This time the awful idea of installing alcohol sensors in everyone’s car has surfaced in Pennsylvania, and in worse form than ever: cars would refuse to start even when a driver’s blood alcohol level was much below the legal maximum. (Radley Balko, Reason “Hit and Run”, Mar. 27). Earlier: May 28, 2006 (New York).
Look around, there’s negligence everywhere
Around the age of eleven, I had settled on an ambition: I would become a lawyer. A friend of my Aunt Marge’s had introduced me to the wonders of the law: “Look around you — negligence everywhere, as far as the eye can see.” “How about that person crossing the street outside the crosswalk,” I asked, “is that negligence?” “It sure is.” The perspective was illuminating….I found myself in a world in which everyone was at fault for something if only you looked closely enough. This would, of course, include oneself.
“Choices and Consequences” in Mary Eberstadt, ed., Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys (Threshold Editions, 2007).
Credit where credit is due
In 2002, an 18-year old community college student named Joshua Endres signed up for a Wells Fargo credit card, allegedly based in part on the promise made by a sales representative that it could provide overdraft protection for his Wells Fargo checking account. He “does not recall” seeing any of the disclosures and disclaimers from the bank which explained to him that there’s no such thing as a free lunch — that he would be charged a fee if he overdrew his checking account.
A few months after signing up, he overdrew his account, and was charged this fee. He discovered this a few days later, when he received his credit card statement. He was so outraged by this unconscionable behavior by Wells Fargo that he immediately cancelled the card. No, not really; this isn’t April 1st. In fact, he immediately used the card for four more years, incurring at least fifty more overdraft charges. Then he filed a lawsuit demanding restitution, and compensatory and punitive damages, alleging that nobody told him that he would be charged a fee.
McCune admits Endres could have done a better job of tracking his charges. Endres once exceeded his limit 62 times in a year, causing him to pay $620 in finance charges so he could obtain $1,115 in cash.
“It took a couple of years before he sat up and noticed,” McCune said. “The information was available to him.”
That’s his own lawyer admitting that.
There are other problems with the lawsuit, related to the statute of limitations and federal preemption of California laws, but the larger issue here is that someone would fail to read his credit card agreement, incur fees for four years based on the terms of the agreement, and then try to sue on the grounds that nobody told him what the agreement said about those fees. (Oh, did I mention that Endres’s lawyer seeks to turn this into a class action lawsuit?)
April 2 roundup
- Illinois Justice Robert R. Thomas libel ruling award reduced to $4 million, but otherwise upheld by trial judge. “Essentially, the chief justice is still taking advantage of the system he dominates by trying to grab a personal windfall just because an opinion column in a newspaper speculated about politics on the bench.” (earlier) [Chicago Tribune; update from Lattman with opinion]
- Alabama woman claims Starbucks coffee caused burns when she spilled on herself, sues. But I thought only Albuquerque McDonald’s coffee could cause burns? [Birmingham News (h/t P.E.)]
- Update: Amway claims jurors in Utah case based $19.25 million award (Mar. 21) on number of P&G lawyers sitting at the table and engaged in improper averaging to reach nonunanimous result. [Salt Lake Tribune]
- Copyright claimed in hedge-fund advertising brochure posted by blog [DealBreaker; Reuters]
- N.D. Cal. federal judge: National Environmental Policy Act can be used to make speculative global-warming arguments against overseas government investment. [AP/Forbes]
- Honor among thieves? Law firms turn on Milberg Weiss [press release]
- Lawyer-to-the-stars Marty Singer (Dec. 9, Jan. 27, 2006) was also paid $25k from Senator Harry Reid’s campaign fund in failed attempt to squash AP coverage of fishy land deal. [WaPo]
- Consumer World head has an idea that is so good, it must be mandated. [Kazman @ CEI Open Market]
- This date in Overlawyered. 2001: NY legislature refuses to act on accident fraud. 2002: Roger Parloff on 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. 2004: Reparations claims against the British over 19th century actions. 2006: $1M for the first fifteen minutes of unlawful detention, $1M/year thereafter.
“Send settlement offer form letter. Pray”
This “lawsuit decision matrix” is just a parody, the real-life RIAA would never litigate abusively (BBSpot via everybody).
“NYPD’s fault my cop wife shot me”
“The ‘Casanova’ cop who was allegedly shot by his wife, a fellow officer, as payback for his wandering eye is suing the NYPD for $3 million, claiming they should have known she was too nuts to carry a gun. … Alison [Spicer-Jamison] is charged with shooting Todd [Jamison], 44, in a jealous rage last April 10 when she learned he’d strayed from their marital bed less than a year after they married. … Todd Jamison’s suit also names the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the City of New York, the NYPD, and his wife, who’s currently incarcerated at Rikers Island, awaiting a trial date.” (Stefanie Cohen, New York Post, Mar. 31).
“Homeless men win $45,000 in suit over sleeping near feces”
“Three homeless men mistakenly arrested last year on charges of sleeping too close to a pile of feces have settled a lawsuit against the city of Las Vegas for $45,000.” Police made the arrest although a sleeping-too-close-to-feces provision in one of the city’s ordinances had in fact recently been repealed. The ACLU of Nevada proceeded to sue:
The men sought $2 million each in compensatory and punitive damages. Their attorney E. Brent Bryson said Wednesday the $45,000 settlement was reasonable.
“The realities are that these individuals are not capable of maintaining and sustaining an ongoing litigation,” he said. “This quick money to them represents an ability for them to get back on their feet.”
Bryson collected a $15,000 fee from the settlement.
Two of the three men say they haven’t decided yet what to do with their $10,000 windfalls, a sum that will equally well pay for a fair bit of not-getting-back-on-their-feet should they choose to spend it that way. (“Vegas homeless men win $45,000 in suit over sleeping near feces”, AP/Las Vegas Sun, Mar. 29; “Homeless men win $45,000 settlement with City of Las Vegas”, KVBC, Mar. 29).
That’ll teach her
A schoolteacher in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana would take about 30 1/2 years in the classroom to earn $1.4 million dollars, at the district’s average salary of approximately $46,000 per year. Or, such a teacher could convince a jury to award that much money for “mental anguish” by claiming that her employer harassed her after she gave Ds and Fs to 70% of the students she taught.
Doing serious time for undersize lobsters
The sad case of seafood importer (and now federal prison inmate) David Henson McNab may be the sort of thing Alexander Hamilton had in mind when he wrote of the presidential pardon power: “The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.” (Jonathan Rauch, “Pardon Libby? Maybe, But Not Alone”, National Journal, Mar. 30)(will rotate off free National Journal site, check then at author’s site or Reason).
Orwell rights-holder vs. down-with-Hillary ad
Back in the actual calendar year 1984, for what it’s worth, the operation of copyright law was a lot gentler toward political satirists and other public commentators (Boing Boing, Mar. 28)(via Glenn Reynolds).