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ARCHIVE -- JUNE 2002
(III)
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June 28-30 -- Lawyer's
44-hour workday. "Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine
is investigating charges a lawyer routinely billed the state's child welfare
agency for more than 24 hours' work a day on uncontested adoptions.
"According to records obtained by Cook County Public Guardian Patrick
Murphy, Joyce Britton had a busy week in April 2001: On Monday, April 9,
she worked 34 hours. On Tuesday, she worked 44 hours. On Wednesday it was
29; 33 on Thursday, 25 on Friday, 42 on Saturday. ... Britton billed the
agency $862,000 for fiscal years 2000 and 2001. The second-most-active
attorney handling uncontested adoptions billed $285,000." (Abdon M. Pallasch,
"Did adoption lawyer really work 44 hours in one day?", Chicago Sun-Times,
Jun. 25). (DURABLE LINK)
June 28-30 -- Tobacco
settlement funds go to tobacco promotion. An investigation
by the Charlotte Observer finds that of the $59 million that the
state of North Carolina has spent so far in proceeds from the tobacco
settlement, nearly three-quarters -- "about $43 million -- has gone
toward production and marketing of N.C. tobacco". (Liz Chandler,
"N.C. spends settlement on tobacco, not health", Charlotte Observer,
Jun.
23) (via Andrew
Sullivan -- scroll to third item). (DURABLE
LINK)
June 28-30 -- Ambulance
driver who stopped for donuts loses suit. Sad news for
the hero of our Nov. 2-4 item: "A federal
judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former ambulance driver who claimed
he was wrongfully fired after stopping for doughnuts while transporting
a patient to a hospital." Larry Wesley "stopped for doughnuts in July 2000
while he was taking an injured youth to Ben Taub Hospital" and was fired
after the boy's mother complained. U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal
"ruled that Wesley's claims that other employees
received lesser sanctions were not supported by the record, and he also
failed to show that he was treated more harshly than other drivers." ("Judge
dismisses lawsuit filed by ambulance worker fired for doughnut stop", AP/KRTK
Houston, Jun. 27). (DURABLE LINK)
June 28-30 -- More
on gambling as next-tobacco. The Newark Star-Ledger's
take; quotes our editor (Judy DeHaven and Kate Coscarelli, "Gaming Industry
Could Be Next Target of a Big Tobacco-Type Lawsuit", Newhouse News Service,
Jun.
24)(see
May 20-21). (DURABLE
LINK)
June 27 -- Pledge
marathon. Even Justice William Brennan seemed to recognize
that it tends to damage the good name of religious unbelief to associate
it in the public mind with theories of hair-trigger unconstitutionality
which encourage running to court over the most minute details of official
ceremony. See Eugene
Volokh (multiple posts); "One Nation Under Blank" (editorial), Washington
Post,
Jun.
27; Megan
McArdle (and reader comments); Walter Dellinger, "Logically Speaking,
the 9th Circuit Doesn't Exist", Slate, Jun.
27; David G. Savage, "9th Circuit just following form", L.A. Times/
Houston Chronicle, Jun. 26. Update: also see columns
by Steve Chapman, "Coming to terms with our Constitution", Chicago Tribune,
Jun.
30; Jonathan Foreman, "The real pledge problem", New York Post,
Jul. 1. (DURABLE LINK)
June 26-27 -- "Win
Big! Lie in Front of a Train". Per a case summary in a
recent New York Law Journal, "A State Supreme Court jury in Manhattan
had awarded $14.1 million to a woman who was hit by an E train. The accident
occurred on May 3, 2000, in a subway tunnel just north of the 34th Street
station on the Eighth Avenue line. ... What was she doing in that strange
place to begin with? It seems the woman, then 36, had entered the
tunnel and lain down on the tracks.
The police concluded later that she was trying to kill herself. She
denied it, though she also said she could not remember how she had ended
up there." No wonder the Bloomberg administration is pushing municipal
tort reform (Clyde Haberman, New York Times, Jun.
25)(see also Oct. 23, 2001, Dec.
17, 2001). (DURABLE LINK)
June 26-27 -- Asbestos:
saving the Crown jewels? "In a decision that is sure to
grab the attention of the asbestos
personal injury bar, a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge has dismissed Crown
Cork & Seal as a defendant in 376 pending asbestos cases. Judge
Allan J. Tereshko found that Philadelphia- based consumer packaging company
Crown Cork & Seal qualifies for relief under a new Pennsylvania law
that limits the successor liability of asbestos defendants whose liability
results only from merging or acquiring companies that produced asbestos
products. Under the law, the company must be incorporated in Pennsylvania
prior to May 2001 and must show that its liabilities in asbestos lawsuits
have equaled or exceeded the 'fair market value' of the company whose acquisition
resulted in the successor liability." (Shannon P. Duffy, "Pennsylvania
Court Upholds Law Limiting Asbestos Liability", The Legal Intelligencer,
Jun.
