“A man who fell from a tree after an aborted suicide bid is suing a Sydney health service, claiming not enough was done to treat his depression ahead of the accident.” Timothy Walker decided to kill himself 11 days after his discharge from a psychiatric facility, but instead was left a quadriplegic. He “is suing the Wentworth Area Health Service for negligence, claiming not enough was done to care for him” and that he should have been given medication. (Lisa Allan and Kim Arlington, “Man sues over aborted suicide tree fall”, AAP/The Australian, Apr. 16)(via LegalJuice). Update Jun. 6: judge rejects case.
Archive for 2007
“The Microsoft of kickball”?
Apparently kickball isn’t just for elementary school students anymore: the website DCist reports that a lawsuit filed last February by the World Adult Kickball Association (“WAKA”) against rival adult kickball league (I’m having trouble reporting this without snickering) DC Kickball is still kicking around in the federal courts a year later.
The original complaint doesn’t appear to be online, but the Washington City Paper provided more details last year, including:
The complaint accuses DCKickball founder Carter Rabasa of copyright infringement for unauthorized use of WAKA’s co-ed kickball rules, including “the clearly unique requirement that there be 4 men AND 4 women at a minimum to play” and for mandating that “players must be at least 21 years old.” No other specific rules or intellectual-property thefts are mentioned, but the suit points out that David Fischer, a volunteer director for DCKickball, was previously a player for the WAKA team “Scoregasm.”
The suit also accuses Rabasa of defamation, based on his calling WAKA “the Microsoft of kickball” in a 2005 Washington City Paper story (“Kickball Wars,” Cheap Seats, 5/13) and his additional comments in a subsequent Wall Street Journal article. Those comments, the suit alleges, incited a kickballer to post “WAKA bites it” on the DCKickball Web site.
To the extent this represents the entire complaint (there also seems to be an unspecified trademark claim as well), it appears utterly meritless. You can’t copyright the rules of a game (although you can copyright the specific wording used), and in any case, neither of the rules cited sound particularly original. And “the Microsoft of kickball” may be insulting to a Macintosh fan, but is not defamatory. These hurdles don’t seem to faze WAKA, though; the company is suing its much smaller competitor for at least $350,000.
But WAKA is apparently very aggressive; it has reportedly sent out cease-and-desist letters to at least two other competitors, according to the City Paper article, accusing them of violating its intellectual property, trade secrets (!), and a non-compete clause (for an unpaid volunteer).
And since “turn the other cheek” is not one of the canons of legal ethics, DC Kickball has countersued for violations of federal and DC antitrust law.
Seriously, adults play kickball? Seriously?
May 8 roundup
- Whoops! Insurer’s lawyer backtracks and scrambles for cover after saying some Miami/Dade judges “are being paid off” [Daily Business Review; possibly related, scroll to mention of Miami near end]
- Climate’s different up there: Google and Wikipedia sued for libel in Canada over user-generated content [Rob Hyndman]
- Lawyers implicated in Ky. fen-phen scandal are owners of Curlin, horse that placed third in Kentucky Derby [Courier-Journal, Sun-Times, Sports Network, WSJ law blog]
- “As a lawyer, I hear stories about lawsuit abuse all the time,” but Judge Pearson’s pants suit takes the cake [Nasty Brutish & Short; also lively discussion at Digg]
- Ramps of gold: serial ADA-suit filers George Louie, David Gunther and others launch wave of sidewalk suits against Northern California towns [Contra Costa Times]
- $250 fine for releasing a balloon into the air in New Hampshire? Criminalizing nearly everything [National Law Journal; also Ayn Rand]
- Helpful, if scary: “12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs To Know” [Aviva Directory]
- U.K. lawyers ordered to pay back tens of millions of pounds in excessive fees earned for representing sick miners [Times Online Apr. 16, Apr. 25, Apr. 10; Telegraph]
- Did Rosie O’Donnell come out for loser-pays on ABC’s “The View”? Someone please get a transcript [Bill Boushka]
- Japan doesn’t furnish us with much material, but here’s one about magicians suing TV broadcasters for revealing secrets behind coin tricks [Above the Law]
- Sensitivity vs. sensitivity: female drummers allowed to sue over their (culturally authentic) exclusion from ritual drumming at Native American powwow [five years ago on Overlawyered]
Tasteless lawyer-ad Hall of Fame
“Life’s short. Get a divorce,” proclaims the Chicago billboard of the law firm of Fetman, Garland & Associates. Flanking the message: big pictures of a buxom temptress in black lace bra and, on the other side, a half-clad muscleman. Reaction has been strong:
“It’s grotesque,” said John Ducanto, past president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “It’s totally undignified and offensive.”
