I’m scheduled to be a guest on San Antonio’s KAHL 1310 AM today at 1:30 p.m. Central, discussing Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat on the Supreme Court.
Corey Romagnano v. Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District
Santa Susana Park prohibits rock-climbing, and has even partially fenced off a 100-foot rock face there. Nonetheless, 13-year-old Corey Romagnano climbed it anyway, and is in a coma after suffering skull fractures from falling off the cliff. The resulting lawsuit is especially critical of the park district for situating a baseball field beneath the cliff because it “made the hillside even more dangerous and attractive to children who would want to watch the game or activities.”
“We have all kinds of parks and open space — 5,000 acres worth. The open space is available for use by the public and we can’t protect everyone from everything. You can’t eliminate risk of injury,” said Larry Peterson, the park district’s general manager.
(Angie Valencia-Martinez, “District sued over boy’s fall from park cliff”, LA Daily News, Jun. 25 (via Common Good Society Watch)).
Update: the juror and the newspaper
The story of the mistrial in the murder prosecution of Gerardo N. Lara Sr., caused by Lindy L. Heaster’s purchase (Apr. 22, Apr. 25), is quietly resolved with a payment of $21,290 in restitution, and a sentence of 250 hours of community service and a suspended sentence of six months. Prosecutors won’t pursue perjury charges. (Maria Hegstad, “Juror fined for lying”, Potomac News, Jul. 2; Stephanie McCrummen, “Juror ‘Panicked,’ Lied to Va. Judge”, Washington Post, Jul. 6).
$12.8M for bed-ridden schizophrenic’s amputation
62-year-old Kenneth F. Morris is both paraplegic and a schizophrenic. He refused to cooperate with the doctors and nurses at other hospitals, and when he arrived at Western Convalescent Hospital, he had infected bedsores, which eventually resulted in the amputation of his leg below the knee. A Los Angeles County jury held the nursing care facility 90% responsible for the injury, and awarded over $12 million in compensatory and punitive damages. “A spokeswoman for the California Department of Health Services, which inspects and licenses nursing homes, said state officials had never received a complaint about Morris’ injuries and had no plans to investigate.” (Jack Leonard, “Abuse Victim Wins Award”, Los Angeles Times, Jul. 2; plaintiffs’ law firm summary). The award will likely be lowered somewhat later in the litigation process, but the trial court is still likely to award between $3 and $6 million.
Disgruntled Talk Show Caller Presses Age Discrimination Lawsuit
Controversial Talk Show Host Tom Leykis bluntly told a caller that he was too old to be a caller. Specifically, Leykis said: “You’re not just older than my demographic, you’re the grandfather of my demographic.” You can read the entire transcript of the call at this June 19, 2005 post at LawLimits.com.
The caller, Marty Ingels, was upset and naturally filed a lawsuit alleging, among other things, violations of California’s laws prohibiting discrimination. In response, the radio show filed an an anti-SLAPP motion to obtain a quick dismissal of the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds. The trial court granted the motion to strike and Ingels, the caller, appealed. The Court of Appeal upheld the trial court’s ruling.
Tomorrow’s edition of Calendar Live continues the saga. Ingels is now petitioning the California Supreme Court to reinstate the lawsuit and plans to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if the California high court fails to take action.
Overlawyered previously reported about the case on June 10, 2005. (“Not too old to sue Tom Leykis”, Robert W. Welkos, Los Angeles Times – Calendar Live, July 6, 2005.)
Early PDA Pioneer Takes on Microsoft in Decades-Old Anti-Trust Dispute
Jerrold Kaplan, an inventor of an early handwriting recognition device for computers in the late 80’s, has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft. The suit alleges that Microsoft’s Bill Gates actively sought to prevent other companies from doing business with Kaplan in order to eliminate Kaplan’s company. (“Computing pioneer says Microsoft conspired to ‘kill’ his company,” Greg Sandolval, AP News/North County Times, Jul. 5, 2005).
Jim Bohannon Show tonight
I’m scheduled to appear as a guest on the very popular Westwood One radio show tonight at 11 p.m. Eastern (refeeds for West Coast), discussing the coming Supreme Court battle.
New guestblogger Jeff Lewis
We’re pleased to announce that Jeff Lewis, who publishes the well-established Southern California Law Blog (cited in this space numerous times) and the promising new LawLimits (on which see Jul. 1), has agreed to join us this week as a guestblogger.
Deep Impact Update
With yesterday’s successful crash into a comet by NASA’s “Deep Impact” probe, the press is remembering a Russian astrologer’s nine-billion-ruble lawsuit in Moscow court claiming that the mission will “deform her horoscope.” (She claims it’s not about the money.)
We covered this on May 19, and the press reports that the case is scheduled for trial July 28. NASA representatives did not attend a July 4 hearing. Russian law supposedly allows “plaintiffs to recover an amount equal to the cost of the undertaking that allegedly does the harm.” (“Lawsuit aims to halt comet bomb”, Baltimore Sun, Jun. 27; AP, Jul. 5; Itar-TASS, Jul. 4).
Welcome Mona Charen readers
She gives both me and this website a kind mention in her column (“Stupid lawyer tricks”, syndicated/Jewish World Review, Jul. 1). The case of Carl Murphy, the young criminal trespasser in England, can be found here. Other cases mentioned (yes, we had them) include: drunk passed out in snowbank; Milwaukee volunteer; fen-phen indictments; train crash worsened his drinking.
In other publicity, columnist James Pinkerton quotes me on a New York federal judge’s ruling on panhandling which is likely to lead to the enrichment of some fairly unsavory characters (“Limousine Liberals and Crime on the Rise”, syndicated/Newsday, Jun. 14, reprinted at New America Foundation). State, Court and County Law Libraries News, newsletter of a subgroup of the American Association of Law Libraries, includes us on a short list of legal weblogs “you might want to check out” (Winter 2005, p. 21, PDF). And we figure in the Thomas-Jefferson-themed Blawg Review #13, this week’s assemblage of posts worth noting from law-related weblogs. (bumped Tues. morning).