Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Hit by bird at garden center

In far-famed Madison County, Ill., 40-year-old Rhonda Nichols is suing the Lowe’s Home Center in Alton, saying she was seriously injured when a bird flew into her head at the outside gardening area. She wants more than $50,000:

According to the suit, filed by the St. Louis firm of Anderson & Associates, the store “allowed wild birds to enter the Gardening area in which customers travel … (and) that said wild birds created a dangerous condition.”

Nichols claims the bird caused injuries to her head, brain, neck, muscles, bones, nerves, discs, ligaments, as well leading to the loss of neurological functions and cognitive skills.

…The suit said the incident occurred “on or about April 15, 2003.” Bobbi Rose, an assistant manager at Lowe’s, said the store had no record of any human-bird collisions on that date.

(Paul Hampel, “Woman sues store, claims she was attacked by bird”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Apr. 13). Update Feb. 12: federal judge throws out suit.

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Untraceable — but still under copyright

Due in part to expansions of copyright law lobbied for by Disney and other giants, a huge volume of writing, art and music which would otherwise by now have entered the public domain is still under copyright, even though the rights to much of it — things like picture postcards, ephemeral commercial illustration and sheet music issued by long-defunct publishers or with no identifying marks at all — cannot be traced to any particular current successor-owner even by good faith efforts. Per Wired News:

According to comments submitted to the copyright office, one married couple couldn’t get a wedding photograph repaired: The photography shop would not scan and reprint the photo because it was taken by a professional and the shop was afraid of violating copyright, even though the photographer was out of business.

“For heaven’s sake, this is a photograph of me and my wife, and I can’t have it legally repaired!!! Wrong, wrong, wrong!” wrote William Haynes.

(Katie Dean, “Copyright Reform to Free Orphans?”, Apr. 12).

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“Trial Lawyers Inc. — California”

The Manhattan Institute Center for Legal Policy (with which I’m affiliated) this week unveils a “new comprehensive study of the devastating impact of California’s lawsuit industry” entitled “Trial Lawyers Inc.: California”. It builds on 2003’s much talked-about “Trial Lawyers Inc.” report and, like that one, has been assembled by Jim Copland of the Institute.

Tomorrow (Apr. 14) from 10 to 2 at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, the Manhattan Institute and the Pacific Research Institute are sponsoring an event (details) to call attention to the new report. Panelists include Jim Copland, Steven Hantler of DaimlerChrysler, and John Sullivan of the Civil Justice Association of California; there follows a keynote luncheon speech by author/TV host Catherine Crier, introduced by PRI’s Sally Pipes. P.S. The study has now been posted on the web, and is here. And Jim has an op-ed in the San Francisco Examiner (Apr. 13).

(cross-posted at Point of Law)

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U.K. roundup

Meals-on-wheels officials in Gloucestershire were preparing to distribute to elderly clients paper napkins printed with tips on how to avoid being a crime victim, but paused the initiative after being warned that no safety assessment had been made of the possible choking hazard should pensioners insert the napkins into their mouths; the distribution eventually went forward, but critics said the episode encouraged the portrayal of aged persons as senile (Martin Wainwright, “No napkins … elderly might eat them”, The Guardian, Apr. 13). The Royal Chesterfield hospital is locked in a longstanding battle with claims-chasers who prowl its accident and emergency facilities promoting no-win, no-fee legal practices. Said a spokesman: “They have been approaching patients, asking them how they came about their injuries, was it their fault and if they want to sue. We have had several complaints from patients. These people are also handing out official-looking leaflets with an NHS-type logo which makes it look as if the hospital is endorsing their actions.” (Nick Britten, “Hospital lawyers target ‘ambulance chasers'”, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 14). Until recently a number of Scottish prisons provided inmates with chamberpots rather than in-cell toilets for overnight use; the practice has now been ruled a human rights violation and taxpayers are on the hook for compensation claims that some see rising as high as £100 million. (Hamish MacDonell and John Robertson, “Slopping-out prisoners ‘to sue for £100m'”, The Scotsman, Feb. 11; Kirsty Scott, “Slopping out judged a breach of human rights”, The Guardian, Apr. 27, 2004). And the newsletter of the Association of Lloyd’s Members, serving participants in the venerable London insurance market, will be reprinting with credit occasional items from this website (after having asked our permission, which we were happy to grant).

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Banks’ international customer records

The feds want unprecedented authority to snoop into them, but say it’s only to combat money laundering and terrorist finance — for now, at least. They’ve been tightening the screws on banks that aren’t forthcoming enough in reporting cash transfers deemed suspicious: “Some smaller community banks have sold out to larger companies for fear of increased liability, banking officials say, and banks have dropped some money-transmittal businesses that do significant business overseas because of the risk. Some executives, meanwhile, are steering away from serving on bank boards, concerned that they will be hit with punitive measures, banking industry officials say.” But the regulations do not seem especially promising in blocking money transfers intended to abet terrorism, most of which are smallish in size or otherwise not facially suspicious. (Eric Lichtblau, “U.S. Seeks Access to Bank Records to Deter Terror”, New York Times, Apr. 10). For more, see my Reason column for Mar. 1999.

Regulation of non-profits

The aim of proposals before the Senate Finance Committee may be to crack down on financial abuses by some charitable entities, but the result could be to impose onerous regulatory burdens on the good and bad alike. (Heather Higgins, “Death by Bureaucracy”, OpinionJournal/WSJ, Apr. 10).

Finger-pointing II

The mystery of the San Jose Wendy’s chili finger deepens, as police execute a search warrant for Anna Ayala’s Las Vegas home, and Ayala claims new litigable injuries from the search. The local newspaper has four different reporters investigating. (Alan Gathright, Dave Murphy, Maria Alicia Gaura, “Police search home of woman who found finger”, SF Chronicle, Apr. 8; Ryan Kim, Dave Murphy and Alan Gathright, “Finger-finder has history of legal battles”, SF Chronicle, Apr. 9; “Woman Who Found Finger In Chili May Sue”, Good Morning America, Mar. 28). Earlier entry: Apr. 8. See also the Snopes page on the Pepsi-can syringes of 1993.

Remarkably, the media coverage never suggested that some skepticism might be warranted regarding a finding of a finger in chili until the execution of a search warrant seventeen days later. The media was similarly suckered by the tale of a juice bottle supposedly containing a human penis back in 2001.

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Finger pointing

“The woman who claims she bit into a human finger while eating chili at a Wendy’s restaurant has a history of filing lawsuits – including a claim against another fast-food restaurant in Nevada.” (Ken Ritter, “Woman who claimed to find finger at Wendy’s has litigious history”, AP/San Diego Union-Tribune, Apr. 8)(via Malkin)

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