I’ll be a guest on the David Allen show, Jacksonville, Fla., this evening at 9 EDT to discuss John Roberts’ nomination.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Flood damage excluded? Pay anyway
Standard homeowners’ policies exclude coverage of flood damage unless it is purchased at a substantial additional premium, a fact well known to most property owners in high-risk areas. Mississippi lawyer Dickie Scruggs, a familiar figure to readers of this space, had the foresight to purchase flood insurance for his Pascagoula home, now partly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Now he wants the world’s insurers to pay billions for the properties they didn’t collect a premium for insuring, as well — perhaps scores of billions, if the principle is to extend to Louisiana. “Mr. Scruggs said he plans to urge Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood to try to override flood-exclusion clauses in homeowners’ policies in that state in the interest of public policy, a move that could force insurers to pay many billions more toward rebuilding costs.” (Theo Francis, John D. McKinnon and Peter Sanders, “Paying for Flood Damage Looms as Big Challenge”, WSJ, Sept. 8)(sub). An operative with the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association says he hopes that “people on the Coast and their friends statewide ratchet up the political pressure” to make the insurers pay. (Anita Lee, “Claims Dispute”, Biloxi Sun-Herald, Sept. 9). Megan McArdle thinks it’s all a brilliant way to scare insurers away from offering even conventional coverage in the future (Sept. 8). See also Point of Law, Sept. 9. More: Martin Grace Sept. 8, Sept. 8 again, Sept. 13.
“Katrina as the feds’ Enron”
“The common complaint [by Republicans] is that the president has let the lawyers take over,” reports columnist Robert Novak (“Lawyers vs. Katrina”, syndicated/TownHall, Sept. 8). In all fairness, if that’s the common complaint, it would seem to be a little broad-brush, since NYC mayor Giuliani, whose disaster-response leadership passes as the gold standard, was a lawyer too. Meanwhile, Larry Ribstein (Sept. 6) says federal officials are lucky they don’t have to live by the standards they prescribe for private business on such matters as “internal controls” and security planning.
Update: chili finger couple plead guilty
Army Corps sued over levee-building
Over the years the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed numerous levee and other public works projects aimed at reducing hurricane dangers to New Orleans and elsewhere in the Mississippi/Missouri river system. Environmental groups have sued, and sued, and sued, and sued, and their lawsuits have often succeeded in stopping these flood-control measures. (John Berlau, “Greens Vs. Levees”, National Review Online, Sept. 8; Michael Tremoglie, “New Orleans: A Green Genocide”, FrontPage, Sept. 8). Plus: Prof. Bainbridge (Sept. 9) has more details and spots a Los Angeles Times article raising the issue (Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae, “A Barrier That Could Have Been”, Sept. 9). The article’s summary line: “Congress OKd a project to protect New Orleans 40 years ago, but an environmentalist suit halted it. Some say it could have worked.” More: Sept. 14 (environmentalists and project critics respond).
Another data point on the McDonald’s coffee urban legend
You may recall that defenders of the infamous Stella Liebeck McDonald’s coffee case verdict argue that the suit was justified because her beverage was unusually hot, that no one else serves beverages capable of second- and third-degree burns, and that the suit was justified by the change in the restaurant industry to lower temperature of beverages.
None of these urban legends, repeated uncritically by Professor Jonathan Turley and the LA Times (and, sadly, snopes.com, which should know better), are true, and we have another datapoint: Paige Simmons, of St. Jacob, Illinois, is suing Java Junction and the Sweetheart Cup Co. over an allegedly defective cup that spilled hot chocolate on her when she was 6, causing second- and third-degree burns. In a refreshing blow for common sense, the Simmonses’ attorney, Ron Motil, emphasizes that he’s not suing over the obviously-hot temperature of the “chocolate steamer”, but over the cup. (Brian Brueggemann, “Family sues over girl’s burns from hot chocolate”, Belleville News-Democrat, Sep. 8).
Why we’re so short of refineries
Adrian Moore explains why no new refineries have been built in the U.S. since 1976, and not for lack of demand (“Katrina Reveals Gas Price Folly”, Orange County Register, Sept. 1, reprinted at Reason Foundation site) (via Instapundit). See Jun. 10, 2004.
Our Furry Friends Plaintiffs
Abstract for a new paper on SSRN:
This article seeks to explore a simple but profound question: how should our legal system deal with the claims of animals for protection against harms inflicted by humans? […] This article examines how the legal system presently balances such interests and how common law judges could expand, in a forthright manner, the consideration of animals’ interests. Finally, this article will suggest a more expansive consideration of animals’ interests through the adoption of a new tort: intentional interference with a fundamental interest of an animal.
(David S. Favre, “Judicial Recognition of the Interests of Animals – A New Tort”, 2005 Mich. St. L. Rev. 333 (Summer 2005)). Who says we already have too many lawsuits? If there ever is a class action on behalf of the Bovine-American community over McDonald’s hamburgers, it can perhaps be covered in the next edition of another new paper on SSRN, Howard Wasserman’s “Fast Food Justice.”
Earlier Overlawyered coverage: Oct. 21 and our animal rights archive.
More from C. G. Moore
Longtime reader Moore, a Tulane 3L, follows up on his earlier letter (Sept. 2) with this:
I’m back in LA after a few days in TX, and things are getting better here. Necessities are present, and gas prices are coming down. I’ve transfered to LSU for the semester — they’ve been very gracious, taking about 7,000 displaced students — and I just have to re-juggle a new course schedule with work, child care, and commuting home to an area under curfew.
Oh! Something that’s not made national news, as far as I’ve seen: at least 6 looters have been shot in St. Tammany parish (where I live), according to the deputies, and their orders are to shoot to kill. St. Tammany has the highest per-capita income of the state. It’s home to doctors, lawyers, engineers, and scientists. But it’s still a bit wild, apparently.
It’s absolutely mind-blowing to live through this. I think everyone here has had their perspective altered, but it has also helped bind some communities together. It has brought out the best, just as it has brought out the worst.
Incidentally, Ted’s comments on the topic of shooting looters touched off a considerable blogospheric discussion the other day; see Point of Law, Sept. 1.
Eve Tushnet
…will do something creative if you make a Katrina donation (Sept. 4).