In a lawyer-stimulus move that incidentally trashed freedom of contract, the California legislature passed a bill that would have virtually banned arbitration of workplace disputes that has been agreed on in advance of a dispute. But California Governor Jerry Brown has now vetoed it, arguing that the research on the effects of arbitration is still inconclusive, that the state has means of regulating it short of a ban, and that the Supreme Court is currently considering in two cases whether California law already improperly restricts arbitration in violation of the Federal Arbitration Act, an objection that could be lodged against the new enactment as well. [Carl Larson, Saqui Law Group]
Hit by enormous pine cone in San Francisco park
“A tourist visiting the Bay Area for Fleet Week last year was doing nothing more than reading and napping under a tree in a federal waterfront park in San Francisco when a 16-pound pine cone fell on him and crushed his skull, his lawyer said Monday.” According to the suit, coniferous Araucaria bidwillii trees, “more commonly known as bunya pines or false monkey puzzle trees…are not indigenous to the area” and their “seedpods, or pine cones, can grow to enormous sizes, reaching nearly 16 inches in diameter and weighing up to 40 pounds.” [SFGate] “Living under Bunya Pines is not for the faint hearted,” advises one 2014 account from Australia, where the trees are native. “You get a little bit of warning when they fall, says a farmer who has five old ones near his house. “They clatter through the branches, and you just start running.”
Right to shop after hours demanded as ADA accommodation
A plaintiff whose PTSD symptoms include extreme agoraphobia argues that Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other laws require a local drugstore to let him shop after hours by way of according a quieter, less stressful experience. He has thus far enjoyed some success with his federal claim. [Callum v. CVS Health, U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina]
One was a salted
Busybody CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) sues the FDA to force cuts in salt content in processed food [Grub Street, Media Post, earlier stages here, here, generally]
Online speech roundup
- Allowing suits against Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, et al., for comments made by users of those platforms? A perfectly horrible idea [Ken at Popehat, Robby Soave/Reason, a more judicious view of Section 230]
- Wipe that true thing: “France says Google must take ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ worldwide” [WSJ/MarketWatch, earlier]
- MedExpress vs. attorney Paul Alan Levy: “eBay seller who sued over negative feedback dinged $19k in legal fees” [ArsTechnica]
- Copyright takedown order over random ink blotches [2600]
- Weight-loss firm Roca Labs, which took aggressive legal approach toward limiting negative commentary about its products, runs into FTC trouble [Adam Steinbaugh, Ken White at Popehat]
- “California libel retraction statute extended to cover online publications” [Eugene Volokh]
- “Florida Moving Company Attempting To Sue Its Way Back To Yelp Respectability” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt]
L.A. eateries adopt surcharge for employee health, get charged with price fixing
Trying, they said, to be responsible employers, a group of Los Angeles restaurants banded together and adopted a 3 percent surcharge on bills to help secure healthcare coverage for their employees. Now San Francisco attorney Daniel Sterrett — who does not deny that the surcharge is going toward the announced purpose of employee healthcare — has filed an intended class-action lawsuit saying the owners have violated California law against price-fixing. [CBS Los Angeles, ABA Journal]
Bernie Sanders was right! (on PLCAA)
The topic came up again at Tuesday’s Democratic debate, and even if Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) hesitated to defend his vote in favor of the gun-lawsuit-curbing Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), I’m happy to defend it for him at Cato. More: David Freddoso, Washington Examiner, Adam Lidgett, International Business Times. Earlier on PLCAA and Hillary Clinton last week and more generally on the law.
P.S. Although some critics of PLCAA describe it as if it were some sort of absolute and across-the-board bar to liability, the law in fact is carefully crafted to permit liability across a range of situations. Taking advantage of one of those exceptions, plaintiffs just obtained a $6 million verdict against a Wisconsin gun dealer that they argued had winked at evidence that a customer was really a “straw buyer” purchasing a firearm for someone else. More: Jacob Sullum; George Leef/Forbes.
Discrimination law roundup
- “Requiring Employees to Return 100% Healed Costs Trucking Firm $300K in EEOC Suit” [Thompson’s HR Compliance Expert]
- Update: Oregon appeals court upholds $400,000
finejudgment against Portland owner who asked transgender club to stop holding meetings at his nightclub [Oregonian, earlier] - Fire Department of New York commissioner: yes, we lowered fitness bar so more women could join the force [Matthew Hennessey/City Journal, my take in The Excuse Factory back when]
- From May: “Oversight of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Examining EEOC’s Enforcement and Litigation Programs” [Senate HELP committee via Workplace Prof]
- Lengthy HUD battle: 2nd Circuit notes “no finding, at any point, that Westchester actually engaged in housing discrimination” [WSJ editorial, earlier here and here]
- In 1992 Delaware settled an employment discrimination lawsuit by agreeing to assign prison guards “without regard to the gender of prisoners….A disaster ensued.” [Scott Greenfield on Cris Barrish, Wilmington News-Journal coverage]
- NYC council speaker pushing “very bad bill to extend special employment protections to caregivers” [N.Y. Daily News editorial]
N.J.: “Drunken woman who fell off chair can sue Belmar cops”
Belmar, New Jersey: “A woman who pounded double-vodka cocktails at 7 a.m. and then repeatedly fell off a chair at police headquarters can proceed with a lawsuit against officers who arrested her for drunken driving, an appellate panel has ruled.” [Kathleen Hopkins, Asbury Park Press]
“New York woman sues 12-year-old nephew over hug that broke her wrist”
“‘I remember him shouting, “Auntie Jen, I love you!” and there he was flying at me,’ [Jennifer] Connell reportedly testified. …She is seeking $127,000 in damages from the boy, whose mother died last year,” over the resulting broken wrist [Guardian; Westpost, Ct., News] This just in: jurors in Bridgeport, Ct. took only 25 minutes to reach a defense verdict [BuzzFeed]