“A former member and longtime critic of the Church of Scientology has been ordered by a Marin County judge to pay the church $500,000 for speaking out against the controversial religious movement.” Scientology defector Gerald Armstrong, in a 1986 settlement of earlier litigation with the church, had agreed to “maintain strict confidentiality and silence with respect to his experiences with the Church of Scientology” with a penalty of $50,000 for every offending utterance. “The church maintains that Armstrong has violated the agreement at least 201 times and owes it just over $10 million.” Armstrong’s “lawyer noted that his client had declared bankruptcy to avoid paying past damages won by Scientology, and Armstrong still vows to never pay a penny to the church.” (Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle, Apr. 13). See also Mar. 25-26, 2002; May 3, 2000.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Give us 40 percent of Colo. (or one casino site)
“The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma filed a claim Wednesday for 27 million acres given to the tribes in a 19th century treaty but said they would settle for 500 acres to build a casino in a symbolic return to Colorado. The petition, filed with the Department of Interior, covers northeastern Colorado and about 40 percent of the state.” And just like many Eastern tribes or would-be tribes, they’ve got an investor: “Steve Hillard, a Longmont venture capitalist who pulled together investors for the plan, dubbed the ‘Homecoming Project,’ said the unresolved settlement claims could tie up land and water sales in northeastern Colorado until an agreement is reached. Hillard said similar claims in Hawaii, New York, South Carolina and Texas have slowed real estate sales.” (Deborah Frazier, “Indians file huge land claim”, Rocky Mountain News, Apr. 15). For more on Indian land claim blackmail, see Feb. 9 and Nov. 2-4, 2001, among many others.
Catherine Crier show today
I’m scheduled to be a guest on Court TV’s Catherine Crier Live this afternoon, discussing this website. On Monday morning in Australia (Sunday afternoon in the States) I’m slated to join the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on its Radio National Breakfast show, for a discussion of personal responsibility and obesity lawsuits. And on Monday morning, 8:30 Central, I’ll be a guest on the “Dan, Doc and Dave” show on Peoria, Ill.’s WMBD.
“The Erin Brockovich Effect”
Parachuting in without actually touching toe? This time it’s a toxic-tort case in central Florida: “She has never set foot in Hillsborough County’s rural Plant City, but her name alone is influencing news coverage, attracting clients and conferring credibility to illness reports.” The suit alleges that Coronet Industries’ phosphate plant is responsible for a wide range of ills, including those of the lead claimant’s 3-year-old son, who suffers from autism and language disorders. (Ron Matus, “The Erin Brockovich effect: influence, inference”, St. Petersburg Times, Apr. 11). For much more on Brockovich, see Mar. 16, Jan. 3 and links from there, and our Oct. 2000 treatment.
Wal-Mart: target
“Encouraged by the press criticism, entrepreneurial trial lawyers, eyeing Wal-Mart’s deep pockets with glee, have made it perhaps the biggest private-sector target of the nation?s plaintiffs’ bar. In just ten years, the number of pending lawsuits against Wal-Mart has increased fourfold, to 8,000, and the company has tripled the size of its litigation department. … Wal-Mart faces a growing number of potentially costly class action lawsuits, exemplified by a sex-discrimination suit brought by the Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll firm, notorious for getting Texaco to pay $176 million to black employees in a discrimination suit.” (Steven Malanga (Manhattan Institute), “What Does the War on Wal-Mart Mean?”, City Journal, Spring). See Jul. 7-9, 2000 and more links: Feb. 1, 2004; Dec. 4, 2003; Jan. 11, Jun. 14, and Aug. 29-30, 2001; Sept. 6-7, Sept. 25-26, Nov. 15, and Dec. 13-14, 2000; and Dec. 2, 1999. More: we are linked by Always Low Prices — Always, a blog whose mission is to chronicle “The Best and the Worst about Wal-Mart” and which is put out in part by Kevin Brancato of George Mason U. and the economics blog Truck and Barter. (More: Apr. 19, 2005).
Easter chocolate bunny lawsuit
Swiss confectioner Lindt has filed for an injunction against the Austrian company Hauswirth, claiming that chocolate bunnies in gold foil are a Lindt trademark. Hauswirth says it has been producing such bunnies in Austria since 1962, and that Lindt previously lost a similar lawsuit against German rival Riegelein. (AFP, Apr. 8).
Update: PetsWarehouse case
Latest chapter in the ongoing PetsWarehouse saga (Dec. 28, Oct. 5 and links from there): Robert Novak’s lawsuit against Google and two other search engines was allowed to stand. Novak accused the search engines of violating the law by selling advertising tied to his trademarked phrase “pets warehouse”. (Declan McCullagh, “Judge won’t toss out Google, Overture suit”, CNet News, Apr. 6; Mar. 25 opinion). Update Oct. 16 (Novak prevails in a different action).
Eligible for “I Sued” sticker?
Stamford resident Robert Bonoff was handed an “I Voted” sticker on election day, and promptly ruined a suede coat by placing the sticker on it. He’s asked the city to pay to replace the coat, and, so far, the city has said no. (AP, Apr. 7).
Update: A reader expressed skepticism because of the similarity to a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode, but a more detailed Stamford Advocate piece shows it’s for real. “Bonoff said poll workers, who are paid by the city, should be given a list of fabrics that can be damaged by the stickers. … Bonoff said he is not going to give up until the city pays. ‘What’s $100? Big deal,’ he said. ‘They waste so much money anyway, why not give me a new jacket?'” (Donna Porstner, “A sticky situation”, Apr. 7).
Moody’s blamed for Bolshevik bond renunciation
The French Association of Russian Bondholders (or AFPER) is unhappy that the government of the Soviet Union repudiated the debts of its czarist predecessor, leaving it (or, more accurately, its members’ predecessors) with worthless paper. So in an interesting inversion of causality, in June 2001 it misguidedly sued Moody’s and S&P for providing ratings to the debt of the new post-Soviet Russian government in 1996, and sought to hold the rating companies liable for the debts of the earlier iterations of the Russian government. A Paris court finally got around to throwing the case out today. (Reuters, April 6).
“Bizarre Hoaxes On Restaurants Trigger Lawsuits”
If it becomes just a little more expensive to get a fast-food meal these days, it’s in part because a hoaxer–perhaps a single individual in north Florida–is calling restaurants around the country and persuading gullible managers to strip-search employees and customers. Restaurants, fearing lawsuits, are conducting defensive training to inculcate the common sense needed to avoid being fooled by such a call. (Steven Gray, Wall Street Journal, Mar. 30; Editorial, “Strip search is no ‘prank'”, Arizona Republic, Apr. 4; Charles Williams, “Restaurant Industry Warns Members to Beware Strip-Search Hoax”, Charleston Post and Courier, Apr. 2; “Lawsuit Filed After Strip Search Hoax”, WCVB, Feb. 26).