Morales pleads guilty

Former Texas Attorney General and key tobacco-suit figure Dan Morales, long a focus of scrutiny on this page, has withdrawn his former plea of innocent and has agreed to a four-year prison term, pleading guilty to one count each of mail and tax fraud; he will also pay fines of up to $1.25 million (Ken Herman & David Hafetz, “Morales pleads guilty to mail fraud, tax evasion”, Austin American Statesman, Jul. 17; more stories). The mail fraud charge relates to a backdated contract in which Morales purported to bestow a chunk of the state’s tobacco-settlement booty on his friend Marc Murr (see Jun. 26 and links from there). Our big question — our only question, really — is: does this mean he’ll talk?

I Quit! Now Pay Me!

Eric Gregg’s lawsuit has been delayed yet again. Gregg, a former National League umpire, was one of 22 who (a) resigned in 1999 and (b) were shocked (shocked!) that the league actually made them stay resigned. Now he wants his severance package as if he were fired. (AP, Jul. 14; link via How Appealing).

Gregg’s case is a hysterical blend of personal responsibility — Gregg resigned out of principle, and wasn’t given his job back — and dumb luck, given his lackluster record as an ump. The story: Gregg claims that he wasn’t fired for cause: “There is no doubt that they are discriminating against me because of my weight.” (“Interview with the Umpire,” Philadephia City Paper, Aug./Sept. 1999). Ignore the fact that he resigned as part of a ploy to get MLB to choose between paying severance pay (why they’d have to pay out in cases of resignation is beyond me). But the reality is that a 1998 survey of players, coaches, and managers (run by the Players’ Association) rated Gregg as the second-to-worst ump in the NL; as Doug Pappas pointed out, “[n]o one needs statistics to conclude that the likes of Ken Kaiser and Eric Gregg don’t belong in the majors. (Pappas’ site, 1999). He was also rated one of baseball’s five worst umpires in a 1998 Baseball Weekly survery.

While his weight was made to be an issue — he was fined $5,000 in 1999 for being too fat — there could be a reason for that. It may have affected his on-field abilities. Never mind that he’d have to run into position to make a call. In 1978, Gregg bumped into a catcher trying to make a throw and called interference on himself. Almost two decades later, he was granted a leave of absence to enter a weight-loss program. (Thanks to Baseball Library for the background info.)

Australia: “Doctor must pay to raise boy”

“The High Court stunned doctors yesterday with a landmark finding that a surgeon who bungled a woman’s sterilization is liable for the cost of bringing up her child to the age of 18.” Kerry Melchior’s son Jordan is perfectly healthy, but she sued Queensland ob/gyn Dr. Stephen Cattanach and the state health department because the tubal ligation he had performed had not prevented pregnancy as intended. (Cynthia Banham, Sydney Morning Herald, Jul. 17). Dr. Andrew Pesce, who chairs the Australian Medical Association’s professional indemnity task force, said “the decision was a part of a pattern where doctors’ liability was gradually increased over time, so that ‘nobody actually knows what their obligations are'”. For similar American cases, see Apr. 26-28, 2002.

Escalating liability had already provoked an insurance crisis for ob/gyns Down Under, as in the States; especially hard hit are women practitioners who often maintain less than a full-time practice but must pay hefty flat-rate premiums anyway (Wendy Tuohy, “A labour of love becomes labour too hard, and too risky”, Melbourne Age, Jul. 5). Among those quitting is Dr. Denise Koong, though some of her patients have “begged her to reconsider, saying things like: ‘Give me the paper and I’ll sign it, I will promise not to sue you!'” Trouble is, the courts (certainly in the U.S., and we presume in Australia these days as well) toss out such written promises as unenforceable.

Appealing to a Higher Authority

While most of the law-related praying news centered on Pat Robertson’s missives to “ask for miracles in regard to the Supreme Court” (CBS/AP, Jul.15), Deion Sanders — ex-baseballer, ex-footballer, now an NBC football analyist — allegedly did the same. Rumors had him refusing to pay more than $1,500 of a more than $4k car repair bill — the repairman claims that “[w]hen Sanders drove up, he refused to pay the invoice amount, handing Compton a $1,500 check and saying, ‘Praise Jesus … I follow what in my heart I’m told to pay.’ (ESPN/AP, Jul. 14). One reader wonders, “I don’t know how he could have won.” Answer: Prime Time apparently told the repair man up front that he’d only be forking over $1,500, so the bill best not be padded. And imagine that — the court actually enforced the contract. Perhaps it helps to be a well-known celeb. (Fort Worth Star Telegram, Jul. 14).

