This one threatened on behalf of villagers from Glod, Romania, (a stand-in for Kazakhstan in the movie) who say they weren’t paid or given releases for their participation in the film, an assertion denied by the studio. The Los Angeles Times gives a largely sympathetic platform to their lawyer, Ed Fagan, without managing to mention the disciplinary trouble he found himself in (Nov. 26; Aug. 27, 2005 and links therein). Fagan shamelessly admits that he will simultaneously file suits in California, Florida, and Germany; international judge-shopping at its finest. (Bojan Pancevski, “Villagers to sue `Borat'”, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 19).
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
A constitutional right to drink?
An Indiana court in 1855 discerned a right to imbibe alcohol to be among the fundamental liberties of the citizen, and that wasn’t the only court decision holding early liquor-prohibition laws to be unconstitutional. Eugene Volokh has details (Nov. 16).
Great moments in food labeling law
From Wales:
A spicy sausage known as the Welsh Dragon will have to be renamed after trading standards’ officers warned the manufacturers that they could face prosecution because it does not contain dragon.
The sausages will now have to be labelled Welsh Dragon Pork Sausages to avoid any confusion among customers.
Jon Carthew, 45, who makes the sausages, said yesterday that he had not received any complaints about the absence of real dragon meat.
(Simon de Bruxelles, “Sausages affected by draconian trade laws”, Times Online, Nov. 18).
Update: “Brockovich’s Medicare-billing lawsuits tossed”
Glamor proved no substitute for legal merit as U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan in San Diego dismissed two lawsuits by the highly publicized Brockovich against major hospital chains, alleging that the chains should refund to Medicare sums spent on treating injuries caused by earlier hospital negligence (see Jun. 22). The suits “made no specific claims of patient injury” but instead proffered studies estimating the nationwide incidence of negligent patient injury in hospitals. The judge termed the claims “speculative allegations” intended to allow Brockovich and the lawyers for whom she was fronting to “begin a fishing expedition”. “The judge also noted that Brockovich, 46, was not eligible to receive Medicare benefits, was never treated at any of the Scripps or Sharp hospitals, and was never injured by hospital staff misconduct.” (Keith Darcé, San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 16). For more on Brockovich’s activities generally, follow links from Nov. 3, 2005.
Arrested Egyptian blogger
Egyptian blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, a 22-year-old law student, has been arrested by authorities for remarks critical of Islam on his blog. Tom Palmer has details (Nov. 6) and there is a defense site: FreeKareem.org.
In his debt
“We can thank him, in large part, for happy events from the elimination of the draft to the conquest of inflation,” writes Brian Doherty. What a privilege to have lived in the same era as Milton Friedman (Reason “Hit and Run”, Nov. 16). More: Alex Tabarrok, Tom Kirkendall (via Coyote), Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Chapman.
The Alamo — and its orange stripe
Tourists from around the country descend on San Antonio to snap pictures of the famed Alamo, which looks pretty much as it must have looked in Texas’s pre-statehood days, with one big exception: the curb in front of the historic battle site and running the length of the building has been painted a garish orange, as an accident-prevention measure. TV station KSAT has a video clip of the controversy, and one local man’s efforts to get the decision reversed (“Bright Orange Curb Welcomes Visitors To the Alamo“).
Update: Taster’s Choice guy suit
Kevin Underhill at Lowering the Bar, a law/humor blog, has amusing live coverage (Oct. 27) of the appeal in a California court of Christoff v. Nestle USA, the $15.6 million award for using a model’s photo on a coffee label without ensuring that the proper permissions were in place (see Feb. 2, 2005).
Condo developers sued
The sudden slamming of brakes on the housing boom seems to be coinciding with a rise in litigation against condominium developers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Most peculiar-sounding lawsuit mentioned: one against a Miami developer that has canceled an unbuilt 49-floor condo tower and, it says, has refunded prospective buyers’ deposits with interest. It’s still being sued by 58 buyers demanding the profits they expected to reap had the condos been built — though the plunging South Florida real estate market makes such profits sound, um, speculative at best. Maybe they should thank the developer for canceling. (Troy McMullen, “Condo buyers take developers to court over promises”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 11).
Will the Democrats spoil trade?
The Lou Dobbs faction in the Democratic Party seems to have grown, and the Bill Clinton faction to have shrunk, compared with six years ago, notes CoyoteBlog (Nov. 9). More: Jacob Weisberg, “The Lou Dobbs Democrats”, Slate, Nov. 8)(via Postrel); “Australian PM: US Dems Hurt Trade Reform”, AP/Houston Chronicle, Nov. 13.