October 19 roundup

Gerald Colbert v. Sonic Restaurants

As a connoisseur of hot-coffee cases, I’m always excited to see a court get one right. The Abnormal Use blog points us to Colbert v. Sonic Restaurants, No. 09-1423, 2010 WL 3769131 (W.D. La. Sept. 21, 2010). The plaintiff made the usual gamut of “design defect” and “failure to warn” claims, but the court wasn’t buying it. Note that the plaintiff claimed to be injured by the coffee at Sonic Restaurants, yet another refutation of the trial-lawyer claim that Stella Liebeck’s McDonald’s coffee was unusually hot.

“JFK University removes garden over disability concerns”

Pleasant Hill, Calif.: “John F. Kennedy University this week removed a garden that had been at issue in a disabled-access lawsuit, stunning students and instructors who had raised thousands of dollars to fix the problem.” A graduate student had sued over lack of wheelchair access to the garden, which was used by about 60 students a year; the estimated cost of accessibility fixes was $56,000. [San Jose Mercury-News]

October 18 roundup