By a 4-3 vote, New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has voted to uphold a $1.4 million jury award against the New York City Transit Authority on behalf of Juan Soto, who after a night of drinking with friends decided to trespass on the elevated subway roadbed at Queensboro Plaza and then failed to outrun a #7 train that came up behind. (Pete Donohue, “Loses to train & wins big”, New York Daily News, Mar. 25). Per a New York Daily News editorial, “To justify paying him, the court credited Soto’s testimony that he could tell how fast he was running because he often ran on a treadmill, and based on that speed some hired expert said the motorman should have been able to stop before hitting him.” (“A court runs off the rails”, Mar. 25)(Soto v. New York City Transit Authority, PDF).
Posts Tagged ‘personal responsibility’
County 25% responsible for employee’s murder of husband
In a sensational 2002 murder trial with echoes of the film “American Beauty”, Kristin Rossum was found guilty of poisoning husband Gregory de Villers and trying to make his death look like a suicide. Now a lawyer for de Villers’ family has convinced a jury that Rossum’s employer, San Diego County, should be held 25 percent responsible for $6 million in resulting wrongful-death damages. Rossum had access to lethal drugs through her work as a toxicologist for the county, and had not been subject to background screening; she relapsed into methamphetamine use a week before the murder. “It is not the duty of the county of San Diego to prevent a wife from murdering her husband,” said Senior Deputy County Counsel Deborah A. McCarthy, who predicted that the county would succeed in overturning the verdict on appeal. “If this case stands, it will expand public liability in a way the state of California never envisioned.” (“Millions of Dollars Awarded to Family of Man Killed by Toxicologist Wife”, North County Times, Mar. 20)(via Childs). Update Jul. 2: judge cuts verdict.
Alexandra Shaw and the Princeton bell tower
Police detected a “strong smell of alcohol” on 21-year-old Alexandra Shaw’s breath when they rescued her after she took a 40-foot fall through a grate in a Princeton University bell tower that was closed for renovations. But no blood test was done, Shaw claimed to have had only one beer, and the two contractors she sued settled the suit for $350,000 rather than risk a greater liability finding from a jury.
“The young lady fell and she was rather seriously injured,” [defense attorney Michael] O’Mara said. But the area where the accident occurred was not open to the public and “a person of common sense would not have entered. It looked like the bowels of the earth.”
Neither his client nor the co-defendant were responsible for the condition of the grate Shaw stepped through, O’Mara said. But there was a possibility that the jury might find liability so a compromise was reached.
(Linda Stein, “$350,000 settles tower plunge suit”, The Trenton Times, Mar. 22 (h/t P.E.); Bill Beaver, “Undergraduate falls climbing in chapel turret, injures leg”, Daily Princetonian, Dec. 14, 2001).
“‘Bedbug’ pair back days later”
“A couple who filed a $20 million lawsuit against a Catskills hotel after allegedly being attacked by bedbugs returned to the resort for another stay just nine days later, a lawyer for the hotel told the Daily News yesterday. Leslie Fox and Stephen Cohen checked in at the Nevele Hotel on July 15, 2005 – then returned from July 24 to July 29, attorney Joseph O’Connor said. ‘The claim for a $20 million injury is not substantiated by her willingness to stay in the same section of the hotel two weeks later,’ he said.” Fox and her husband are being represented by Alan J. Schnurman of the law firm of Zalman & Schnurman, who says he has been contacted by another hotel patron reporting bedbug bites. (Helen Peterson, New York Daily News, Mar. 9; “Pair Suing Hotel Over Bedbugs Bites Return”, AP/Washington Post, Mar. 9).
Deep pocket files: You can always move the hotel, right?
Ryan Taboada was shot eight times in the process of a carjacking in a Roanoke, Virginia, Holiday Inn Express parking lot; his assailant, Derrick Wakie Smith, has since pleaded guilty to attempted capital murder and many other felonies. But Taboada’s lawsuit blames the hotel owners, claiming “that police officials warned the business… that the property’s location posed certain dangers to its customers.” (Christina Rogers, “Virginia Supreme Court rules shooting victim can sue motel”, Roanoke Times, Mar. 7; Ryan Taboada v. Daly Seven, Inc. (Va. Mar. 3, 2006)). Previous Virginia law only imposed a duty when the danger was “imminent.”
