The family of a New Jersey boy severely injured by a line drive has reached a $14.5 million settlement with the maker of the metal baseball bat and other defendants that include Little League and a sporting goods retailer. Plaintiff’s lawyers have argued that metal bats raise the risk of injury on the diamond by imparting too much force to the ball. [New York Post, Point of Law (CPSC failed to find metal bats any riskier than wood), earlier here, etc.]
Author Archive
Long-necked beer bottle maker not liable for barroom assault
A Texas appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking to hold Anheuser-Busch liable for an assault suffered by a bar patron. The suit alleged that the long-neck design of the bottle made it too attractive for assailants seeking a weapon; the court agreed with the brewer that the plaintiff had failed to make out a sufficient case to avoid summary judgment. [Wajert, Mass Tort Defense]
International law roundup
- Human rights roulette: Senate could take up UN disabled-rights treaty in September [Stefano Gennarini, Turtle Bay and Beyond; earlier]
- Intense opposition from gun rights community slows drive for U.N. small arms treaty [David Kopel, Steve Hayward/PowerLine, Krayewski/Reason, Opinio Juris]
- SEC moves on complex, costly conflict minerals rule [Bainbridge, more, earlier]
- Series of Eugene Volokh posts takes up proposals to restrict reception of foreign law, including Islamic law, in American courts [Volokh Conspiracy]
- U.N. human rights establishment urges Iceland to crack down on gender-stereotypical speech [Volokh]
- Welfare rights, the U.N.-system way [International Labour Organization]
- When may American courts hear suits over international law violations on foreign soil? Cato files amicus brief in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch [Shapiro] SCOTUSBlog symposium on Kiobel and future of Alien Tort Statute;
- Damir Marusic reviews Aryeh Neier’s book on international human rights [American Interest]
Working from home may be ADA right
An Ohio federal court decision, in the case of a woman complaining of sensitivity to the perfumes worn by co-workers, may herald a new dawn of ADA telecommuting rights. I explain at Cato at Liberty.
Splashback: NYC beverage firms defend themselves against Bloomberg
For now, at least [Ira Stoll, earlier]. 
Related: “Soda Noir,” Owen Smith’s funny cover illustration for the June 18 New Yorker. And George Will reveals in his column that as part of its stimulus program the federal government spent millions of dollars on campaigns at the local and state level to crack down on sweetened drinks, a policy of dubious legality given that existing law “prohibits the use of federal funds ‘to influence in any manner … an official of any government, to favor, adopt, or oppose, by vote or otherwise, any legislation, law, ratification, policy, or appropriation.'” [earlier here, here]
August 23 roundup
- Cross-examination could be awkward: “Top Nevada Court Says Attorney Son Can Represent Dad in Divorce From Mom” [ABA Journal]
- “Phoenix Woman Ordered to Not Give Out Water in 112 Degree Heat Because She Lacked a Permit” [Doherty, Reason]
- Admitting no guilt, Yale capitulates to feds’ Title IX probe, promises crackdown on sexual “climate” [YAM, earlier here, here, etc.]
