Posts Tagged ‘Oregon’

“Your old junk could come back to haunt you”

Disposing of a worn-out vehicle, appliance, computer, even maybe a house in the state of Oregon? Maybe you’d better worry that a subsequent user will get injured by or in or with it and blame the mishap on your negligent failure to perform proper maintenance. That theory is getting a plaintiff to trial past a motion to dismiss in a case where a crash victim is suing not only the owner of the truck that hit him, but also a former owner that had sold the truck about a year earlier. The Oregon Supreme Court, reversing a trial and appeals court, is allowing the case to go to trial. Lewis & Clark lawprof Jack Bogdanski writes:

How far does the rule of this case go? Would it cover tools that you unloaded at a garage sale last year? How about the house you sold last year, or five years ago? Surely, it would cover that used car you got rid of, although the court hinted that maybe you’d be off the hook if the dangerous condition was obvious when you sold it, or if you traded the car in at a dealership.

What can you do to protect yourself? I doubt that your insurance covers it — at least auto policies end when the vehicle is sold, and I’d be surprised if a standard homeowners policy wouldn’t work the same way. There’s no way to get a release in advance from everyone who might be hurt by breakdowns of your former stuff while it’s in the hands of future owners whom you don’t even know.

(Jack Bog’s Blog, Oct. 21; Bailey v. Lewis Farm, Inc., Oregon Supreme Court, Oct. 11). P.S. Corrected procedural posture of case following reader comment.

September 18 roundup

August 22 roundup

  • Criminal charges dropped against Oregon 13-year-olds over fanny-swatting in school corridors [CBSNews.com, Malkin, KGW.com and AP; earlier]

  • Elasticity of “medical error” concept: Medicare will stop paying hospitals for treatment of “reasonably preventable” injuries that happen in hospitals, such as patient falls — we all know those are preventable given enough duct tape [NCPA, Right Side of the Rainbow; and before assuming that bed sores invariably result from negligent care, read this](more: Turkewitz)

  • Yale University Press beats back libel suit in California court by Muslim charity over allegations in book scrutinizing terrorist group Hamas [Zincavage]

  • Law firms, including Philadelphia’s senatorially connected Kline & Specter, already advertising for clients following Mattel toy recall [Childs]

  • First class action against RIAA over its scattershot anticopying suit campaign [P2PNet]

  • Four Oklahoma inmates claim copyright to their own names, demand millions from warden for using those names without permission, then things really start getting wild [UK Telegraph and TechDirt via Coleman]

  • UCLA’s Lynn LoPucki, scourge of corporate bankruptcy bar, has another study out documenting soaring fees [WSJ Law Blog]

  • Man who knifed school headmaster to death is expected to win right to remain in Britain on grounds deporting him would violate his human rights [Telegraph]

  • Among targets of zero tolerance bans: jingle of ice cream trucks in NYC, screaming on Sacramento rollercoasters [ABCNews.com]

  • Does California antidiscrimination law require doctors to provide artificial insemination to lesbian client against religious scruples? [The Recorder]

  • Alabama tobacco farmers got $500,000 from national tobacco settlement, though fewer than 300 acres of tobacco are grown in Alabama [five years ago on Overlawyered]

August 6 roundup

  • Patent suit by firm called Parallel Processing demands that all Sony PlayStation 3 consoles be impounded and destroyed [ArsTechnica, Slashdot]

  • It’s not all going to Edwards: a scorecard on presidential campaigns’ law-firm fundraising [National Law Journal]

  • Link roundup on Oregon criminal charges against fanny-swatting 13-year-olds [Right Side of the Rainbow; earlier]

  • New at Point of Law: Spitzenfreude is mirth derived from ethical pratfall of NY’s moralist governor; Florida’s insurance fiasco; more on those “medical” bankruptcies; Alabama judge appoints special prosecutor in Dickie Scruggs affair after feds take a pass; and much more;

  • One hurdle for court action by survivors of slain Middle East contractors against Blackwater: the four men had signed contracts agreeing not to sue their employer [Henley; W$J]

  • Saying swim diaper should suffice, Akron mom and “fair housing” advocates sue condo that barred pre-potty-trained kids from pool [AP/FoxNews.com]

  • Not only are those punitive new Virginia traffic laws unpopular, but a judge has just declared them unconstitutional as well [Washington Post; earlier here and here]

  • Pepsi settles class actions over minute quantities of benzene that might form when soft drink ingredients combine [Reuters, Food Navigator, Journal-News]

  • U.K. considers making it easier for unmarried cohabitators to go to court when their households break up [Times Online]

  • Did a securities fraudster use protracted depositions to browbeat his victims? [Salt Lake City Tribune]

  • “Victims’ Rights Amendment” to U.S. Constitution, promoted as giving crime victims a fairer shake, is bad idea for lots of reasons [eight years ago on Overlawyered]

Fight over daughter’s surname lasts 2 1/2 years

Chad M. Doherty wasn’t married to Christy M. Wizner when their daughter was born in April 2004, but he nonetheless wanted the child to bear the surname Doherty and objected to the mother’s bestowing on her instead the surname Wizner. Both sides lawyered up and have been duking it out in court ever since. A trial judge ruled in the father’s favor, finding it of significance that Wizner was the name of the mother’s former spouse but not the mother’s birth surname. The Oregon Court of Appeals, invoking an 11-factor balancing test, reversed the ruling and allowed the mother’s choice to prevail. The mother says she wants the girl to bear the same surname as her older siblings. (Ashbel S. Green, “For a baby name with appeal, try appeals court”, The Oregonian, Jan. 1).

