigation Practices’ Against Divorce Lawyers”, New York Law Journal, May 11). (Corrected to fix typo in litigant’s name).