- “IP Lawyer Who Spotted Expired Patent on Solo Cup Lid Loses Quest for Trillions in Damages” [ABA Journal, earlier on “false markings” suits here, here, etc.]
- Like we’re surprised: Linda Greenhouse favors sentimental (“Poor Joshua!”) side in 1989 DeShaney case and hopes Elena Kagan does too [NYT Opinionator, my take a few years back]
- Why is Le Monde in financial trouble? For one thing, firing a printing plant employee costs €466,000 [Frédéric Filloux, Monday Note via MargRev]
- “Will these salt peddlers stop at nothing?” Michael Kinsley on NYT sodium-as-next-tobacco coverage [Atlantic Wire]
- “‘Victim’ Gets $4.17 Coupon, Lawyers Get $10 Million Cash”: Expedia class action settlement [John Frith, California Civil Justice Blog]
- Scruggs investigation finally over as feds drop probe of political operative P.L. Blake; several figures in Mississippi scandal are up for release soon from prison [Jackson Clarion Ledger]
- $20 billion Gulf spill fund: “Oil Gushes and Power Rushes” [Sullum, Althouse]
- “NYC Naked Cowboy to Naked Cowgirl: Stop copying me” [AP]
Posts Tagged ‘NYC’
NYC: court tosses track totterer’s $2.3 million award
A New York appeals court has tossed a jury’s $2.3 million award to a man who fell onto the Union Square subway tracks and lost his leg. The court focused on the jury’s acceptance of what it said was speculative testimony from experts arguing that the train’s motorman should have stopped faster. The victim “said he was too drunk to remember how he ended up on the tracks or anything about the accident.” [AP/WINS, New York Post, Dibble v. NYCTA, earlier, and compare $6 million track totterer award last year] More: John Hochfelder.
Judge: no “emotional distress” for Empire State-jumper
“Preventing an individual from jumping off of the 86th floor of the Empire State Building is neither extreme nor outrageous,” wrote Judge Jane Solomon in disallowing the emotional-distress claim of Jeb Corliss, a daredevil jumper who had been prevented from jumping off the skyscraper in 2006. Solomon also found that the owners of the building had not defamed Corliss in legal papers when they called his stunt attempt “illegal.” (He was in fact convicted on misdemeanor charges.) The owners are suing Corliss for damages over the incident, which forced an hourlong shutdown of the observation deck. [AP]
Safety officer’s suit over “demonic” ID card yields $1
A Brooklyn school safety officer sued New York City, saying it discriminated against her religious beliefs for her to have to wear a city ID card that she considered possessed and the “sign of the Beast.” A judge ruled in her favor at an earlier stage in the proceedings, but a second judge has now awarded her just $1 damages. [NY Post]
“New York’s most obnoxious lawyer” charged with tax rap
AmLaw Daily has the story. Although we’ve covered Heller before, it’s never been entirely clear why the coveted title should have been conferred on this one guy against so many rivals, at least absent some American Idol-like competition of obnoxious NYC lawyers.
“NYC to stop paying teachers to do nothing”
Did cops push him off a roof?
A Brooklyn jury found his story believable enough to award him $1 million, but an appellate court wasn’t having it. [John Hochfelder, New York Injury Cases Blog]
Regulation vs. artisanal mixed drinks
San Francisco warns against infused bitters, the New York City health department cracks down on raw egg whites, and Virginia’s ABC state commission keeps many exotic spirits out of reach (Reason.tv via Reason “Hit and Run”).
March 29 roundup
- “Teen beauty queen portrayed as spoiled brat on ‘Wife Swap’ files $100M lawsuit” [NY Daily News]
- “Viva el cupcake!” NYC parents and kids protest the Bloomberg administration’s anti-bake-sale rules [Philissa Cramer, GothamSchools] Bill in Congress would thrust federal government much more deeply into school food issues [Al Tompkins, Poynter]
- For improved disabled access to online resources, look to technical advance, not regulation [Szoka, City Journal]
- “Ministry of Justice Rolls Out New Measures to Reform U.K. Libel Law” [Legal Week/Law.com] “Success Fees in U.K. Libel Cases to Be Slashed by 90 Percent” [same]
- “They’re overlawyered. They’re poisoned by lawyers.” (Markopolos critique of SEC, cont’d) [Gordon Smith, Conglomerate]
- A sentiment open to doubt: Prof. Freedman contends that lawyers’ ethics are higher than doctors’ [Legal Ethics Forum]
- Quotas for women executives in boardroom and top corporate posts spread in Europe. Maybe someday here too? [NYT “Room for Debate”]
- Yes to better indigent criminal defense, no to a court order taking over the subject [Greenfield]
NYC councilwoman walks into trailer hitch of parked truck
And now Councilmember Letitia James [D-Fort Greene] wants money for “serious, severe and permanent” injuries from David Day, who is described as an itinerant laborer. “Please don’t go forward with it,” Day is reported to have written to James. “You are famous and powerful while I’m a nobody without means who’s done you no harm.” [Brooklyn Paper]