Pro se prisoner litigation isn’t the biggest problem facing society, but the case of Ladell Alexander is impressive in its chutzpah. Alexander molested a little boy in a St. Joseph County, Indiana library, and was convicted of the crime. Judge Sharp threw out Alexander’s lawsuit against the library security company for not doing enough to stop him, making the obvious point “Though every decent and moral person wishes that he had been prevented from committing this hideous crime, no one owes Mr. Alexander anything for having not done so.” (“Molester tries to sue those who didn’t stop him”, South Bend Tribune, Dec. 9 ($); LibraryLaw Blog reprint of Alexander v. DBS Security, No. 3:04-CV-703 AS (N.D. Ind.)).
Archive for March, 2005
Judge slashes “figurehead” class fee
“New York’s Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman and Boston’s Berman DeValerio Pease Tabacco Burt & Pucillo had asked for 7.5 percent of the settlement amount, or around $22 million, for serving as co-lead plaintiffs’ counsel in a suit against pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers over its $2 billion investment in biotechnology company ImClone” and over a 2002 earnings restatement (see “Won Its Case, Still Paid $300M To Settle”, Aug. 2). But federal judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York cut the allowed fee to $12 million, observing that the case piggybacked on an SEC enforcement action and on statements already in the public record: “Among securities class actions, this case as a whole was neither unique nor complex.” Moreover, it “is not thirty times more difficult to settle a thirty million dollar case as it is to settle a one million dollar case.” And in a footnote, Judge Preska wrote that the 7.5 percent fee negotiated between the lawyers and their clients should not be accorded a presumption of fairness because the lead plaintiffs — which included the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana, the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System, the General Retirement System of the City of Detroit and the Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association — had acted as “mere figureheads” for fee-seeking lawyers. Bernstein Litowitz partner Erik Sandstedt said the intimation that the pension funds served as mere figureheads “is completely untrue”. (Anthony Lin, “Judge Halves Fees Sought in Bristol-Myers Securities Class Action”, New York Law Journal, Feb. 28).
ADA cruise ship case
Peggy McGuinness at Opinio Juris discusses (Feb. 28).
Garage jumping
By reader acclaim: “Teenagers in Orlando, Fla., are leaping between 80-foot high public parking garages in a new trend called ‘garage jumping.'” And when some of them fail to make it from one structure to the other, what do you think happens next? Right-o: attorney Vincent D’Assaro is now “filing a lawsuit against the city of Orlando and the private garage owner” on behalf of Tim Bargfrede, 18, who fell six stories and was knocked unconscious on impact after a failed jump. D’Assaro says the fence was “very, very short” and inadequate to prevent a teen from (deliberately) making the jump. The family says “both garages need to take responsibility”, it being apparently too much to expect young Bargfrede to do so. (“Teens Leaping For Thrills In ‘Garage Jumping’ Trend”, Local6.com (WKMG-TV), Mar. 1; “Teen survives six-story fall from garage”, St. Petersburg Times, Jan. 1).
Hiring jurors as consultants
Unseemly? Dangerous to the legal system’s reputation for integrity? If so, that hasn’t stopped some lawyers from hiring as consultants jurors who served on panels hearing their cases, including a much-publicized Orange County, Calif. rape trial that ended in a hung jury. We were onto the trend last Sept. 24, and now the Christian Science Monitor covers it (Marty Graham, “Flap ensues over hiring ex-jurors”, Mar. 2).
Publicity roundup
Kevin Heller of TechLawAdvisor doesn’t want us coming after him (Feb. 14). Our correspondence with Santa Barbara skin artist Pat Fish regarding tattoo disclaimers amused New York attorney and tattoo-muse Marisa Kakoulas, writing at BM Ezine (“Waivers and Releases for Tattoo and Piercing Studios”, Feb. 27). And Best’s Review, the insurance industry publication, quoted me a while back commenting on the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal in a punitive damages case involving State Farm (R.J. Lehmann, “Briefing: Supreme Court puts State Farm case to rest”, Nov. 1, subscriber-only).
Damages for weather-forecast inaccuracy
Ill-conceived liability proposal #91,204, this time from Russia: “Weather forecasters in our city and the surrounding area will be held responsible for financial losses that the city incurs through their incorrect prognoses,” said Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. (“Weathermen face fines”, Ananova, Feb. 23; Peter Finn, “Forecasters Feeling Some Official Heat”, Washington Post, Mar. 1)(via Alex Tabarrok).
Arrested Development
In the November 16, 2003, episode of the best sitcom on television, “Arrested Development,” Jason Bateman, playing the protagonist, Michael Bluth, is seen using a defective cooking product manufactured by the family business–and then, as his character is burned by the device, launches into a lengthy tirade of curse-words against the machine, all of which are bleeped. The humor comes from the length of the bleeping (a running gag in the episode) and the reactions of the other characters (as well as the fact that Michael is in the middle of lecturing his son “It’s a poor carpenter that blames his tools for the–” when he burns himself). The Parents Television Council, in an effort to make America safe from humor, decided to guess what that tirade was, produced its own transcript with its imaginary version of the speech, and then promptly complained to the FCC about the “indecent” broadcast. Thankfully, the FCC unanimously denied the complaint, but the government had to pay lawyers to write memos that would help the FCC reach its 20-footnote decision–your tax dollars at work, since there’s no penalty for wasting the government’s time with such complaints. (And a welcome to Defamer and ALOTT5MA readers.)
Michael Jackson trial
The Michael Jackson defense is relying heavily on discrediting his accuser with his previous foray into civil litigation, a lawsuit against J.C. Penney that we covered in 2003. According to The Smoking Gun:
In a broadside on the accuser’s mother, Mesereau described the woman as a shakedown artist who used her sick son as bait, a woman who coached her kids to lie in connection with an assault lawsuit the family once brought against J.C. Penney. Mesereau referred to a newly surfaced witness–who worked as a paralegal for the lawyer representing the family in the Penney case–who claims that the mother fabricated her allegations in that civil case. The paralegal contends that she hesitated to come forward because the mother once told her she had relatives in the Mexican Mafia.
The unnamed paralegal was deposed over the weekend; ABC News is reporting that the mother will deny the allegations. (Damien McElroy, “Mystery Jackson witness emerges”, Telegraph, Feb. 27; Tim Molloy, AP, Feb. 25). Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson is protesting the absence of black jurors on the panel.