“A judge has awarded more than $6.7 million to the family of a Northeastern University student who fell down a set of stairs at a Boston bar in 2007 and died after a night of drinking. The judge’s award comes about three months after a jury ruled the bar violated the city building code but was not liable for the 21-year-old man’s death.” [Boston Globe; Herald; MyFoxBoston]
Posts Tagged ‘personal responsibility’
“Polar Bear Plunge” blamed for non-participant’s death, 19 sued
By reader acclaim: the family of a Pennsylvania woman who attended — but did not participate in — a New Jersey “Polar Bear Plunge” charity event has sued the event sponsors and many others. Tracy Hottenstein was last seen alive around 2:15 a.m. on the night of drinking after the festivities, and was later discovered in the bay having, per Cape May County authorities, “died accidentally from hypothermia and acute intoxication.” In addition to the event sponsors, the suit names “the owners of two bars she was at on the night she died and the couple who invited her to dinner at their home that evening. Also named is the hospital where she died and the doctor who pronounced her dead, as well as the Sea Isle City Police Department and individual officers who — the suit claims — did not allow rescue workers to perform lifesaving treatment for hypothermia after they discovered Hottenstein had no pulse.” [AP/NJ.com]
Canadian court: alcoholism following accident is compensable injury
After a pedestrian was hit by a truck and suffered a broken elbow and other injuries, he began to drink excessively and developed clinical alcoholism with serious health consequences. Doctors testified that the man’s “pain and mood” following the injury contributed to this development, in combination with genetic predisposition (both his parents were alcoholics). A judge in the province of British Columbia found that the “alcohol abuse was caused by the Accident and that such alcohol abuse was reasonably foreseeable,” so that compensation for it could be recovered as part of the lawsuit. [BC Injury Law]
“Lawsuit planned by family of teen who fell from airplane”
Hoping to ride for free, 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale stowed away in the landing gear of a US Airways flight but fell to his death in the Boston area. Now his family is suing, represented by Florida attorney Christopher Chestnut, who argues that the lad “should never have successfully gained access to that airplane. Had airport security been up to par, he would be alive and well with his family today.” [Boston Globe and more via TortsProf, BoingBoing]
Man wounded in bar gunfight
He loses a suit arguing that the bar should have checked patrons for weapons. [Point of Law]
“‘New-Car Fumes’ May Have Contributed to Hit-and-Run, Expert Says”
Kevin at Lowering the Bar spots a promising new theory in a defense expert’s testimony, though it’s not clear the lawyers actually wound up making use of it. [Vail Daily, same at Denver Post]
Court: riding oil pump like toy horse could be “reasonably anticipated” use
By reversing a grant of summary judgment, a Louisiana court has reinstated a suit alleging that the manufacturer of a 50-year-old oil pump should have reasonably anticipated that a 13-year-old boy would climb onto its moving pendulum and attempt to ride it for fun, thus injuring himself. As evidence that such a use was reasonably foreseeable, plaintiffs offered three instances in which kids had been hurt attempting similar stunts in other states — all of which, as it happened, had occurred well after the making of the Louisiana pump, leaving it unclear in what way they could have served to put its manufacturer “on notice” of anything. [Sean Wajert]
“McDonald’s must pay Brazilian manager $17.5K for weight gain”
An “Only in America” story? Not this time: “A Brazilian court ruled this week that McDonald’s must pay a former franchise manager $17,500 because he gained 65 pounds while working there for a dozen years.” [AP/USA Today] More: Lowering the Bar.
“Court Bars Molester From Suing Parents of Her Victim”
“The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has refused to follow a convicted child molester ‘down the rabbit hole’ and allow her to sue the parents of the 13-year-old boy she assaulted for failing to protect him from her.” [Matthew Heller, OnPoint News]
UK: Not with my daughter you don’t!
British attorney Nick Freeman “is notorious for using legal loopholes to successfully defend celebrity clients accused of motoring offenses. But Mr. Loophole, as he is nicknamed, last week refused to use his expertise to get his daughter off a speeding charge…. ‘Sophie had to understand the consequences of breaking the law,’ [he said].” [Patrick Kingsley, Guardian]