“It was a tragedy in July when 86-year-old George Russell Weller drove his car through several barricades into a crowded farmers market in Santa Monica, killing 10 people and injuring dozens. … Since they can’t target Mr. Weller profitably, accident victims have already filed five lawsuits against the city of Santa Monica, which has much deeper pockets. … according to some of the victims, the city contributed to the crime by not erecting stronger barricades or otherwise doing more to prevent a man from driving into a crowd of people.” Mentions this site (Adam Summers, “Extracting Cash from Calamity”, Orange County Register/Reason Public Policy Institute, Oct. 23).
Bin Laden’s gift to lawyers
“Say what you like about Osama bin Laden. He’s done wonders for the defamation bar,” says a British barrister. A group of wealthy Saudi businessmen are engaging in “libel tourism,” suing in British courts to silence American critics. British libel law, unburdened by the First Amendment, puts the burden on defendants to prove that their stories are true; the threat of libel suits often acts to deter journalistic inquiries, but now suits are being aimed at American publishers. The Wall Street Journal faces two lawsuits for a February 2002 report on Saudi support for terror that was reprinted in its European edition. (Michael Isikoff & Mark Hosenball, “Libel Tourism”, Newsweek Web, Oct. 22). (via Postrel)
Update: Calif. business groups launch s. 17200 initiative
As predicted in this space (Sept. 29), a California business coalition which includes the state Chamber of Commerce, auto dealers and the Civil Justice Association of California has launched an initiative drive aimed at curbing lawsuits under s. 17200, the state’s bizarrely broad consumer-protection statute. (see Oct. 2, Aug. 27 and links from there). The coalition “expects to spend $1 million to $2 million to collect signatures to put the initiative on the November 2004 ballot. … Under the initiative, private attorneys or individuals would no longer be able to file a lawsuit without a specific victim or evidence of harm or financial loss. … The right to sue on half of the public would rest with the attorney general, county district attorneys and other local prosecutors.” (Gilbert Chan, “Ballot drive targets lawsuits”, Sacramento Bee, Oct. 23). More: Law.com coverage (Jeff Chorney, “Tort Reformers Want Voters to Remake Calif. Unfair Competition Law”, The Recorder, Oct. 27)
“Court overturns damages award for van full of mice”
“Boise attorney Gale Merrick, who represented the automaker, said the Supreme Court ruling reinforced the company?s contention that there was no evidence that mice got into the van because of some manufacturing defect. ‘They could have left the windows down or a door open,’ Merrick said.” An Idaho jury had held Honda liable for $10,250 because of the smell of mouse droppings in the vehicle. (Idaho Statesman, Oct. 24; Powers v. American Honda Motor Co.; “Of mice and men: Honda damages are overturned”, AP, Oct. 23; see also Julie Pence, “Mouse tales … Little critters can cause problems in your car”, Twin Falls Times-News Online, Oct. 24 for a story about the problems of mice in cars in the area).
“Court Warns of Campus ‘Police State'”
An Orange County public school teacher was eventually convicted of having an affair with a 13-year-old student. The parents sued the school district for failing to detect the molestation and won a $640,000 award. The school district protested that the affair was kept secret by both parties, and they had no way to prevent it. The California Court of Appeals reversed on the grounds that the consequences of a decision of liability would force the school district to take counterproductive behavior. “According to the court’s opinion: ‘Under our facts here, a policy of prevention of this sort of harm would require turning the culture at every high school in the district into a virtual police state.'” (David Reyes, L.A. Times, Oct. 25; Bob Egelko, “Court overturns damages for parents of abused pupil”, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 24; Stephen F. v. Anaheim Union School Dist.). (via Bashman)
Update: lawsuit-funding cos. shun Ohio
Lawsuit-funding companies, which advance litigants cash in exchange for a share of the eventual booty, have apparently departed the state of Ohio since a decision this summer by the Ohio Supreme Court (see Aug. 4) finding that such activities violate a 180-year-old state law against champerty and permit intermeddlers to “gorge upon the fruits of litigation”. “Several states, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire and South Carolina, have lifted their prohibitions against the practice. At least 100 lawsuit-funding companies have emerged nationwide since 1998 when Perry Walton, a litigation-finance pioneer from Nevada, started holding seminars to teach other entrepreneurs how to make money by doing what some critics say is akin to betting on lawsuits.” (“Lawsuit-funding companies avoid Ohio after court ruling”, AP/Miami Herald, Oct. 1)(more on champerty, from The Litigation Explosion).
Update: La. judge removed from bench
“A unanimous Louisiana Supreme Court removed Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge C. Hunter King from the bench Tuesday, finding that his misconduct — forcing employees to work on his re-election campaign and then lying about it under oath — demanded a severe penalty. While the justices stopped short of saying King should face criminal prosecution, they said his admitted conduct likely constituted perjury and public salary extortion, both felonies.” (New Orleans Times-Picayune coverage: Gwen Filosa, “Judge is removed from bench” Oct. 22; “An appropriate ouster” (editorial), Oct. 23; James Gill, “Politicking doesn’t do justice to the bench”, Oct. 24). King, named one of “America’s worst judges” in the November Reader’s Digest, presided over a trial this summer in which attorney Johnnie Cochran extracted a $51 million award on behalf of an 11-year-old girl who fell out of the window of a city streetcar, after which jurors posed in celebratory fashion with both Cochran and Judge King. (“A streetcar named excessive”, Aug. 29, Sept. 15).
Corgi menace averted
“A new law that took effect in Italy [last month] brands border collies, corgis and St Bernards as dangerous dogs which children and criminals are barred from owning.” (Bruce Johnston, “Italy out to end the corgi menace”, Daily Telegraph (UK), Sept. 15).
$2-million hug
“Contestant Will Wright had just won $48,400, and the Wheel of Fortune audience was cheering with abandon in a District of Columbia auditorium where the show was being taped. Suddenly, Wright says, host Pat Sajak leapt at his body and wrapped his arms and legs around him. … This week, the 38-year-old puzzle-guessing champion from Lorton, Va., filed a $2 million lawsuit against the show’s producers over the back injuries he says he suffered from Sajak’s moment of unbridled enthusiasm.” (Carol D. Leonnig, “‘Wheel’ contestant suing over injury”, Washington Post/Arizona Republic, Oct. 18) (via SoCalLawBlog)
“Asbestos meltdown”
Despite talk of compromise in Congress, write the editorialists of the Washington Post (Oct. 20), reform of “the spectacularly broken asbestos litigation system” seems to remain out of reach for the moment. “The tort system has failed to provide asbestos victims predictable and fair compensation for the grievous injuries they have suffered even as it has saddled industry with gigantic liability from people who are not actually sick. … [It is] a system that now works to everyone’s detriment — a system in which trial lawyers, representing people who aren’t sick, sue companies that never made asbestos (the asbestos manufacturers themselves being long since insolvent).” See also “Frist asks labor counter-offer on asbestos”, Reuters/Forbes, Oct. 21; Michelle J. White, “Resolving the ‘Elephantine Mass'”, Regulation, Summer (PDF); Doug Bandow, “Quenching the asbestos fire”, syndicated/TownHall, Sept. 8.