The Ohio Supreme Court, following a shift in its balance through the election of two new members (see Nov. 7, 2002), has reversed its widely derided 1999 decision in Scott-Pontzer v. Liberty Mutual, which had allowed employees and their families injured on their own time in their own cars to collect from their employers’ auto insurance policies (Oct. 30, 2000; letter, Aug. 1, 2001). Some editorial reactions: Cincinnati Enquirer, Findlay Courier, Dayton Daily News.
Archive for 2003
Trying too few cases = legal malpractice?
Two legal malpractice lawsuits against the Madison County, Ill. firm of Goldenberg, Miller, Heller and Antognoli claim that the firm settled injury cases for too small a sum and in particular allege that it lacked credibility among defense counsel because it too seldom took cases to trial. Although the Goldenberg firm was one of two major plaintiff’s firms handling asbestos claims in Madison County, for example, one rival lawyer contends that it had not taken an asbestos case to trial in ten years. (Paul Hampel, “Madison County law firm is sued again”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Nov. 29, via Lori Patel, Law.com). The article is noteworthy for the way it sheds light on longtime feuds among plaintiff’s lawyers in the notorious county (see Dec. 3 and many others).
The case also draws comment (Dec.3) from David Giacalone, who we are delighted to say has resumed limited posting at his website. Giacalone has further information about the tale (see Jun. 17-18, 2002) of Rochester, N.Y. attorney Jim (“The Hammer”) Shapiro, who advertised that “I want to get YOU the biggest, fattest cash award I can, as fast as I can, from as many defendants as I can find. Just call me! Day or night, I’ll talk to you free.” but who later admitted in a deposition that he lived in Florida and had never tried a case. See Jeff Williams, “Lawyer ads get loud”, PrairieLaw, undated.
Obesity-as-disability and housing accommodation
Airline and theater seats, equipment in doctors’ offices, and now, inevitably, housing: “Carmen Bowen, 44, has been involved in a two-year dispute with the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority over how much work must be done to help her move around her [Cleveland, Ohio] apartment.” Ms. Bowen weighs 772 pounds and the agency has already agreed to an extensive menu of apartment renovations that it believes go beyond what the federal ADA requires: “The modifications include removing doors and walls, installing an automatic door operator and panic device, demolishing the existing bathroom and installing a special shower, and putting in a sidewalk to the front door.” However, “Bowen filed a discrimination complaint, saying the agency took too long. … In August, 22 firefighters and emergency medical technicians worked for 2 1/2 hours to move Bowen from her apartment so she could have dental work.” (“Housing agency works to accommodate 772-pound tenant”, AP/Akron Beacon Journal, Nov. 17).
CAFA compromise contemplated
Reports from Capitol Hill indicate that Congress may be ready to pass a version of the filibustered Class Action Fairness Act (Oct. 21, Sept. 28, etc.) early next year after alterations to bring aboard three Democratic Senators who had supported the filibuster, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Chuck Schumer of New York. We haven’t had a chance to check the details of how good the resulting bill is, but one circumstance speaks strongly in its favor: Ralph Nader is really upset. (Charles Hurt, “Revised lawsuit-reform bill wins Democratic converts”, Washington Times, Nov. 27; Joseph Straw, “Nader slams Dodd?s class action reform act”, New Haven Register, Dec. 3; Bruce Alpert, “House, Senate avoid gridlock” (Landrieu), New Orleans Times-Picayune, Dec. 1). See also John Godfrey, “US Senate Democrats Seek To Revive Class-Action Bill”, Dow Jones/Yahoo, Nov. 17 (Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., also said to be open to compromise).
“‘Trampled’ Wal-Mart Shopper Has History Of Injury Claims”
“A woman reported ‘trampled’ last Friday by Wal-Mart shoppers desperate for $29.87 DVD players has a long history of claiming injuries from Wal-Marts and other businesses where she worked or shopped.” Patricia Vanlester, 46, has pressed numerous claims over the years of having slipped and fallen in stores or having objects fall on her “under some of her various legal last names: Rastellini, Findley, Crabtree, Platt and Vanlester”. Ten of the earlier claims have been against Wal-Mart itself. Her recent report of having been “trampled by a herd of elephants” near the electronics display has been widely picked up by news agencies and commentators around the world as emblematic of American commercial excess. (Tony Pipitone, WKMG (Central Florida) Channel 6 News, Dec. 4).
