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ARCHIVE -- FEBRUARY 2003
(I)
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February 10 --
By reader acclaim: "Student sues to get A+, not A". Memphis,
Mich.: "A high school senior says
he earned an A+, not an A, and has sued to get the grade changed to bolster
his chance at becoming valedictorian." Brian Delekta's suit "names the
school principal, superintendent and all seven school board members as
defendants." (AP/CNN, Feb.
6). (DURABLE LINK)
February 10 --
"Woman files $500,000 lawsuit for 'ruined' fingernail".
Also from Michigan: "A Clinton Township woman who had a $5 fingernail repair
job done at a local salon now wants $500,000 or more in damages, claiming
a beautician nicked her finger with cuticle scissors." Ann Laerzio's
lawyer says she had to undergo surgery after a resulting infection: "The
$500,000 figure isn't necessarily what we'll get (in court). It's to put
some attention to the case, and to how important we consider it.'" (Chad
Halcom, Macomb Daily, Feb.
5). (DURABLE LINK)
February 10 --
Asbestos: "better than the lottery". Inside one asbestos
client-recruitment operation: "[A]s many as 70,000 new [lawsuits] are added
each year. Most are workers or retirees invited into medical screenings
by lawyers offering quick money. ... 'I saw the notice in the union newsletter
and said, "Why not?"' said an automotive worker from Ford. Sitting on the
tailgate of his shiny, new Chevy pickup and lighting a fresh cigarette
off the one he had just finished, he added: 'It's better than the lottery.
If they find something, I get a few thousand dollars I didn't have. If
they don't find anything, I've just lost an afternoon.' Standing nearby,
a Boeing worker 10 days from retirement volunteered, 'The lawyers said
I could get $10,000 or $12,000 if the shadow [on the x-ray] is big enough,
and I know just the fishing boat I'd buy with that.' Asked if he'd ever
worked with asbestos, he said, 'No, but lawyers say it's all over the place,
so I was probably exposed to it.'" (Andrew Schneider, "Asbestos lawsuits
anger critics", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Feb.
8). (DURABLE LINK)
February 6-9 --
After failed workplace romance, a $1.3 million bill. After
a three day trial, a jury has ordered the village of Bloomingdale, Illinois
to pay $1.3 million dollars to a former employee who alleged that supervisors
ignored
her complaints about a co-worker who she said continued to pester her
after their romantic relationship ended. Worse yet, the village had
given the man a promotion. "Something every manager who thinks he
or she can date a subordinate without inviting trouble should think about,"
comments EmployersLawyer (Feb.
3; Christy Gutowski, "Lost suit to cost village $1 million", Daily
Herald (suburban Chicago), Feb.
2). (DURABLE LINK)
February 6-9 --
Discovery abuse: spitballs at the Opera. In a 148-page
opinion, federal judge Loretta Preska ruled that New York's Metropolitan
Opera was entitled to judgment in a defamation case and an award of attorney
fees because of misconduct by Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees International Union and the union's law firm, Herrick Feinstein.
Judge Preska said lawyers with the firm "completely abdicated their responsibilities".
"I am certainly familiar, both from practice and from my time on the bench,
with discovery disputes that devolve into arguments about which child threw
the first spitball," the judge declared. "The discovery process in this
case, however, transcended the usual clashes between adversaries, sharp
elbows, spitballs, and even Rambo litigation tactics." (Mark Hamblett,
"Firm's Discovery Abuse Leads to Win for Met Opera", New York Law Journal,
Jan.
29). (DURABLE LINK)
February 6-9 --
Do as we say dept.: Wellstone campaign didn't buy workers' comp for its
employees. Although the late Sen. Paul Wellstone was a
noted backer of stringent anti-employer legislation, it was disclosed last
Friday that Wellstone's re-election campaign had failed to purchase workers'
compensation insurance to cover its own employees,
four of whom were killed with the senator in last October's plane crash.
Instead, a state fund is now being obliged to cover a large share of the
benefits expected by the aides' families. "State law requires employers
to buy worker's compensation insurance as a safety net in the event workers
are injured or killed while on the job. But election campaigns are believed
to widely overlook the requirement." Translation: we don't
have to obey that stuff, do we? (Greg Gordon, "Wellstone campaign aides
weren't covered by worker's comp insurance", Minneapolis Star Tribune,
Feb.
1). (DURABLE LINK)
February 6-9 --
Tort suits over global warming. "Rather than treaties
and regulations, litigation may soon be the weapon of choice for those
concerned about human-induced global
warming." Among other efforts is that of recent Yale Law grad David
Grossman: "In a paper to be published in the Columbia Journal of Environmental
Law, Grossman argues that tort litigation over global warming -- in which
communities or states seek damages from oil companies, electric utilities
and automobile manufacturers -- is entirely feasible." Among the
desired effects: to "make fossil fuels more expensive and thus force corporations
to pay more attention to renewable energy. ... So don’t be surprised if
'See you in court' becomes the environmentalist's new rallying cry."
