Distinguished co-thinker of this site

From a report on an Apr. 5 Phoenix symposium on health care sponsored by Arizona State University: “[Former Sen. and vice presidential candidate John] Edwards, once a highly successful plaintiff’s personal-injury lawyer, also pointed to lawyers as a problem. They need to be held accountable for frivolous lawsuits that help drive up the cost of malpractice insurance.” (Jodie Snyder, “Ex-senator urging changes in U.S. health care system”, Arizona Republic, Apr. 6).

“Garbage Plate” vs. “Plat du Refuse”

In Rochester there’s a food fight going on in court over a dubious local culinary specialty, the “Garbage Plate”, which consists per AP of “a heaping platter of hot dogs or hamburger, home fries, macaroni salad and baked beans smothered in a meaty hot sauce”. Nick Tahou’s restaurant has held a registered trademark to the Depression-era dish since 1992 and may fear, like the promoter of the breakfast health food in the Saki story, losing its market supremacy once rivals introduce yet more unpalatable-sounding concoctions. Copycat platters sold by other Rochester restaurants include Messy Plate, Sloppy Plate, Dog Dish and Plat du Refuse. (Ben Dobbin, “In Rochester food fight, ‘Garbage Plate’ takes on ‘Plat du Refuse'”, AP/Buffalo News, Apr. 9).

Banks’ international customer records

The feds want unprecedented authority to snoop into them, but say it’s only to combat money laundering and terrorist finance — for now, at least. They’ve been tightening the screws on banks that aren’t forthcoming enough in reporting cash transfers deemed suspicious: “Some smaller community banks have sold out to larger companies for fear of increased liability, banking officials say, and banks have dropped some money-transmittal businesses that do significant business overseas because of the risk. Some executives, meanwhile, are steering away from serving on bank boards, concerned that they will be hit with punitive measures, banking industry officials say.” But the regulations do not seem especially promising in blocking money transfers intended to abet terrorism, most of which are smallish in size or otherwise not facially suspicious. (Eric Lichtblau, “U.S. Seeks Access to Bank Records to Deter Terror”, New York Times, Apr. 10). For more, see my Reason column for Mar. 1999.

Gift card shenanigans and other Madison County follies

When one uses a Wal-Mart gift card for a purchase of less than the amount of the gift card, the remainder remains on the gift card for use in future purchases. This wasn’t enough for Ashley Peach, who used two $10 gift cards to buy $18.61 worth of stuff at Wal-Mart, and was upset that she wasn’t given $1.39 in cash as change. So she’s suing, demanding punitive damages, and seeking class action status in Madison County. Her lawyers: the Lakin Law Firm. Having found gift cards such a traumatic experience, you’d think Peach would avoid them, but she has two essentially identical suits pending against K-Mart and Fashion Bug for similar misunderstandings. (Steve Gonzalez, “$1.39? Wal-Mart next in line for Peach”, Madison County Record, Nov . 7).

The Peach family are frequent Madison County litigants, with at least five suits going in the system, including a very strange suit against Granite City, where Armettia Peach paid $68,900 (including $20,000 in cash) for a house she had never seen, sued Granite City and some bystanders for allegedly failing to inspect a leaky roof, sold the house for $40,000 to a LLC that then sold it to Granite City’s mayor’s sister-in-law for $57,000–and then received a $104,000 default judgment from Granite City (including $26,000 in legal fees to the Lakin Law Firm), when the town failed to respond to the complaint. Something fishy is going on here, but one doesn’t know what, and whether Granite City officials are victims or participants in something sinister. (Steve Korris, “Plaintiff Peach awarded windfall judgment against Granite City”, Madison County Record, Mar. 31; Steve Korris, “Anatomy of Peach v. Granite City”, Madison County Record, Mar. 31; Steve Korris, “Home repairman gets trapped in legal web”, Madison County Record, Mar. 31).

Regulation of non-profits

The aim of proposals before the Senate Finance Committee may be to crack down on financial abuses by some charitable entities, but the result could be to impose onerous regulatory burdens on the good and bad alike. (Heather Higgins, “Death by Bureaucracy”, OpinionJournal/WSJ, Apr. 10).

Apology privilege

Last year (see May 19) Jack Henneman of TigerHawk discussed the “apology privilege” for doctors that is under debate in a number of states (which would shield physicians from having apologies to patients used as evidence against them in court), and suggested that it might make sense to apply the principle to everyone, not just doctors. Now he’s got some further thoughts and a concrete proposal (Apr. 9).

Can’t patent the crustless PB&J

Smuckers’ patent no. 6,004,596, which attempted to claim, inter alia:

A sealed crustless sandwich, comprising:

a first bread layer having a first perimeter surface coplanar to a contact surface;

at least one filling of an edible food juxtaposed to said contact surface;

a second bread layer juxtaposed to said at least one filling opposite of said first bread layer, wherein said second bread layer includes a second perimeter surface similar to said first perimeter surface;

a crimped edge directly between said first perimeter surface and said second perimeter surface for sealing said at least one filling between said first bread layer and said second bread layer;

wherein a crust portion of said first bread layer and said second bread layer has been removed.

was rejected by the Federal Circuit this week. Dennis Crouch has details in a series of three posts sufficiently comprehensive that it would be redundant for me to comment further. (Earlier posts: Jan. 30 and May 1, 2001). More: May 31.

Finger-pointing II

The mystery of the San Jose Wendy’s chili finger deepens, as police execute a search warrant for Anna Ayala’s Las Vegas home, and Ayala claims new litigable injuries from the search. The local newspaper has four different reporters investigating. (Alan Gathright, Dave Murphy, Maria Alicia Gaura, “Police search home of woman who found finger”, SF Chronicle, Apr. 8; Ryan Kim, Dave Murphy and Alan Gathright, “Finger-finder has history of legal battles”, SF Chronicle, Apr. 9; “Woman Who Found Finger In Chili May Sue”, Good Morning America, Mar. 28). Earlier entry: Apr. 8. See also the Snopes page on the Pepsi-can syringes of 1993.

Remarkably, the media coverage never suggested that some skepticism might be warranted regarding a finding of a finger in chili until the execution of a search warrant seventeen days later. The media was similarly suckered by the tale of a juice bottle supposedly containing a human penis back in 2001.