Despite a federal judge’s recent dismissal of one slavery-era suit (see Jan. 30), reparations advocates are hoping to score a comeback with a lawsuit demanding damages 82 years after the fact for a lethal rampage by white rioters against black residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921. They’ll have to overcome both sovereign immunity and the statute of limitations, though. (Scott Gold, “Reparations Sought Decades After Race Riot”, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 13). And New York Life has agreed to hand over $20 million to settle claims arising under policies sold to ethnic Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire, many of whom were murdered during the rise of modern Turkey in “a deliberate, systematic and government-controlled genocide that began in April 1915,” according to a statement by California insurance commissioner John Garamendi, who announced the settlement (Armenian-Americans are a potent ethnic lobby in California.) Of the $20 million, $11 million will be set aside for heirs and $3 million for Armenian civic organizations, leaving somewhere around $6 million for lawyers who include Mark Geragos, William Shernoff and Brian Kabateck. According to the last-named of these, the settlement “is the result of a very personal campaign to bring attention to the history of the Armenian Genocide.” The news accounts do not reveal what if any role the court system and insurance law of present-day Turkey — the government of which rejects the genocide charge — might have been allowed to play in the disposition of the claims (“Calif. Commissioner Announces Settlement on Behalf of Survivors of Victims of Armenian Holocaust”, Insurance Journal, Jan. 28; AP/CBS News, Jan. 29; CNN, Feb. 17)(via Law.com)
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Sparing parents the temptation?
In Ireland, an official health board has objected to the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in the County Clare town of Ennis, saying its products might make children fat. “Community dietitians” on the board have insisted that before the restaurant chain has its permit application approved it should “prepare an Environmental Impact Statement to determine what effect the restaurant will have on the health of children in the Ennis area.” (“Board opposes a McDonald’s for Ennis over health factors”, Irish Times, Feb. 3). Further reading on the slimness-through-legal-compulsion crusade: David Gratzer (Manhattan Institute), “Cadbury Replaces Cholera”, National Review Online, Feb. 12; Todd G. Buchholz, “Burgers, Fries, and Lawyers”, Policy Review, Feb.; Kelly Jane Torrence, “Food Fight”, Reason, Dec. 23.
Update: another alcohol suit
Piling on in search of a Next Tobacco: “A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles [earlier this month] against the world’s two biggest brewers accuses the beer makers of advertising to minors and seeks $4 billion in disgorgement of profit.” The suit, filed by Seattle’s Hagens Berman, whose doings are oft chronicled in this space (see Sept. 9-10, 2002 and links from there, Nov. 24) targets Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller. It invokes California’s distinctively abuse-prone s. 17200 law (see Dec. 8), as well as a California law which bans alcohol advertising intended to encourage underage drinking. (Ira Teinowitz, “$4 Billion Lawsuit Filed Against Beer Giants”, Advertising Age, Feb. 4) (lawsuit website/complaint in PDF format). Two months ago, lawyers led by David Boies filed a would-be class action against a number of alcohol companies over alleged youth marketing (see Dec. 1)
Update: Mormon actress can sue over script profanity
Updating our story of Jan. 24, 2000: “University of Utah theater professors may have violated the constitutional rights of a former student when they refused to allow her to omit profanity from an in-class performance, a federal appeals court ruled [Feb. 3].” Overturning a district court decision, the unanimous Tenth Circuit panel said Christina Axson-Flynn was entitled to a jury trial on her claim that the university theater program violated her rights when it refused to let her avoid reciting profane lines assigned to her characters, and that its claim to be standing on pedagogical principle was a pretext for religious discrimination. (Angie Welling, “Ex-U. actress to get jury trial in bias lawsuit”, Deseret News, Feb. 4). More: David Bernstein comments. Update Jul. 17: case settles.
Update: “Woman drops lawsuit over Jackson peep show”
Just in case anyone missed this while we were away: only a few days after filing her class-action lawsuit (Feb. 5, Feb. 8) demanding billions from MTV and other defendants over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl stunt, Terri Carlin of Knoxville, Tenn. “believes she’s made her point” and is withdrawing the suit. (AP/CNN, Feb. 10; see Blog 702). The attorney who represented Carlin in the action, Wayne A. Ritchie II, would appear to be (per his website) a figure of some dignity in the Knoxville legal community: a former state legislator, he “has served on the Board of Governors of the Knoxville Bar Association and on the Board of Governors and Executive Committee of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association.” (See also May 28.)
Update: “Scientists win Kennewick Man ruling”
“The scientific community should be allowed to study the 9,000-year-old human bones known as Kennewick Man, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled [last week], rejecting an appeal by several tribes claiming kinship and seeking to rebury the remains.” The court found little evidence of either a genetic or a cultural link between the prehistoric corpse and present-day Indian tribes. (Tom Paulson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Feb. 5) (see Sept. 27-28, 2000; Oct. 11, 1999). See “In our view: Kennewick Man” (editorial), The Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.), Feb. 8; Moira Breen; Lex Communis; Brian Doherty, Reason “Hit and Run”, Feb. 12; Sarah Graham, “Scientists Win Latest Ruling in Kennewick Man Case”, Scientific American, Feb. 6. More: Aug. 2.
Economic Report of the President
This year’s Economic Report of the President, just published, includes a chapter (large PDF, look for chapter 11) on the economic impact of the U.S. tort system, its growth, the mixed evidence on its success in hazard-reduction, and its impact on particular fields such as medicine and light aviation (via Alex Tabarrok).
Another posting lull
I’m headed out on the road again, to (among other places) a conference put on by the Center for Constructive Alternatives at Hillsdale College in Michigan. I’m not likely to do any posting until Friday at earliest.
Update: Family can’t sue over priest’s funeral remarks
Updating our July 17 story: a New Mexico family’s lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and Rev. Scott Mansfield alleging that he gave a eulogy that suggested the deceased Ben Martinez was hell-bound has been dismissed; the court ruled that it could not mediate the underlying theological claim behind the complaint. (AP, Jan. 27; Christine Haughney, “Coast to Coast”, Washington Post, Jul. 20, 2003).
Runaway Alabama jury
For about five years, insurance agent James Richard Perry kept collecting $50 monthly premiums from Carolyn Whittaker for a $25000 life insurance policy that had lapsed. She sued Mr. Parry, of course, after she learned of the deception, but also sued the insurance company, Southwestern Life, for failing to investigate the agent’s past before hiring him. The jury awarded twenty million dollars in compensatory damages–and then topped that off with $1.6 billion in punitives. Alabama state law will reduce the punitive damages award to “only” sixty million, but the underlying “compensatory” damages award is beyond unreasonable–as is the idea of punitive damages against the life insurance company for what is, at worst, negligence that cost Ms. Whittaker a few thousand dollars. (AP, Feb. 6; “Macon County Woman Wins Billions [sic] In Insurance Case”, WSFA, Feb. 6).