13)(see
Jun. 27, 2001). (DURABLE
LINK)
June 26-27 -- "Ex-Teach's
Suit: Kids Abused Me". Sued if you do, sued if you don't
dept.: trial is set to start today in Brooklyn "in a ground-breaking lawsuit
filed by a former special education teacher who charges he was harassed
by students. ... Vincent Peries, who is from Sri Lanka, says students at
Francis Lewis High School in Queens mimicked his accent, tossed paper balls
at him," and made fun of his ethnic background. "School officials
don't deny Peries was harassed -- but argue that they can't
discipline special ed students for slurring a teacher. 'This is because
students with that classification have already been identified as having
behavioral problems, and the verbal misconduct might be considered a manifestation
of their disability,' city lawyer Lisa Grumet wrote in court papers. Special
ed students can be suspended only for incidents involving physical
violence, drugs or a dangerous weapon, according to Board of Education
regulations." (John Marzulli, New York Daily News, Jun. 25)(&
welcome Joanne
Jacobs readers) (& update Jul. 24;
city settles with him for 50K). (DURABLE
LINK)
June 26-27 -- "'Vexatious
litigant' vows he'll keep coming back". Portrait of a
Texas frequent litigant who's filed more than twenty lawsuits over the
past two years, against a list of defendants that includes more than a
dozen judges and assorted other officials. Among factors working
in his favor, aside from our general lack of a loser-pays
rule: "pauper status" rules providing for the waiver of filing fees,
and a lack of cross-checking that might allow the clerk in one county to
learn that Mr. O'Dell is under a court order handed down in another county
to petition for approval before filing any more suits in the state.
(Lisa Sandburg, San Antonio Express-News, Jun. 24). (DURABLE
LINK)
June 24-25 -- Reparations
roundup. Someone should start a weblog devoted to reparations
links, it'd be easy to fill:
* In the fall of 2000, ABC's "20/20" and New York Times reporter
Barry Meier distinguished themselves by collaborating on a devastating
exposé of "personal injury lawyer Edward D. Fagan, [who] recreated
himself four years ago as [a] media-savvy figure behind huge lawsuits on
behalf of Nazi victims" as the Times's abstract puts it. The
investigation (to quote ABC) "found serious questions being raised about
this so-called savior, now accused of ignoring and neglecting some of the
very clients he had promised to help". ABC interviewed well-known
legal ethicist Stephen Gillers, who spoke in startlingly blunt terms of
his opinion of Fagan's client-handling record ("I think it's despicable";
"This is client abuse, in my view, and it should not be allowed to continue".)
As for Fagan's allegedly pivotal role in developing the WWII claims, "'We
essentially worked around him,' says New York University law professor
Burt Neuborne. 'I mean, he was, he was there, but, but he played,
if I tell you zero, I mean zero role in developing the legal theory, in
presenting the legal theory, and in participating as a lawyer,' says Neuborne."
(Brian Ross, "A Case of Self-Promotion?", ABCNews.com, Sept. 8, 2000; Connie
Chung, Sam Donaldson and others, "The Survivors" (transcript), ABCNews
"20/20", Sept. 8, 2000; Barry Meier, "An Avenger's Path: Lawyer in Holocaust
Case Faces Litany of Complaints", New York Times, Sept.
8, 2000 (abstract leads to fee-based archive); Barry Meier, "Judge
Warns Lawyer to Pay Past Penalties", Sept.
13, 2000 (same)).
But credulity springs eternal -- at least in those portions of the press
not industrious enough to do a Google search or two to check out the background
of a lawyer re-emerging into the headlines. Last week, Fagan was
all over the papers announcing that he was going to file reparations suits
against Western corporations on behalf of victims of the late apartheid
regime in South Africa. Britain's Observer swallowed his pitch
whole, bannering its article "Lawyer who championed those who suffered
in the Holocaust fights for South Africa's oppressed" and calling Fagan
the "American lawyer who won compensation for Holocaust victims".
We're sure that would come as news to Prof. Neuborne. (Terry Bell,
"Apartheid victims sue Western banks and firms for billions", The Observer,
Jun.
16).
* On New York's Niagara Frontier: "Thousands of Grand Islanders were
thankful and relieved Friday after a federal judge ruled that the Seneca
Indians do not own the land beneath their homes, businesses and public
buildings". U.S. District Judge Richard C. Arcara ruled that not
only did the Seneca tribe relinquish any legal claim they might have had
to the relevant tracts of New York state way back in 1764, but "there is
no archaeological evidence that the Senecas ever actually set foot on the
Niagara Islands." But landowners on the island are nowhere near achieving
clear title to the properties they once thought they owned, since the Senecas
vow to appeal. (Dan Herbeck and T.J. Pignataro, "Sigh of relief",
Buffalo News, Jun.
22).
Meanwhile, litigation by other tribes continues to wreak havoc across
a wide swath of New York State (see Nov.
