Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘Iowa’

Outdoor smoking bans

Advancing toward prohibition, 25 feet at a time:

On Tuesday, Washington state voters will consider the first statewide ban on smoking within 25 feet of buildings that prohibit smoking….

Limits on smoking outdoors have taken off in the past two years, says Maggie Hopkins of the American Non-smokers’ Rights Foundation.

Among the examples: many beaches in California (see Jun. 24, 2004), and hospital grounds in Iowa: “Patients and visitors will have to trek off hospital grounds — one campus is 44 acres — to smoke.” (Dennis Cauchon, “Smoke-free zones extend outdoors”, USA Today, Nov. 1). See Jul. 27 (smoking while driving); Aug. 15 (prison terms proposed for smoking too close to buildings).

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Iowa Poetry Awards

“An online group of self-described ‘literary watchdogs’ is threatening a class-action lawsuit against the UI Press, alleging that recent awards for poetry were unfairly given to writers with ‘illicit’ ties to the program. Postings at foetry.com demand a return of $20 reading fees after the 2004 Iowa Poetry Awards — open to anyone inside or outside the university — were given to people with ties to the UI. University officials note that the contest employs blind judging, in which the authors’ names are removed from the manuscripts.” (Drew Kerr, “Two allege bias in UI Press poetry awards”, Daily Iowan, Feb. 28)(via Schaeffer who got it from Maud Newton).

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Memo to fireworks abusers

At Forest Avenue and Sixteenth Street in Des Moines, two miscreant youths who’d been riding with friends in a rented 1999 Chevy Blazer began shooting off a large quantity of fireworks at persons and vehicles in the neighborhood. What happened next is somewhat muddled by the contradictory accounts of various witnesses, but involved the detonation of the substantial trove of fireworks in the Blazer’s cargo area, severely injuring several of the car’s occupants. Last month the Iowa Supreme Court ruled against a lawsuit seeking to make Enterprise Rent-a-Car pay for the injuries through vicarious liability, saying the accident could not reasonably be attributed to the driving of the young woman who’d rented the vehicle. (Wells v. Whitaker and Enterprise). Random Mentality (Dec. 10) has more.

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Holiday-dinner-table obesity roundup

The Centers for Disease Control admitted last week that a much-touted estimate of enormous mortality rates resulting from increasing obesity in America was wrong and arose from incorrect methodology; it promises a revised and lower estimate (Gina Kolata, “Data on Deaths From Obesity Is Inflated, U.S. Agency Says”, New York Times, Nov. 24; Radley Balko, Nov. 24; Jacob Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”, Nov. 24; Jim Copland, PointOfLaw, Nov. 24 and Nov. 30). The National Institutes of Health’s body mass index is also falling into disrepute for overrating the incidence of obesity (Gina Kolata, “Tell the Truth: Does This Index Make Me Look Fat?”, New York Times, Nov. 28)(see Apr. 29-30, 2002).

As for lawsuits, the scary Public Health Advocacy Institute, where trial lawyers meet dietitians, held its second annual conference in September, with opening remarks by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) (Marguerite Higgins, “Anti-obesity group mulls swell in suits”, Washington Times, Sept. 19; “Lawyers see obese U.S. ripe for fat lawsuits”, Sept. 20; Center for Consumer Freedom, “Looking For Lawsuits In All The Wrong Places”, Sept. 24). The food-industry-defense Center for Consumer Freedom (“Don’t Sue the Hand That Feeds You”) has prepared a “Thanksgiving Guest Liability and Indemnification Agreement” (PDF) (via LawfulGal, Nov. 25) and has also (Sept. 27) compiled a list of the “Ten Dumbest Food Cop Ideas” of the year. These include law prof John Banzhaf’s proposals for suing parents of obese children and doctors who fail to warn their obese patients against overeating; Texas officials’ edict against schoolkids’ sharing of snacks; and a proposal by the New Zealand health minister to apply age restrictions, in the manner of carding for alcohol and tobacco purchases, to keep kids from buying hamburgers, pie and candy. A Deloitte consumer opinion survey (“The Weight Debate”, last updated Jul. 14) finds the public overwhelmingly opposed to lawsuits against restaurants.

Read On…

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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).

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War of the polling-place lawyers

“Legal battles already have broken out in many states, including battleground states Iowa, Ohio and Florida, as Republicans and Democrats turned to the courts to determine voter eligibility, electronic voting and handling of absentee and provisional ballots. … President George W Bush’s Republican party vowed today it would match or even outnumber the 10,000 lawyers monitoring battleground states for Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry on election day tomorrow.” (P. Parameswaran, “Army of lawyers monitors US poll”, The Australian, Nov. 2). More: Larry Ribstein comments on the prospect of a litigated election (via Bainbridge). And Rick Hasen’s election law blog has much more.

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Papa John’s Suit

Michael Harris, a 19-year-old delivering pizzas for Papa John’s, gossiped with a manager that his supervisor, Robert Shields, was sleeping with an employee. Shields found out, and he and Harris decided to resolve their differences by agreeing that Shields would punch Harris in the chest. Unfortunately, the punch caused cardiac arrhythmia and killed Harris. Harris’s family sued Papa John’s, and the Iowa Supreme Court ruled May 12 that a jury would need to decide if the punch was an “adverse employment action” entitling the family to damages from the employer, or a private matter.

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More Veeps ATLA could love

Among those much mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry is second-term Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (Adam Nagourney, “Kerry seeks running mate in 8 weeks”, New York Times/Contra Costa Times, Apr. 4; a Vilsack fan site; David Hogberg, “Vilsack for Veep?”, National Review Online, Feb. 10). Back home in Iowa, liability reform has been a contentious issue in the legislature this year, and although caps on pain and suffering in medical malpractice suits have passed both houses of the legislature, they are considered nearly certain to face a veto when they reach Vilsack’s desk. This does not come as the most total surprise in the world since Gov. Vilsack is a former president of the state’s trial lawyers association. (Tanya Albert, “Iowa governor might not sign tort reform bill”, American Medical News (AMA), May 3)(via MedRants). Another Midwestern Democratic Governor who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Kerry is Kansas’s Kathleen Sebelius (Mark Z. Barabak, “Edwards Isn’t a Cinch for the No. 2 Slot”, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 3). In one of those coincidences that one encounters so seldom in novels and so often in real life, Sebelius also headed her state’s trial lawyer association, in this case as executive director (see May 5, 2003). See also “Veeps ATLA could love”, Jul. 7-9, 2000.

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“Soldier sues city for damages for stress in Iraq”

In Cherokee, Iowa, Vernon Fick, who was dismissed as a police sergeant last year, wants his job back and is suing the city on age-bias and other charges. In addition to seeking reinstatement, Fick “claims he couldn’t get a job anywhere else and was forced to join the military, which sent him to Iraq”, so he “is seeking damages for emotional stress and strain from serving in a war zone. … The lawsuit said the Army became his only ’employment alternative’ because the city falsely told other potential employers in the area that he had committed misconduct.” His attorney is Stephen Avery of Spencer. (AP/Creston News Advertiser, Apr. 9)

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