Bus driver who can’t distinguish traffic signals not protected by ADA

Pedestrians around New York City can relax a bit: the Second Circuit has upheld the right of the city’s Transit Authority to remove from his job as a bus driver Curtis Shannon, whose color-blindness renders him unable to distinguish traffic signals. (Shannon v. NYCTA, 332 F.3d 95, summarized at Neighborhood Legal Services site; Second Circuit, search on docket for #02-7266, decided Jun. 13, 2003).

Suit charges lawyers with using fake clients in diet-drug cases

Mississippi: “Civil lawsuits filed in Jefferson County allege that lawyers signed up fake clients for a 1999 lawsuit that resulted in a $150 million jury verdict against the makers of a diet drug.” According to the allegations, lawyers knew that some clients being recruited into the action had never actually taken the diet drug but “looked the other way”. Defendant lawyers called the allegations “ridiculous” and “preposterous”. Federal law enforcers will not disclose details of their investigation of Jefferson County product liability litigation (see Jun. 29, May 7 and links from there), but it is known that the FBI has subpoenaed prescription records from Fayette’s Bankston Drug Store, which is frequently named in suits (see May 4-6, 2001). (Tom Wilemon, Beth Musgrave and Margaret Baker, “Lawyers faked diet-drug case clients, lawsuits claim”, Biloxi Sun-Herald, Jul. 1; “Miss. lawyers accused of wrongdoing in suit”, AP/Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jul. 2).

Bilking poor clients

“A prominent San Francisco attorney who represented the young, sick and poor was arrested Tuesday on federal charges of stealing $2 million of his clients’ settlement money to support a lavish lifestyle that included a six-bedroom mansion and a 73-foot yacht.” At its website, the successful San Francisco law firm of Tehin + Partners boasts of having “achieved an exceptional record of performance in litigation and trial through our 20 years + experience as a contingency fee-based plaintiff’s law firm”, not to mention “A Legal Philosophy That Sets Us Apart”. Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has a full helping of grotesque details (Stacy Finz, “S.F. attorney charged with bilking underdog clients”, Jul. 16)

It bears repeating that of all the institutions to which the temporal wealth of poor people is entrusted, law firms are among the least regulated; when outside authorities finally step in to clean up the mess, as here, it is typically after the fact, rather than in a preventive way through the sorts of regular disclosure and auditing requirements that banks or pension funds must meet. Nikolai Tehin lists among his affiliations Board of Directors, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. Update Apr. 24, 2005: judge sentences Tehin to 14-year sentence.

On the Beeb, etc.

Our editor was interviewed at some length, particularly on pending gun and asbestos legislation, on the BBC World Service’s weekly World Business Review. (Accuracy of transcript not guaranteed.) There’s an audio link, too. Both links may disappear on Saturday when the BBC site updates to the next week’s show.

While on the subject of publicity, our editor’s book The Rule of Lawyers came in for a lengthy review from Neil Hrab of Canada’s National Post in the July issue of Organization Trends, a publication of the Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C. (“More Than Good Friends: Trial Lawyers and Nonprofits“, PDF format, scroll to p. 7). Also, thanks for very kind mentions lately to a number of weblogs you should know about: Ernest Svenson’s Ernie the Attorney, MedRants, Steve Pilgrim’s Rodent Regatta and Aaron Haspel’s God of the Machine (the most philosophical spin on fast-food lawsuits you’ll read this month — it’s not easily paraphrased, just go read it).

Canada: Protect Thyself, Get Arrested

Twice in June, Raj Singh Valcha and Harjeet Singh Saini’s corner store was burglarized. Total cost: $42,000. Total arrests: Zero. Their reply: Take shifts with an aluminum bat, lying in wait for the inevitable third strike. They didn’t have to wait long — before the month was out, they were burglarized again. One criminal was incapacitated, the other escaped. And the storeowners? Cited for aggravated assault. To make matters worse, a reader writes: “Of course the editorials are against defending your own property.” Of course. The first-year law student prospective? No shock here either. When we heard our torts professor mention burglars who slip and fall and sue the would-be victims, mouths drop, people laugh in disbelief, but hey, that wears off by the third day of class. (“Vigilante policing no way to fight crime,” Montreal Gazette,
Jul. 2; also check out a letter to the contrary: “Law now favours robbers and oppressors,” Undated).