“Sharper Image Loses Suit Over Panned Product”

U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney cited California’s SLAPP law, aimed at curbing lawsuits over some exercises of speech, “on Wednesday when she tossed out a suit filed by the upscale retailer [Sharper Image] against Consumers Union over negative reviews of its best-selling product, the Ionic Breeze Quadra Air Purifier.” (Jeff Chorney, The Recorder, Nov. 11).

Take my ex-husband’s assets (please)

Diana Bilinelli, ex-wife of the late Saudi Sheik Mohammed al-Fassi, says she’s decided to sell her $250 million divorce judgment at a substantial discount if she can find the right buyer. She hopes a buyer will have better luck then she has at tracking down al-Fassi’s assets. “It’s a dandy investment opportunity,” says her lawyer, Helen Dorroh-White. (“Woman Selling $250M Divorce Judgment”, AP/ABCNews.com, Nov. 8; Marcus Warren, “For sale: a ?135m divorce package with royal strings”, Daily Telegraph (UK), Nov. 11).

When Good Samaritans sue

At an Iowa casino, a parking valet asks two arriving patrons to help out a 200-lb. man who has fallen out of his wheelchair in the parking lot. They do so, one of them helping to lift the man and the other steadying the wheelchair. They then proceed to enter the casino and gamble for several hours. Seven months later, they sue the casino company saying they were both injured while helping out the fallen customer. A trial court dismissed the claim on summary judgment, and a court of appeals upheld that dismissal, perhaps burnishing Iowa’s reputation as having one of the more reasonable legal systems as states go. Random Mentality has more (Sept. 9, scroll), and the opinion is here (Linda Munz & John Winkers v. Peninsula Gaming, Sept. 9).

Madison County judge nixes tracking class payouts

After a class-action settlement in Madison County, Ill. between Ameritech and class action lawyers Korein Tillery over alleged unfairness in the giant phone company’s SimpliFive rate program, the Citizens Utility Board, a consumer advocacy group, petitioned the court to keep track of how much of the ostensible $12.4 million in refunds for customers actually got paid out. (Korein Tillery, for its part, is slated to get $1.9 million in fees). Last month, following opposition to the motion by both the Korein firm and Ameritech parent Southwestern Bell, “Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas G. Byron rejected the Citizens Utility Board motion, ruling that the board had no standing in the case. Byron’s ruling means that the public will never know how much will be paid out.” “You would have to wonder why the plaintiff attorney would be so adamantly opposed to making this information public,” said Terryl Francis, a retired attorney representing the Citizens Utility Board. “After all, he’s supposed to be fighting for the class.” More:

Lester Brickman, a law professor at Cardozo Law School in New York and a critic of the Madison County Circuit Court, said Byron, Korein Tillery and SBC had a “mutual interest in suppressing the actual number of people who claim the benefits secured for them.”

Brickman said: “It’s not a surprising outcome, because the information the Citizens Utility Board was requesting would prove embarrassing to the court. It’s a sad comment on the state of class actions that a judge joins forces with both the plaintiff lawyer and the defendant to suppress this information.”

(Paul Hampel, “Judge’s ruling keeps payout in Ameritech case under wraps”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 17).

Accuser: I’ll forum-shop till Kobe drops

Kobe Bryant’s accuser filed rape charges against him in Colorado, where the incident took place, and has also sued him in federal court in that state. But her lawyer says she may go to California, where Bryant resides, to file a civil suit against the basketball star. “The 20-year-old woman would not be bound in California by the limitations on financial damages that might apply to court in Colorado, attorney Lin Wood said. ‘In the final analysis, we’ll make the decision whether to go to California or not based on whether it’s in the best interests of this young lady,’ Wood said. ‘We’re going to focus our efforts on maximizing the potential recovery from Kobe Bryant.'” The criminal case against Bryant was dismissed Sept. 1 and cannot be filed again. (Steve Lipsher, “Lawyer: Calif. suit eyed to escape damage caps, Denver Post, Nov. 7).