Following up on our Sept. 22 post: Australia’s Attorney General Philip Ruddock says his office will appeal against a judge’s award of extensive public land holdings in and around the city of Perth to aboriginal tribes. (Amanda Banks and Rhianna King, “Ruddock confirms native title appeal as State payout tipped”, The West Australian, Oct. 6; Stephanie Peatling, “Ruddock to challenge native title ruling over Perth”, Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 6; Ben Martin and Amanda Banks, “Hills parks open to native title: judge”, Oct. 4).
Salonquest scare letter: photos of our products violate our copyright
Public Citizen Litigation Group’s Greg Beck blogs a refutation though, alas, he doesn’t single out the attorney who makes the absurd claim. Beck notes the problem:
Even if a claim like Aquage’s is without legal merit, however, many small online sellers who receive a threat like this would rather cut their losses and back down than risk a lawsuit. It’s usually not worth hiring a lawyer when you are only hoping to make a few bucks off the sale in the first place.
Indeed.
Jackpot justice: $217M for misdiagnosed stroke in Florida
[Bumping October 5 9AM post to reflect new details.]
$100.1 million in punitive damages, and the “compensatory” award is almost certainly mostly non-economic damages, though the press coverage does not distinguish. (Thomas W. Krause, “Jury Puts Punitive Award At $100 Million”, Tampa Tribune, Oct. 3). TortsProf blog, Peter Lattman, Kevin MD, and Greedy Trial Lawyer comment. So no one accuses us of unfairness, we’ll repeat the GTL summary of the case:
ProAssurance’s subsidiary, ProNational Insurance Co., was the malpractice insurer for a doctor’s group running a Tampa area hospital emergency room where patient Allan Navarro’s stroke was misdiagnosed by an unlicensed physician’s assistant as a headache and sinus infection.
[Plaintiffs’ attorney Steve] Yerrid told the Tampa newspaper he tried to get the insurance company to settle for the maximum allowed under the policy – $1 million for the doctor and $1 million for the physicians’ group. Instead, he said, the insurance company wanted to settle for $300, offering $100 for Navarro, $100 for his wife and $100 for his 10-year-old son.
Update: Daily Business Review has a more detailed summary than the mainstream press:
On Aug. 9, 2000, Navarro, who was a professional basketball player in his native Philippines, entered University Community Hospital-Carrollwood with a headache, nausea, dizziness, confusion and double vision. He described a personal medical history of hypertension, diabetes and elevated cholesterol plus a family history of strokes to the triage nurse. A different nurse than the triage nurse also noted he was unsteady on his feet.
When Navarro spoke with Herranz in the examination room, he mentioned the sudden onset of a headache earlier that day and that he had felt a “pop” in his head.
According to the 2005 second amended complaint, Herranz did not complete an adequate medical history of Narvarro, nor did he do a complete or adequate neurological exam.
Navarro spent about 5 1/2 hours at UCH-Carrollwood, during which time he had two CT scans of his brain and was diagnosed with “sinusitis/headache” by Austin, prescribed Vicodin for the pain and an antibiotic by the doctor and sent home. He was not told to watch for any stroke symptoms.
The suit alleged that Navarro presented classic stroke symptoms that Austin should have noticed. It further said that CT scans are not adequate diagnostic tools for ruling out the type of stroke Navarro had.
Early the next morning, Navarro woke with a severe headache, slurred speech, nausea, confusion and trouble walking. He was readmitted to the UCH-Carrollwood Emergency Room at 6:05 a.m. Upon his return, he was labeled “urgent,” but doctors still had not diagnosed a stroke. It wasn’t until he was transferred to Carrollwood’s sister hospital, UCH-Fletcher, that afternoon that surgery was finally performed. By then, the stroke had already left him paralyzed with mental disabilities. During surgery, he slipped into a four-month coma. He is now confined to a wheelchair.
(Rebecca Riddick, “Judge Halts Defendants’ Bid to Avoid $116M Med-Mal Verdict”, Oct. 6).
Multiple issues here:
Grandparent rights? “Court fights hurt children”
USA Today editorial opposing creating enforceable rights of grandparent visitation. A supporter writes a counter-editorial. (Both via Bashman.) We explored the problems Aug. 30, 2004 and Oct. 21, 2002.