(Madhusree Mukerjee, "Greenhouse Suits: Litigation becomes a tool against
global warming", Scientific American, Feb.
3) (see Jul. 31, 2001). (DURABLE
LINK)
February 4-5 --
We own e-commerce. A little-known company in San Diego
named PanIP, or Pangea Intellectual
Properties, holds patents which
it claims cover basic elements of electronic commerce. It files lawsuits
against businesses across the country, particularly small and medium-sized
companies engaged in Internet sales, and then demands sums ranging to $30,000
or more in exchange for dropping the complaints. Some of PanIP's
targets have organized a website entitled YouMayBeNext.com
to spread the alarm and encourage resistance. (Jon Van, "Firm claims
patent on e-commerce", Chicago Tribune/Newark Star-Ledger,
Feb.
3; "Every E-Commerce Site is Threatened", press release, Internet News
Bureau, Jul.
11; Slashdot thread, May
2002). (DURABLE LINK)
February 4-5 --
"Governance by Lawyers". "Tort law is not the only aspect
of the litigation spectrum that should be on Congress' agenda this term.
Congress should also address the phenomenon known as institutional reform
litigation. We refer to the process -- which has grown exponentially over
the last 30 years -- in which advocacy groups bring suits resulting in
consent decrees; those decrees then effectively -- and inflexibly -- run
public agencies and institutions, sometimes for decades. Institutional
reform decrees dealing with special education, foster care, mental health,
public health and dozens of other state and local programs continue --
sometimes decades after their issuance -- without any real regard to whether
court control still is needed to protect rights or whether the decree is
the best way to achieve statutory goals. Courts base these cases mostly
on rights embedded in federal statutes like the Americans With [Disabilities]
Act or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act." Ross Sandler
and David Schoenbrod summarize the argument of their important new book
Democracy
by Decree (National Law Journal, Jan.
20). (DURABLE
LINK)
February 4-5 --
Slip, fall, learn who to blame. Law firm promotion, or
lawsuit incitement? On the website of Florida plaintiff's firm Jacobs
and Goodman is found the following passage: "In the United States, more
than a million people are injured each year in falls. Oftentimes, if your
loved one has been previously injured or is elderly or disabled, you might
have a tendency to assume that they are responsible for the accident. However,
we at Jacobs & Goodman have worked with kinesiologists to help us understand
the study of motion and to help you, the injured, look beyond your assumptions
to find the actual cause of the accident." ("Premises
Liability" section) (DURABLE LINK)
February 4-5 --
Sanity restored? Three cases ruled on by the courts in
the last month or so "offer hope that sanity can be restored to product
liability litigation", writes syndicated columnist Jacob Sullum.
Besides the dismissal of a McDonald's-obesity case by a New York judge,
and one of the pack of pending individual-smoker cases by a California
judge, "a Florida judge threw out a verdict against the gun
distributor that sold the pistol used by 12-year-old Nathaniel Brazill
to kill schoolteacher Barry Grunow in the summer of 2000. Last November
a jury found the distributor, Valor Corp., 5 percent responsible for Grunow's
death and said it should pay $1.2 million to his widow." (see Dec.
13-15). Cites our editor's new book on issues of jury selection ("Defective
Arguments", Jan. 31).
Also see Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review "The Corner", Jan.
14. (DURABLE
LINK)
February 3 -- Claim:
marriage impaired by tough bagel. Panama City Beach, Fla.:
"A couple is suing the franchisee of a McDonald's restaurant, claiming
an improperly prepared bagel damaged the husband's teeth and their marriage."
John and Cecelia O'Hare "contend in the suit that John O'Hare broke teeth
and bridgework on Feb. 1, 2002 when he bit into the bagel. The suit did
not say what exactly was wrong with the bagel. The suit alleges the wife
'lost the care, comfort, consortium and society of her husband.' ... Tracey
Johnstone, owner of [franchisee/defendant] Johnstone Foods, said she never
before had a bagel complaint and had no idea how it could have been prepared
in a way that would damage teeth. 'It's a bagel,' she said." ("Couple Sue
McDonald's Over Tough Bagel", AP/Kansas City Star, Feb.
1). (DURABLE LINK)
February 3 -- NFL
said to blame for Bengals' haplessness. Cincinnati: "Hamilton
County Commissioner Todd Portune sued the Bengals and the National Football
League claiming the team violated its stadium lease by failing to be competitive.
Portune filed the lawsuit Thursday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court
as a private taxpayer, without backing from other commissioners. The complaint,
which also named the other 31 NFL franchises as defendants, alleges fraud,
civil conspiracy, antitrust violations and breach of contract." In
return for municipal concessions on stadium construction, "the Bengals
promised to field a competitive team, Portune said. Cincinnati hasn't made
the playoffs since 1990, and just finished the worst season in franchise
history at 2-14." (Terry Kinney, "Commissioner sues Bengals, NFL", AP/Cincinnati
Enquirer,
Jan.
31). (DURABLE LINK)
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