3-5, 2000 and links from there). Last fall another such case
ended with a federal judge's ruling in favor of the Cayuga tribe, which
200 years ago sold the 64,000-acre tract to the state in violation of the
U.S. Trade and Intercourse Act. The verdict was $36.9 million to
which the judge added $211 million in interest for a grand total of $247.9
million, considerably below the $2 billion that the tribe's lawyers had
been asking for, a request that had reflected the tendency of a sum starting
off long enough ago to grow to the sky through the miracle of compound
interest. (Margaret Cronin Fisk, "200-Year-Old Land Dispute Nets
$247.9 Million", National Law Journal, Oct. 17). See also
John Caher, "New York State May Be Solely Liable for Indian Land Claims",
New York Law Journal, Apr.
2 (suit by Oneidas "demand 'ejectment' of the City of Syracuse"). Update
Jun. 29,
2005: Second Circuit panel throws out Cayugas' suit and damage award
as inconsistent with recent Supreme Court decision in City of Sherrill.
* Ah, the healing and emollient qualities of the reparations movement,
which holds out the promise of putting racial frictions finally behind
us: "A new Mobile Register - University of South Alabama survey
shows that while 67 percent of black Alabamians favor the federal government
making cash payments to slave descendants, only 5 percent of white Alabamians
agree. Among the supporters is J.L. Chestnut, a black Selma lawyer
who is part of a national legal team preparing to file reparations litigation.
... 'In five years of polling in Alabama, I have never seen an issue that
was so racially polarizing,' Nicholls [Keith Nicholls, the University of
South Alabama political science professor who oversaw the survey] said.
He added that the mere mention of reparations and an official U.S. government
apology for slavery -- another issue addressed in the poll -- caused many
white respondents to get so angry that they had trouble completing the
interview." (Sam Hodges, "Register-USA poll: slavery payments a divisive
question", Mobile Register, Jun.
23). (DURABLE LINK)
June 21-23 -- "Trolling
for litigation on eBay". Via Ernie
the Attorney: "Someone bought a packaged cheese stick that supposedly
had a human hair. They want to sue, and have posted the following
description of the
item bid for on Ebay: 'You are bidding on the opportunity to represent
us in a civil proceeding. Naturally, our discovery of this apparently
tainted product has traumatized us, and we may never be able to truly enjoy
cheese (or other dairy products, or other processed foods, or other food
for that matter) ever again. We reserve the right to review winner's
qualifications upon auction end. Winner must be a licensed attorney."
Before you ask, no, we don't know whether the person who posted the auction
is serious or not, though our guess is that they're not. Update
20:45 EDT Friday: it looks as if the eBay authorities have removed the
auction. It was discussed by users on eBay Forums (Jun.
21). (DURABLE LINK)
June 21-23 -- Tobacco
fees: a judge gets interested. Here's one to watch closely:
a Manhattan judge may finally be getting ready to delve into some of the
ethical questions raised by the 1998 tobacco
settlement, or at least the $25 billion portion of it that covers New
York state. The judge "has asked the New York attorney general's
office and several law firms to justify $625 million in attorney fees awarded"
as part of New York's settlement with the tobacco industry (see May
11, 2001). "Citing unspecified ethical concerns, Supreme Court
Justice Charles E. Ramos ordered state lawyers and attorneys from six firms
that represented the state to explain why the fees should not be set aside.
One ground for vacating the fees, the judge said, could be that the arbitrators
who awarded them may have 'manifestly disregarded well established ethical
and public policies.' Ramos suggested that the court had the power
to not only ask a new panel of arbitrators to determine reasonable fees,
but to vacate the entire $25 billion settlement, approved by another judge
in 1998, if such action was warranted. He also said the issue could
be referred to the Departmental Committee on Discipline and require the
outside firms to produce time sheets detailing their roles in the litigation."
(Tom Perrotta, "New York Judge Cites Ethics Concern Over Tobacco Case Fees",
New
York Law Journal, Jun.
20). (DURABLE LINK)
June 21-23 -- 11th
Circuit reinstates "Millionaire" lawsuit. "A federal appeals
court has reinstated a lawsuit alleging that ABC discriminates against
disabled people trying to become contestants on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire.'
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the lawsuit contained
a valid claim that the show's qualifying system, which uses touch-tone
phones, violates the Americans with Disabilities
Act." (see Nov. 7, 2000; Brian
Bandell, "Lawsuit Reinstated Against ABC Show", AP/New York Post,
Jun. 19; Susan R. Miller, "Disabled Floridians Get Shot at ABC's 'Millionaire'",
Miami Daily Business Review, Jun.
21). (DURABLE LINK)
June 21-23 -- Welcome
Grouse.net.au readers. We're picked as link of the day
on this Australian site for June 21.
Also for Jun.
21, we're Mr. Quick's "Link of the Day". Among blogs sending
us visitors lately: Tres
Producers, Flyover Country,
Aaron Haspel's God of the Machine,
Hollywood
Investigator,
Bob Owen
of the Twin Cities,
Ross Nordeen,
Ravenwolf,
Jon Garthwaite's TownHall C-Log,
Junkyard
Blog, Now
You Listen to Me Little Missy, and many others, as well as the links
page of premier Cathblogger Amy
Welborn. (DURABLE LINK)