Lockyer flayed on autos-‘n’-global-warming suit
It’s “kooky” and “trivializes a serious problem”, editorializes the Los Angeles Times: “California shouldn’t be in the business of filing meritless suits to gain leverage in other cases“. “It’s not his job to make law through frivolous lawsuits,” opines the San Jose Mercury News (via Wilson). It’s “reprehensible… little more than a political stunt,” adds the Orange County Register. Veteran political columnist Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee terms the suit “Lockyer’s bid to become the champion of cheesiness“. One who does like the suit, curiously enough: an environmental adviser to Gov. Schwarzenegger named Terry Tamminen. And the San Francisco Chronicle investigates: what do state lawmakers drive? More here, here and here (cross-posted from Point of Law).
Coffee shop owner sues Starbucks
On antitrust grounds:
In her lawsuit, [Penny Stafford of Belvi Coffee & Tea Exchange] says that Starbucks employees would make frequent runs past the deli with free samples. She said that Starbucks also had non-competitive leases that blocked her from the most desirable locations in Bellevue and Seattle.
The suit claims that Starbucks, fueled by “insatiable and unchecked ambition,” wanted to squash all competition.
John Stott, who owns Johnika’s Deli, said that he advised Stafford not to open a business so near a Starbucks.
Representing Stafford in the suit is Overlawyered favorite Hagens Berman Sobol & Shapiro. (“Coffee shop owner sues Starbucks”, UPI/MonstersAndCritics, Sept. 27; Melissa Allison, “Starbucks sued over ‘unchecked ambition'”, Seattle Times, Sept. 26; Keith Sharfman, Truth on the Market, Sept. 25; Lattman, Sept. 27).
Neuborne fee fracas, cont’d
Round-up
Some quick links:
- Michael Krauss reviews a Mississippi Court of Appeals decision on a bogus fender-bender claim. [Point of Law; Gilbert v. Ireland]
- Yet another example of overbroad laws on sex offenders (see also Jul. 3, 2005). [Above the Law]
- “As far as the law is concerned, those individuals whose pacemakers fail are the lucky ones.” [TortsProf Blog]
- Emerson Electric sues NBC in St. Louis over a scene in an hourly drama where a cheerleader mangles her hand in a branded garbage disposal. [Hollywood Reporter, Esq.; Lattman; Defamer and Defamer update; St. Louis Post Dispatch]
- A case that’s really not about the money: Man stiffs restaurant over $46 check, defends himself against misdemeanor charge with $500/lawyer. [St. Petersburg Times; Obscure Store]
- Bill Childs catches yet another Justinian Lane misrepresentation. See also Sep. 26 and Sep. 17 (cf. related posts on Lane’s co-blogger Oct. 3 and Sep. 25), and we might just have to retire the category, since we can only hope to scratch the surface. Point of Law has the Gary Schwartz law review article discussed by Childs. [TortsProf Blog and ] Lane’s post also deliberately confuses non-economic damages caps with total damages caps: nothing stops someone with more than $250,000 in economic damages from recovering more than $250,000, even in a world with non-economic damages caps.
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Update: Bill Childs in the comments-section to Lane:
“Of course, all of this gets pretty far afield from what I originally wrote and that you’ve conceded, which is that you (unintentionally but sloppily) misrepresented the facts of the Pinto memo, failed to research its background beyond what was apparently represented to you, and still haven’t (last time I checked, at 9:10 p.m.) updated your site to reflect your error. Nor have you approved the trackback I sent to the site. You’ve posted comments to that very entry and another entry has gone up on the site, but readers still see the plainly inaccurate statement that the memo excerpt you show was Ford evaluating tort liability for rearendings, when in fact it was Ford evaluating a regulatory proposal for rollovers using numbers from NHTSA.
Update: “11th Circuit Upholds Dismissal of McDonald’s From Strip-Search Suit”
Heads I win, tails don’t count files: Ohio HMO suit
The US Supreme Court denied certiorari on United HealthCare’s attempt to enforce an arbitration agreement in its contracts with doctors who filed an Ohio class action over reimbursements. The underlying class action is essentially identical to one that a federal court threw out as meritless in July, though this isn’t mentioned in the television coverage, much less that from Bizarro-Overlawyered. The Class Action Fairness Act effectively ends this sort of Russian-roulette game where plaintiffs get multiple chances to win a gigantic class action by filing in multiple jurisdictions, but does not apply to class actions (like this one) filed before 2004.
The AMA has supported these lawsuits, which is disappointing, to be sure; as I noted on Point of Law in July, “Next time the AMA complains about the costs of excessive meritless litigation, they can perhaps look in the mirror.”
The plaintiffs’ attorney is Overlawyered favorite Stanley Chesley: see Jul. 4, Mar. 6, Aug. 24, 2005, et cetera.