- Citing “egregious” ethics lapse, judge denies McGuireWoods fees in BarBri antitrust case [NLJ]
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act probe of retailers? [Reuters, FCPA Professor] FCPA piggyback shareholder suits falter [D&O Diary]
- Obama has postponed a slew of new regulations until after November, and they’re a costly lot [Rob Portman, WSJ]
- Fifth Circuit rejects challenge to sentencing in Paul Minor case [YallPolitics, background]
Blistering black marble bench leads to suit against Dallas Cowboys
A Texas woman “is suing the Cowboys and team owner Jerry Jones for the third-degree burns she suffered on her buttocks after sitting on a black, marble bench at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium two years ago while waiting for the debut Blue & Silver scrimmage.” Her lawyer says she was burned through her clothing and required skin grafts: “I’m surprised there aren’t more reports of burn injuries from sitting on those dark, black benches.” [Fort Worth Star-Telegram, CBS D-FW]
Unshuffled decks at the mini-baccarat table
Gamblers at a mini-baccarat table at the Atlantic City Golden Nugget could scarcely believe their good fortune: the house was dealing from an unshuffled deck, making it possible to guess which cards were coming next. “Forty-one consecutive winning hands later, the 14 players had racked up more than $1.5 million in winnings — surrounded by casino security convinced they had cheated but unable to prove how.” When the truth emerged, the casino filed a lawsuit against the card manufacturer, saying the decks had wrongly been promised as pre-shuffled. Meanwhile, it is refusing to cash in the uncashed chips of the winners, on the theory that New Jersey regulations invalidate casino games that do not offer fair odds to both sides. The players’ lawyer rejects that theory and also claims the casino has shown bias toward his clients because of their Asian origin, which the casino denies. [AP/NJ.com]
Environmental roundup
- Texas whups Administration in court on cross-state air pollution rule and coal-fired power: “It is unfortunate that EPA continues to misuse the Clean Air Act.” [TCEQ press release, WSJ editorial]
- As upstate New York hopes for Greek-yogurt boom, enviros defend extra-strict factory-farm (“CAFO”) regs [Abby Wisse Schachter, NY Post]
- Land-use control and economic inequality in America [Virginia Postrel, Bloomberg; Randal O’Toole, Cato]
- House Oversight report confirms EPA lead-paint renovation rule continues to frustrate Main Street [Angela Logomasini; earlier here, etc.]
- Illegal in some Western states to collect rainwater for one’s own use [Fox, Oregon; N.Y. Times, 2009]
- GAO releases report on attorney fee awards for environmental citizen suits [Michael Tremoglie, LNL] “Mandate Madness: When Sue and Settle Just Isn’t Enough” [House Oversight hearing]
- “EPA exonerates fracking in Pennsylvania” [Ken Green, AEIdeas; Dimock, Pa., of “Gasland” fame]
John Steele Gordon in Hillsdale “Imprimis”
His speech is titled “Economic Lessons from American History,” (printable PDF version) and one of the lessons has to do with loser-pays:
…if Jefferson’s decimal coinage concept was a good idea that quickly spread around the world, another idea that developed here at that time was lousy: the so-called American Rule, whereby each side in a civil legal case pays its own court costs regardless of outcome. This was different from the English system where the loser has to pay the court costs of both sides.
The American Rule came about as what might be called a deadbeat’s relief act. The Treaty of Paris (which ended the American Revolution) stipulated that British creditors could sue in American courts in order to collect debts owed them by people who were now American citizens. To make it less likely that they would do so, state legislatures passed the American Rule. With the British merchant stuck paying his own court costs, he had little incentive to go to court unless the debt was considerable.
The American Rule was a relatively minor anomaly in our legal system until the mid-20th century. But since then, as lawyers’ ethics changed and they became much more active in seeking cases, the American Rule has proved an engine of litigation. For every malpractice case filed in 1960, for instance, 300 are filed today. In practice, the American Rule has become an open invitation, frequently accepted, to legal extortion: “Pay us $25,000 to go away or spend $250,000 to defend yourself successfully in court. Your choice.” …
…policing the marketplace has long been considered a quintessential function of government. The reason for this is that when policing has been in private hands, self-interest and the public interest inevitably conflicted. The private armies of the Middle Ages all too often turned into bands of brigands or rebels. The naval privateers who flourished in the 16th to 18th centuries were also private citizens pursuing private gain while performing a public service by raiding an enemy’s commerce during wartime. In the War of 1812, for instance, American privateers pushed British insurance rates up to 30 percent of the value of ship and cargo. But when a war ended, privateers had a bad habit of turning into pirates or, after the War of 1812, into slavers.
Predictably, the American Rule has spread exactly nowhere since its inception at the same time as the decimal coinage system. There is not another country in the common-law world that uses it. … Few things would help the American economy more than ending the American Rule.