P.S. I see J. Craig Williams got this first (Jan. 3)(via Blawg Review #90 at Minor Wisdom).

Privacy laws and James Kim

In today’s WaPo, Spencer Kim, the father of James Kim, the father of two who died of hypothermia after his family became lost in an Oregon park, notes the effect that privacy laws and liability concerns had on the search:

Congress should change the law so that most recent credit card and phone-use records can be immediately released to the next of kin in the event of an emergency. Privacy laws are important to safeguard personal information, but there needs to be provision for exceptional access to information by relatives when it is critical to a family member’s survival.

Four days passed before we even knew James and his family were missing. But because my family was unable to confirm credit card and phone-use information until days after their absence was discovered, the start of the search was needlessly delayed. Precious time and a precious life were lost. Privacy concerns kept both the hotel where James and his family last stayed and the restaurant where they last dined from sharing credit card records, thus denying us for days important clues that would have helped narrow the initial search area.

ADA week: Dark v. Curry County

One reads a lot about how a conservative judiciary has supposedly pulled the teeth of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Particularly noteworthy is a series of decisions in which the Supreme Court, faced with employment claims in which safety might be at risk (from commercial pilots with poor vision, for example), ruled against the employee’s claim and widened the effective range of employer discretion.

No doubt there is some truth to the idea that the high court’s employment decisions have curbed the ADA’s expansionary momentum. But then there are the cases like that of Dark v. Curry County, decided by the Ninth Circuit this summer. Robert Dark, an epileptic from youth, operated heavy construction equipment for the road department of an Oregon county. One morning he experienced an “aura”, a sensation which often presages a coming seizure, but did not inform anyone at the job about it when he reported for work. Later that day, he did in fact experience a seizure. An accident was avoided because a co-worker managed to seize control of the machine Dark was operating before it could do any damage.

The county terminated Dark, with emphatic language about how his medical condition prevented him from safely accomplishing his duties. A lower court agreed with the county, but a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel reinstated his suit. Its key points: the county did not adequately give consideration to reassigning Dark to light-duty positions, in particular those that it might have anticipated would “become available within a reasonable period” following his removal from the machinery job, even though the jobs were not in fact open at the time. And although the county placed considerable weight during the dispute on Dark’s misconduct in not informing his supervisors or co-workers about his indications of a possible impending seizure, it did not cite that reason at the time in dismissing Dark, instead (and more diplomatically) reciting the safety concerns of a prospective nature.

The case (available at FindLaw here in PDF format) sparked considerable discussion on the web, including Phillip J. Griego (to whom the above discussion is indebted), HRHero/M. Lee Smith, and Proskauer Rose. Robert Loblaw at Appellate Decisions writes (Jul. 6):

The ADA often places employers in a difficult position, since they have knowledge of the dangers of employing a particular individual but cannot always take steps to address those dangers. Indeed, this case is similar to last year’s Pacific Bell case, which involved a home repair technician who had spent time in a mental hospital after being found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity (my coverage here). As in that case, Curry County would probably be found liable in tort if Dark injured somebody while on the job, due to its knowledge of his condition. Indeed, Curry County is even more likely to be on the hook if Dark has another seizure that results in injury, since he already had one near-miss on the job. But as far as the ADA is concerned, Curry County’s potential tort liability is simply not relevant.

And before assuming that this is just one of those wacky Ninth Circuit cases, note (as does Ross Runkel) that the author of the opinion is the highly regarded conservative jurist Diarmuid O’Scannlain. Maybe it just is an extreme law, with no judicial activism needed to get extreme results out of it.

Welcome radio listeners

I was a guest Wednesday afternoon on Lars Larson’s nationwide talk show, based at Portland Oregon’s KXL, to discuss federal judge James Robertson’s ruling ordering the U.S. Treasury to redesign U.S. paper money so as not to exclude blind users from reasonable access (see yesterday’s post). And at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time this morning (Thursday) I’m scheduled to join Mike Rosen on his popular show based at Denver’s KOA, on the same topic.

Letter from a new father

Reader Greg Dwyer of Oregon sends the following:

Yours is the website I have been continuously reading the longest and the one I most identify with. So I figured I’d tell you something. I recently celebrated the birth of my first son, Michael Gabriel. And he will not go through life padded in Nerf.

He is going to play dodge ball and tag.

I will let him eat trans fats and foie gras.

He can play Grand Theft Auto when he is old enough.

He will know that medicine is a risky business that doesn’t always provide perfect cures.

He is going to be able to shoot a gun well by the time he is 21 and I will take him to get his gun license myself.

Most of all, I will teach him that life is what you make of it and if he fails at something, he will have no one to blame but himself.

Loving father and non-victicrat,

Greg Dwyer