“It trivializes divorce and I think it’s absolutely disgusting,” Rick Tivers, a clinical social worker at the Center for Divorce Recovery in Chicago, told ABC News. …
One of the genuine lions of the American divorce courts — New York’s Raoul Felder — said the ad was a new low for the profession.
“This has to be the Academy Award of bad taste,” Felder told ABC News. …
[The billboard] peers down into an area of Rush Street known as the “Viagra Triangle” for its three, trendy singles bars in an affluent section of Chicago known as the “Gold Coast.”
(Chris Francescani, ABCNews.com, May 7). Update May 10: billboard pulled down after alderman reports it to building inspector as lacking a permit.
“Digg’s DVD-decoder fiasco”
John Dvorak says hyperactive lawyering should bear much of the blame (MarketWatch, May 3).
Pants fallout?
This is still speculative, but Judge Roy Pearson, the judge who is now-infamous for suing his dry cleaners for $65 million for a pair of pants, may be facing some repercussions for his abusive lawsuit. We don’t know at this time if it’s significant, but his employee biography page at the Washington DC Office of Administrative Hearings now results in the terse message The requested article is no longer published.
Previous Pearson coverage: Apr. 26, May 1, May 4.
(Hat tip: The Conservative Voice.)
Update: And his name is not listed in the OAH Directory of judges.
Where are they now? Larry Klayman watch
How the mighty have fallen. Once able to harass the president of the United States, professional gadfly Larry Klayman — former head of Judicial Watch — is now reduced to filing lawsuits over zoning issues. The town of Pompano Beach approved plans by the Islamic Center of South Florida to build a mosque; at least one resident of the neighborhood disapproved, and hired Klayman:
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, claims the leader of the mosque, Imam Hassan Sabri, has repeatedly been associated with others who are tied to terrorist groups including Hamas, al-Qaida and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The connections outlined in the filing appear loose and there is no accusation of direct wrongdoing.
Having reviewed the complaint (PDF), it appears to range from meritless to frivolous; this about sums up Klayman’s argument:
Larry Klayman, the lawyer for Wright, said the filing does not amount to an anti-Muslim action but maintained that the mosque sacrificed public safety.
“The mosque is radical, the imam is radical,” Klayman said. “We believe they will go out and recruit people in the African-American community to do their bidding.”
I may not be a fan of “radical” Muslims, but as you can imagine, a church being “radical” and “recruiting people” are protected activities under the First Amendment. And while Klayman failed to name the town that approved the allegedly-suspect rezoning as a party in the case, he sued the completely unrelated Council on American-Islamic Relations for some inexplicable reason. (I suspect the phrase “cheap publicity stunt” may be the answer.)
By the way, one of these things is not like the others:
Klayman also has brought cases against Dick Cheney, Osama bin Laden, Fidel Castro and the Teamsters, as well as his own mother.
(Previous coverage of Klayman: Apr. 2002, Jul. 2005, Apr. 2006)
Glendora v. Savarino: Bob Hope photos prove unavailing
Rather than even try to summarize the case, we’ll let Law.com do it for us: “A New York judge has limited a public-access TV personality’s use of small claims courts following her repeated abuse of the system. In dismissing her claim that a Cablevision employee ‘poisoned’ her sponsors’ minds, the judge noted that the woman, who goes by the name Glendora, submitted 360 handwritten pages of documentation, including ‘multiple copies of a 60-year-old photo of the plaintiff with Bob Hope … [and] commentary about the impressive geographic expanse of the City of Yonkers.'” (Mark Fass, “Old Photos of Bob Hope Fail to Carry the Day for Litigious TV Personality”, New York Law Journal, May 3).
P.S. Glendora’s website is here (plays video)(hat tip Gunner of No Quarters Blog, who suggests checking out show # 4260 for more on the hostess’s style in suit-filing).
Moving to the nuisance?
Couple build mansion next door to Altamont Speedway, are upset by noise and rowdiness spillovers, head for court citing environmental concerns (Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, “Racetrack, neighbor in a heated fight”, Sept. 26, 2006; Jalopnik, Apr. 25).
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