Updating our Jan. 6, 2007 post: “The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that a county judge accused of ethical wrongdoing before he became a judge cannot be disciplined by the state bar until he leaves the bench. A dissenter claimed the majority opinion leads to ‘absurd consequences’ and gives the judge, Stuart DuBose, ‘unwarranted immunity.'” Voters elevated DuBose to a circuit judgeship despite his publicized role “in an estate in which he collected a $1.2 million fee for writing a client’s will without ever meeting the dying man,” to quote our earlier post. (Debra Cassens Weiss, “Facing State Bar Ethics Charges in Alabama? Become a Judge”, Mar. 20).
Archive for 2008
“Caught short, 3M will pay $700,000”
3M Co., the tape manufacturer, has agreed to pay nearly $700,000 to settle a case brought by prosecutors in Fresno County, California, charging that its Scotch and Tartan brand tapes marketed as “for one-inch use” in fact measured only .94 inch. (McClatchy/Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Mar. 27). Reader Bob Dorigo Jones writes that news of the prosecution “likely created panic within all companies that make, sell or otherwise advertise 2 x 4 boards”. Presumably, though, it would not be especially controversial for Fresno County to enforce the state’s weights and measures laws against the seller of milk or flour that was 6 percent short by weight. Does it make a difference that most users of tape don’t really care much about precise widths, inasmuch as they will not run out of tape any faster if its dimensions run slightly narrower than one inch?
For more on the affirmative-litigation activities of California counties, see this PoL post of last week.
Pennzoil v. Texaco
Via Kirkendall, Carl Icahn talks about litigating in a judicial hellhole against Joe Jamail. NSFW, but a spectacular punchline.
More on Jamail.
RIAA hasn’t paid artists
“None of the estimated $400 million that the RIAA received in settlements with Napster, KaZaA, and Bolt over allegations of copyright infringement has gone to the artists whose copyrights were allegedly infringed. Now the artists are considering suing the RIAA.” (Consumerist, Mar. 17; David Utter, WebProNews, Feb. 29).
Reader Jim Finkel writes:
Having followed the RIAA lawsuits for a while, I found this most amusing. Even though I am not a lawyer, perhaps if the funds are NOT disbursed soon, there may be a bigger fraud suit. As the RIAA has ostensibly been collecting the monies for the artists, if the RIAA does not disgorge the funds, then they have been litigating under false pretenses. If RIAA expenses are so high that they have nothing left for the artists, then the artists may have grounds to countersue the RIAA for annoying the potential customers with so many frivolous lawsuits that the record business was destroyed, by the RIAA. That might be the ultimate irony.
By the way, for suggesting this suit, I would of course request my portion of the proceeds.
Earlier coverage here.
Deep pocket files: more settlements in Great White fire
“Three more parties sued by victims of the [West Warwick, R.I.] Station nightclub fire have offered tentative settlements in the civil cases now pending in U.S. District Court.” Audio maker JBL, accused of including flammable foam in its speakers and amplifiers, is offering $815,000. “The other two parties offering to settle are ABC Bus Inc., and Superstar Services LLC, which provided bus transportation for the rock band Great White to The Station for its concert, as well as more than 25 kilograms of explosive fireworks material that the band carried on its road trip. Together they are offering $500,000.” (Tracy Breton, “3 more companies offer settlements in Station fire case”, Providence Journal, Mar. 27). Earlier: Feb. 2, etc.
“Doomsday fears spark lawsuit”
“The builders of the world’s biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet. … The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is due for startup later this year at CERN’s headquarters on the French-Swiss border.” Among the concerns of critics who are suing in federal court in Hawaii: “Could quarks recombine into ‘strangelets’ that would turn the whole Earth into one big lump of exotic matter?” (Alan Boyle, CosmicLog, MSNBC, Mar. 27; Dennis Overbye, “Asking a Judge to Save the World, and Maybe a Whole Lot More”, New York Times, Mar. 29).
More: Sundries Shack (“For goodness sake, one of the plaintiffs calls himself an ‘author and researcher on time travel'”); Adler @ Volokh. The liberal site Lawyers, Guns & Money, perhaps serving in this instance as a Strange Attractor, attracts a commenter who seems to agree with the lawsuit-filers that it’s better to be safe than sorry — the Precautionary Principle lives! And from our comments, links to the complaint, Ted on jurisdiction, and thoughts on the effectiveness of litigation in obtaining free publicity.
More accolades…
…for our 404 page (“17 brilliant 404 pages and why they are cool”, Royal Pingdom, Mar. 28).
Palo Alto excessive force case
“…Michael Schmidlin successfully contended police used excessive force when they arrested him March 29, 1997, on suspicion of public drunkenness. Unless the city appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, it could pay $24,000 plus interest to Schmidlin and at least $300,000 in legal fees to his lawyer, Mark Martel. That figure might swell to more than $500,000, said Martel, who will spend the next month or so calculating the exact cost.” Martel says it’s the California city’s own fault for putting up too long a fight in the 11-year legal battle. (Jason Green, “Palo Alto loses longstanding legal fight in excessive force case”, San Jose Mercury News, Mar. 13)(via ABA Journal).
“Are we really that ill?”
“America has reached a point where almost half its population is described as being in some way mentally ill, and nearly a quarter of its citizens – 67.5 million – have taken antidepressants.” The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (latest edition, DSM-IV) is “invoked chapter and verse in schools, prisons, courts, and by mental-health professionals around the world.” But how objective and reliable is its classification of disorders? (Christopher Lane, New York Sun, Mar. 26). More thoughts: Jane Genova.
“Lawsuit Accuses Yale of False Statements”
“A prestigious South Korean university that came under fire for hiring a professor who lied about her credentials is suing Yale, saying the American university wrongly confirmed the woman earned a degree.” (John Christofferson, AP/Washington Post, Mar. 27).