The latest land claim assertion, by the Delaware Nation, is openly meant to be traded off for casino rights. The law firm of Cozen & O’Connor is representing the tribe in the action, which targets not only crayon-maker Binney & Smith but 19 hapless homeowners as well as a couple of small businesses and several layers of Pennsylvania government. We wrote about Indian land claim litigation a year and a half ago. (Shannon P. Duffy, “Indian Tribe Sues Over Pennsylvania Land”, The Legal Intelligencer, Jan. 20). Update: court dismissed case in late 2004 (PDF).
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Radio Shack receipt suit
A customer from the Long Island suburb Wyandanch had her address entered into a Radio Shack computer by a prankster under her town’s nickname “Crimedanch.” Tanisha Torres, who acknowledges that she’s heard other people use the nickname, was so “embarrassed, flustered and shamed” that, after having that address printed out on a Radio Shack receipt on several occasions, she ran to a lawyer, Andrew Siben, who has sued the retail chain. (Robin Topping, “No Writing Off This Receipt”, Newsday, Feb. 4) (via Obscure Store). We think Mr. Siben is suffering from a failure of imagination: if Radio Shack has such potency that it can force a customer to shop there again and again even as it was repeatedly causing her such emotional distress, then it must have a degree of market power that potentially violates the antitrust laws.
Siben was previously quoted by Newsday lamenting that a spate of good weather had reduced his office’s workload of slip-and-fall cases. (A.J. Carter, “A Weather-Related Slowdown”, Jul. 29, 2002). Siben made his first mark in this space for an $80,000 settlement in a $4 million suit against the Upper Room Tabernacle Church, explaining to the New York Post that the plaintiff “was caused to fall by the Holy Spirit but unfortunately there was no-one there to catch her when she fell.” (Feb. 11-12, 2002; “Worshipper’s Holy Spirit Fall Nets Her $80,000 From Church”, New York Post, Feb. 2, 2002). Siben also represented Edwin Devito in his $5 million suit against American Airlines; Devito claims he was “knocked to the floor” (but not hospitalized) and suffered nightmares when a jet engine from Flight 587 crashed near where he was working. (AP, Sep. 9, 2002).
Answering machine suit dismissed
A gentleman who left a message on rap star Snoop Dogg’s answering machine sued when the message ended up as part of a “song.” A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that the plaintiff had no expectation of privacy when he left the message. (“LA judge dismisses suit against rapper over phone message”, AP, Jan. 31) (via SoCalLawBlog).
(Full disclosure: I briefly represented a co-defendant of Death Row Records in a civil lawsuit. Don’t ask.)
Super Bowl Kerfuffle
By popular demand: “Terri Carlin wants to make Janet Jackson’s bare breast into a federal case.” (“Tenn. Woman Files Suit Over Super Bowl”, AP, Feb. 5; Randy Kenner, “State of undress causes distress”, Knoxville News-Sentinel, Feb. 5; complaint). See updates Feb. 8, Feb. 14 (case withdrawn); May 28 (another case loses).
Radio Wed. a.m.
Tomorrow (Wed.) morning at 7:30 a.m. EST I’m scheduled to be a guest on Jim Blasingame’s national radio program, “Small Business Advocate“, discussing my latest book, The Rule of Lawyers (more on host/book).
Update: jury rejects “Library Cat” suit
“It took a jury little more than two hours of deliberation Friday to reject a claim from a man that the city of Escondido violated his civil rights when a cat living in a city library attacked his assistance dog more than three years ago.” For our earlier coverage of Richard Espinosa’s suit, which had demanded $1.5 million, see Jan. 18 and links from there. (Teri Figueroa, North County Times, Jan. 30).
Funny business at the margin
Court reporters get paid by the page — $5 per page, in south Florida — and according to allegations in a class action that one lawyer has filed, they’ve been padding their incomes by inserting extra white space into some of those depositions and hearing transcripts. A Broward County administrator “says the tricks are old and common” and a Dade County administrator says that county, a major purchaser of court reporting services, “audits more than 2,000 transcripts a month and finds problems with about one in 10.” Less-savvy participants in courtroom processes may never notice, say, the use of a margin wider than that prescribed by state law. (Noah Bierman, “Lawyer claims court reporting agency fudging margins and bottom line”, Miami Herald, Jan. 13).
Reparations suit dismissal, cont’d
The pseudonymous “Mindles H. Dreck” at Asymmetrical Information has some comments (Jan. 28) on Judge Norgle’s dismissal of the slavery reparations lawsuit (see Jan. 26)(documents at site of defendant Aetna). What criteria, he wonders, dictated the selection of banks, railroads, tobacco and insurance companies to be sued in the case? “1. A continuous history — who ever thought avoiding the M&A craze would be a liability? 2. Availability of records — one Historical Society officer noted to me that corporations have reconsidered or requested the return of donated archives since the suit.” Deep pockets, of course. And finally: “Defendants have to be vulnerable to PR damage.” This last point suggests why reparations advocates may not unreasonably imagine there is potential money to be made in pursuing more rounds of suits even if courts never rule in their favor.
Lunch at NYU Saturday
I’ll be the luncheon speaker this Saturday at 12 noon at the Federalist Society’s conference at New York University on “Enforcing Corporate Responsibility Through Criminal Law“. (Yes, this is rather short notice to NYC-area readers; I was tapped to fill in for a luncheon speaker who couldn’t make it.) Earlier, between 10:00 a.m. and noon, a distinguished panel will discuss corporate misconduct and the role of prosecutors, including: Prof. John Baker, Louisiana State Univ. Law Center; the Hon. Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pa.; the Hon. Eileen O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division, U.S. Department of Justice; and the Hon. George Terwilliger III, White and Case, LLP.
Posting lull
There probably won’t be any more posts from me until Thursday, when I return from (weather permitting) my Indiana speaking trip.