Pooh balloon ticket
NYC’s Finest continue their ticketing campaign said to be aimed at improving “quality of life” (if you call that living): “Police wrote Queens hospital worker George Pulido a summons for making unreasonable noise because his son Christopher’s Winnie the Pooh balloon popped on the street.” (Leo Standora, “The most un-pop-ular bust of all?”, New York Daily News, Dec. 4)(via Hill-Kleerup, which comments, “Just keep telling yourself, ‘They don?t have ticket quotas ? they don?t have ticket quotas ? they don?t have ticket quotas ? right?'”)
Latest newsletter
Our latest free newsletter, summing up the past five weeks’ worth or so of items on the site (yes, we had fallen behind), went out this morning to its 2000+ subscribers. If you didn’t receive it, you can sign up here for future mailings and to read older newsletters. It’s a great way to keep up with items on the site you may have missed.
Mold repercussions
A Massachusetts woman has won over $500,000 because of a mold infestation of her $75,000 condo. (Thomas Grillo, “After 8 years, a milestone in battle over mold”, Boston Globe, Nov. 25). After thousands of years of humanity coexisting relatively peacefully with mold, how unfortunate must we be to live in the twenty-first century, when plaintiffs’ lawyers have discovered the terrible health effects! The Globe, while paying lip service to a quote that there’s no scientific evidence of generalized health problems from mold, then proceeds to identify stachybotrys as “toxic mold,” and uncritically repeats a claim (rejected by a court that otherwise awarded millions in the same case) that such mold has caused brain damage. The UPI does better, even noting that the wide array of health claims made with respect to mold suggest that there isn’t one cause for all of these problems. (K. L. Capozza, “Mold: Unsightly but not deadly”, Sep. 2).
But who has an economic incentive to point out that bleach is the solution to mold when compared to the money that can be made by positing the opposite hypothesis? (Highlight of this site: claiming that a brochure asking if “toxic black mold” is the “Millennium’s Silent Killer” is “NOT intended to scare you“.)
According to an economist quoted in the Boston Globe story, fear of mold litigation has caused insurance companies, when confronted with a potential claim, to immediately move a family into a hotel and perform testing. Unsurprisingly, the resulting payouts and expenses are causing costs to rise for construction and homeowners’ insurance. (Mark Hornbeck et al., “Sting of high insurance spurs probe”, Detroit News, Dec. 3; Scott Wyland, “Insurance premiums hammer construction”, The Olympian, Nov. 23). More: May 26, 2004.
Streisand loses lawsuit
On grounds that it was an abuse of the judicial process, a California judge has tossed the lawsuit Barbra Streisand brought against an environmental group who took an aerial photograph of her home off of a Malibu beach as part of a larger project documenting coastal erosion. The Smoking Gun has both the decision and the photo, as well as the May complaint. According to a press release of the defendants, the photo of Streisand’s home had only been downloaded six times before the lawsuit–twice by her own attorneys. The lawsuit just guaranteed thousands of additional people would see the photos. (Kenneth R. Weiss, “Judge Rejects Streisand Privacy Suit”, LA Times, Dec. 4).
Disassembling Glock
Dan McLaughlin has some thoughts (Dec. 2) on the possible constitutional infirmities of the recent Ninth Circuit decision in Ileto v. Glock (Nov. 20, Nov. 26), in which a three-judge panel okayed a suit against gunmakers for supposedly “oversupplying” the West Coast market in such a way that a crazed neo-Nazi was able to obtain and use several firearms. Among its other problems, the opinion presumes that California can appropriately second-guess and override the more permissive gun-selling laws of the state of Washington, where the guns in question were originally sold. Our take on the same general issue appeared in Reason in 1999.