“Tripped over your mail? File suit”
“You never know when a flower pot, stray cat, man in a monkey suit or cunning birthday package might reach out and grab your ankle. But, if the latter happens, suing is probably the best option. It is definitely the mailman’s fault you were not watching where you were going.” (Kristie Busam, University of Alabama Crimson White, Mar. 1). Howard Bashman has MSM press coverage of the Supreme Court decision that we covered Feb. 23.
Update: Kreimer gets another settlement
Richard Kreimer, the homeless man who made headlines in 1991 when he won $230,000 from officials of the Morristown, N.J. public library, who had ejected him for his strongly offensive body odor and for repeatedly staring at patrons, has now obtained a settlement in his lawsuit against a New Jersey bus company whose drivers allegedly refused to let him board their vehicles for similar reasons (see Mar. 17, 2005). Kreimer says that as a condition of receiving money he is bound not to discuss the terms of the settlement. He still has individual lawsuits pending against the two bus drivers involved, as well as a separate federal lawsuit pending “against NJ Transit, the city of Summit, and others, alleging he was wrongly ejected from train stations because he is homeless.” Although a court later overturned the ruling on which the 1991 settlement had been based, it proved impossible to reclaim the $230,000 settlement paid him, which according to AP was spent about half on lawyers’ fees and half on Kreimer’s living expenses. (Wayne Parry, “Homeless man settles lawsuit against bus company”, AP/NJ.com, Feb. 17; New Jersey for Change, Feb. 18)(& welcome Fark readers — and apologies for the practice of Hosting Matters, which, we just now learned, blocks referrers from that popular site because it doesn’t want to process the burst of traffic. If you get a blocking message, try “refresh/reload” or go to our main page and scroll down).
Deep pocket files: Blaming banks for terrorist attacks II
Second verse, same as the first: this time, the defendant is Credit Lyonnais, and once again, the “connection” to a terrorist group is a charity that keeps a fraction of its money at the French bank, is considered by French law to be a legitimate charity. In fact, Commite de Bienfaisance pour la Solidarite avec la Palestine was not designated a “global terrorist organization” by the USA until August 2003, after many of the plaintiffs were injured by Hamas, which is not a defendant in the case. And the bank shut down the account in September 2003! (Joseph Goldstein, “Americans Sue French Bank In Terror Case”, New York Sun, Feb. 24) (via Bashman). The motion to dismiss in the Weiss v. National Westminster case, which we discussed Jan. 6, is available on the Liability Project‘s Documents in the News page. Update Oct. 8: judge denies motion to dismiss.
Loses $14M gambling, sues drugmaker and casinos
Retired Texas doctor Max Wells is suing seven casinos and drugmaker Glaxo SmithKline, saying an anti-Parkinson’s drug predisposed him to compulsive gambling. “His lawsuit, filed Friday, says the drug company didn’t warn patients that Requip could cause compulsive behavior. And it cites a 2005 Mayo Clinic study that documented 11 Parkinson’s patients who developed compulsive gambling habits while taking Requip or a similar drug called Mirapex.” (Claire Osborn, Austin American-Statesman, Feb. 22; KevinMD, Feb. 22). More: Derek Lowe comments (Feb. 26).
Do Acts of God Still Exist?
No, I don’t mean to start a discussion over the existence of a deity or whether that entity intervenes in the material world. I am sure Walter would permanently disown me for starting such a food fight on his blog. No, what I mean is, does the legal term “act of god” have any meaning nowadays vis a vis liability, or are all damages now necessarily someone’s fault?
The other day I listed some of the litigation and threats of litigation we get in our public contact business (Feb 20). Another common claim we get is from damages our customers suffer to their property due to what I would call natural events or from meeting up with inevitable natural hazards (e.g. hitting a rock while off-roading). Let me give a specific example that is not real but is typical of these claims.
A customer drives into a National Forest campground we operate. During their stay, on a particularly windy day, several trees fall over including a large tree that crushes the roof of their camper. Is this an act of god? Or am I, as I can assure you every such customer and insurance lawyer out there seems to believe, liable for the damage to their car?
Well certainly, one criteria would be whether I exercised due care in maintaining the health of the trees in public areas. And in fact we have a hazard tree process where experts from the US Forest Service, whom a reasonable person would consider the best in their field, assess the health of trees in public areas and mark trees that might pose a danger of falling for us to remove. Lets posit that we had just completed this process, and the tree that fell looked healthy to all the experts. I guess the question is, in today’s legal environment, is there any such thing as being able to prove “all due care”, or in effect does the accident itself serve as prima facia evidence that due care was not exercised, even if no one can think of what else could be done? Comments are open.