In Valparaiso, Indiana, Martha Seroczynski stages weekly protests at the county courthouse against the war in Iraq. The Porter County Board of Commissioners has asked her to show proof of homeowner’s insurance and name the county as an additional insured. It’s a county policy of some years’ standing; “Valparaiso Elks Club member Jeanie Stevens said her organization was required to show proof of insurance for its Flag Day ceremony on June 14 at the square.” Ms. Seroczynski’s insurer, however, has raised objections, and that’s aside from the question of why having insurance should be a prerequisite for the right to protest in the first place. County attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger has attempted to resolve the problem by asking Ms. S to sign a waiver promising not to sue the county if injured, but she refuses. “Her right to protest does not relieve us of our responsibility to protect the liability of the other 140,000 citizens of this county,” County Commissioner John Evans has said. (“War protester asked for insurance proof to continue protests”, AP/Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel, Aug. 27; Robyn Monaghan, “Protester furor fuels free speech debate”, Northwest Indiana Times, Sept. 6).
“10 wacky airline lawsuits”
Sources and, in all too many instances, identifying details are missing, but maybe you could inquire further through the author’s website. (James Wysong, MSNBC, Sept. 15).
The next class-action defendant?
Mike of the Crime & Federalism blog seems to have identified the next culprit to blame for the obesity epidemic. The record, however, should reflect that I beat him to the punch in publishing, in a law-review article that a reader informs me is the first to mention Count Chocula in the footnotes.
Sexist beer ads
Now it’s a group of Italian female lawyers who are suing to suppress that particular variety of commercial speech. (Nick Pisa, “Parking is no joke as Italy’s women sue over beer ad”, Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Sept. 17). For earlier precedents in the U.S. (Stroh’s sued over “Swedish bikini team”) and Canada (Ontario vs. Molson’s and Labatt’s ads), see Carlin Meyer, “Sex, Sin, and Women’s Liberation: Against Porn-Suppression”, Texas Law Review, April 1994 (PDF), at footnote 314. Another example: RealBeer.com, July 16, 1999 (Venezuela).
Comair: “Second autopsies possible”
In Flight 5191’s aftermath: “Some families are planning to hire private pathologists to perform second, independent autopsies, in addition to the ones performed by the state medical examiner’s office.” The idea would be to look for evidence that victims did not die from blunt force trauma from the crash, as officially conducted autopsies suggest, but instead survived that trauma and thus could have suffered prolonged agonies in the ensuing blaze, as Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn initially assumed before getting the autopsy results. If an argument could be sustained that the loved ones’ sufferings were prolonged, the door would be opened to getting huge additional monetary awards from defendants, aside from the millions expected to be paid anyway. (Linda B. Blackford, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, Sept. 17).
Gun rights, in many languages
Gun control groups and transnational bureaucracies sympathetic to their cause imagined that it would be easy work to float new treaties and other initiatives restricting gun sales and ownership. Then 64 percent of Brazilians voted against a gun ban, and an unwelcome truth began to dawn on them: talk of individual rights is not just something for Americans. (Joshua Kurlantzick, “Idea Lab: Global Gun Rights?”, New York Times Magazine, Sept. 17).
WBAL “Ron Smith show”
I was a guest on the high-rated Baltimore show this afternoon, discussing my BlackBerry column.
New Times column — BlackBerry suits?
My latest column for the Times Online (U.K.) is now up and deals with one academic’s recent prediction that employers would become targets of lawsuits based on their workers’ BlackBerry addictions. An excerpt:
…it made a perfect hey-Martha-look-at-this story, arriving amid the August silly season. As it happens, media people love to confess to their own BlackBerry addictions, which subtly reflect their own importance (people need to reach me day and night!) and in any case make a more agreeable topic of conversation than their gin, shopping or sex addictions….
All that having been said, it’s very unlikely that employers need worry about BlackBerry-addiction suits. Despite rumors to the contrary, American courts have not in fact been much inclined to let sunken-eyed Jane blame her addictions on deep-pocketed James. Compulsive gamblers’ suits have mostly flopped so far – as have those alleging videogame addiction – while the very modest success enjoyed by plaintiffs in fast-food lawsuits has come on other legal theories, such as ingredient mis-labelling.
(Walter Olson, “BlackBerry suits?”, Sept. 18). For earlier posts on the subject, see Aug. 25 (Ted), Sept. 8 (me)(bumped from mid-morning post).
Efficiency and safety
Justinian Lane writes in the comments: “I oppose any tort reform measure that places corporate efficiency ahead of the public safety.”
I don’t believe him. I mean, perhaps Lane honestly believes that one can always put safety ahead of efficiency, but if so, it’s because he hasn’t thought about it very deeply.
Upwardly mobile GOP trial lawyers, cont’d
Florida gubernatorial nominee (and incumbent state AG) Charlie Crist (Feb. 3) has picked Jeff Kottkamp, a “mostly conservative” state representative, to be the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor. Kottkamp, a plaintiff’s lawyer, was the only Republican to break ranks and vote against joint-and-several liability reform. (Brian E. Crowley, “Conservative trial lawyer joins Crist on GOP ticket”, Palm Beach Post, Sept. 14). See also Aug. 18, 2005, and other related: May 21 and Jan. 17, 2006, as well as Ted’s of Aug. 22, 2005, etc.