Pennsylvania: “The widow of an upper Bucks County man [John Heckenswiler] who killed himself after a 15-hour standoff has filed a federal lawsuit against authorities, claiming they threatened and harassed her unstable husband so severely that he chose suicide over surrender. Deborah Heckenswiler retained an attorney with a record of success in suing police — John P. Karoly Jr. of South Whitehall, who has won multimillion-dollar settlements in brutality and misconduct suits against the Bethlehem and Easton police departments in recent years. … Police violated Heckenswiler’s ‘federally guaranteed right to be free from discrimination on the basis of disability’ because of policies and practices that encouraged negligence and excessive force in dealing with the mentally ill, the suit claims.” (Daniel Patrick Sheehan, “Widow sues police; Karoly takes case”, Allentown Morning Call, Oct. 14). More: complaint here in PDF format courtesy SuicideMalpractice.Net, a website critical of lawsuits seeking to blame third parties for acts of suicide.
Great moments in predatory lending law
Paternalism in Chicago, working about as well as paternalism usually does:
The South Side neighborhoods affected by a controversial mortgage law designed to protect would-be homeowners from being gouged have seen a 45 percent drop in home sales in the law’s first month. …
Under the law, if a borrower’s credit score is 620 or less, or if there are other triggers, a borrower must get financial counseling from a U.S. Housing and Urban Development-approved counselor to make sure the borrower knows what he’s getting into, though a counselor can’t stop the loan.
The mortgage broker must pay $300 for counseling….
Some lenders have pulled out of the ZIP codes because they don’t want to deal with the accompanying paperwork. Real estate professionals have also complained that the four-year pilot law is discriminatory, because it is limited to just 10 ZIP codes.
Additionally, borrowers working through state or federally chartered banks are exempt from the law.
(Mary Wisniewski, “Mortgage law socks home sales”, Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 16).
“Legal Pad”: new Roger Parloff blog
Veteran legal journalist Roger Parloff, currently egal correspondent for Fortune, has started blogging; highly recommended, like all his writing (cross-posted from Point of Law).
Postal worker’s discourtesy didn’t cause $250K injury
When Lucille Greene went to the Magnolia, Del. post office to mail holiday fruitcakes for her relatives and friends, a postal worker said “What kind of explosives do you have in here?” and shook the box. Others laughed. The humiliation and emotional anguish, she said, reduced her to tears and caused her to trip in the parking lot with consequent injury. A federal judge has dismissed her $250,000 suit, however, “because Greene had a prior eye condition, and contradictory testimony”. (“Grandmother Mails Fruitcakes, Sues USPS”, AP/ABCNews.com, Oct. 12).
WHYY Philadelphia, “Radio Times”
I was a guest this morning on host Marty Moss-Coane’s radio program, debating Yale professor Kelly Brownell on proposed trans fat bans. For more information on that and other food issues, see this site’s Eat Drink & Be Merry page.
P.S.: Prof. Brownell claimed the proposed New York City regulation banning most uses of trans fats wouldn’t be burdensome to restaurant owners, and quoted the owner of the Carnegie Deli, which has managed to dispense with most (though not all) use of those fats. Through the miracle of Google I was able to track down the New York Times’s coverage as we spoke and so was able to read the audience the entire quote from Carnegie Deli owner Sanford Levine, which included a portion Prof. Brownell was not so eager to quote: “They shouldn’t tell a businessman how to run a business,” Levine said. “They can make suggestions, but I don’t think it should be the law.” Prof. Brownell also claimed that there had been no great outcry in New York over the rules. The Times’s headline told a different story: “Big Brother in the Kitchen? New Yorkers Balk“.
Cruise ship should have stocked opiate-antagonist meds
That’s attorney Gloria Allred’s complaint on behalf of the survivors of Ashley Barnett, who appears to have ingested Vicodin, methadone or some combination of the two while onboard the ship. Carnival says the late Ms. Barnett “was deceased well before medical assistance was summoned”. (Lisa Richardson, “Death on Ship Prompts Lawsuit”, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 13). Commenters at KevinMD do not appear impressed with the suit (Oct. 13).
Criticizing a land developer
Among those to experience the legal hazards of doing so: photographer Michael Gabor and others, facing a suit for $5 million after they posted online comments blasting the developers of a project in the historic section of Newburgh, N.Y. (Oliver Mackson, “Trouble brews in cyberspace over Newburgh blog”, Times Herald-Record, Oct. 15).
“Bully” update
Updating our Oct. 14 and Aug. 17 posts, Florida Judge Ronald Friedman, after viewing the game, chose not to censor it—this time. Whether that free-speech decision should be made by judges at all and whether Jack Thompson should be permitted to misuse public nuisance law in this way are, of course, the real issues. Needless to say, Thompson is dissatisfied with the ruling, protesting that the game was played by a Take Two executive in the one- or two-hour closed-door session with the judge, and that a longer session with a different player might have had a different result. (Bridget Carey, “Judge doesn’t object to video game ‘Bully'”, Miami Herald, Oct. 14) (via Bashman).
October 16 round-up
- “‘I’ve never felt so ill,’ says one reporter about the NY Times’s coverage of the Duke lacrosse-team case.” [New York Magazine]
- Double-standards for judicial seminars. [Point of Law; Volokh]
- 14-year-old British student arrested for not wanting to do class project with non-English speakers? [Volokh]
- Our October 13 entry on the pros and cons of complusory licensing in copyright provoked one of our longest comment threads ever.
- Will regulators shut down an aversive-stimuli special-education school? Should they? [Village Voice via Cowen]
- Cheap crime deterrent: wearing pink. [Prettier than Napoleon] Meanwhile, professors debate shaming in general. [Markel on PrawfsBlawg and SSRN; Berman; Markel reply; Kerr on Volokh; Markel reply]
- Trent Lott about to implement bad public policy out of spite. [RiskProf]
- Greg Beck has good analysis of the Emerson v. NBC garbage disposal suit. Always glad to see Public Citizen support liability reform. [CL&P]
- Is “erroneous removal” a problem? [Point of Law; TortsProf Blog]
Election watch: Sue Bell Cobb in Alabama
Sue Bell Cobb in Alabama is the trial lawyers’ choice in the upcoming election for Supreme Court Justice. Jere Beasley (a regular on Overlawyered) has used 22 different PACs to ship nearly half a million dollars her way. (See also Apr. 28, 2005 for similar machinations.) Skip Tucker of Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse has more details in today’s Anniston Star. (“Voters should consider history in court race”, Oct. 15). Trial lawyers previously supported Tom Parker in his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination against current Chief Justice Drayton Nabers (POL Jun. 7), leaving Nabers with half as much to spend on television advertising as Cobb—but, of course, the only complaints about money in this election come from groups opposed to the money the Chamber of Commerce is spending in the hopes of having honest candidates on the bench. (E.g., this press release).