Some headlines just seem meant to keep tabloids in business, but in this case the report appears in the undeniably respectable Sydney Morning Herald. Among the key claims of transsexual Maddison Hall, who at the time of a 1989 murder conviction was known as Noel Crompton Hall, was that “a guard kept calling her ‘him'”. (Tim Dick, Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 15).
Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
Oz: “Boarder in the spare room wins A$450,000”
Peculiar case from Australia: “It barely raises an eyebrow when a spurned daughter, former de facto or homosexual lover challenges a deceased person’s will, asking for a share of the estate. But when the boarder in the spare room challenges – and the Supreme Court awards him nearly $450,000 – seemingly innocuous domestic relationships are revealed as financial minefields.” Frances Lan Fong Fung allowed Michael Ye to live rent free and paid some of his tuition fees; in return he helped with household chores and some of her personal care needs, like insulin injection. Her will left her estate to her siblings and nothing to him, but a judge accepted Ye’s argument that she had wrongfully failed to recognize a relationship akin to that of aunt and devoted nephew. An elder care lawyer “said elderly people either had to have a paid contract with their live-in boarder, or go to the expense of an application to the Supreme Court for the person to rescind their right to make a claim against the estate…. Ms Fung’s brother, Keith, said his family wished to maintain their privacy but said it had been an important lesson for people not to take anybody into their home.” (Leonie Lamont, Sydney Morning Herald, Jul. 8).
Errant golf balls, cont’d
Reader Matt Manor sums up this Newsday article about a controversy in Hewlett Harbor, Long Island: “Golf club loses suit on errant balls, faces injunction to end them, erects large net to comply, and is promptly sued by homeowners who think the net is ugly. You can’t win.” (William Murphy, “Golf course can’t seem to hit straight”, May 24). More on errant golf balls: May 24, Oct. 6, 2004 (Australia).
Australia: High court tosses “wrongful life” claims
Updating our May 1, 2005 item: by a 6-1 majority, Australia’s High Court has rejected claims on behalf of two disabled persons whose lawyers argued that they deserved compensation from their mothers’ doctors for allegedly failing to provide information that would have led the mothers to terminate their pregnancies (Peter Gregory, “‘Wrongful life’ claims thrown out”, Melbourne Age, May 9).
Oz: discrimination law vs. free speech
In Australia, a professor faces punishment for politically unacceptable speech:
Academic Andrew Fraser will defy the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission by not apologising to the Sudanese community for his study linking African refugees to high crime rates.
In a landmark ruling that raises fresh questions about the limits to which academics can engage in public debate, HREOC chairman John von Doussa has found Professor Fraser’s comments were unlawful because they amounted to a “sweeping generalisation” that was not backed by research.Professor Fraser was suspended last year from teaching at Sydney’s Macquarie University over his comments about Sudanese refugees in Australia.
(Greg Roberts, “Academic still links Africans to crime”, The Australian, Apr. 4)(via David Bernstein).
Ohio high court OKs wrongful-birth cases
By a 4-3 margin, the Ohio Supreme Court has approved (PDF) a “wrongful birth” suit against doctors by parents who say they would have aborted their child had they not been given inaccurate genetic counseling. The court did reject the views of Justices Paul Pfeifer and Alice Resnick (as well as that of a lower court judge) who thought the damages payable should include the cost of raising the child through adulthood, plus pain and suffering. (Andrew Welsh-Huggins, “Supreme Court allows lawsuits over missed genetic disorders”, AP/Akron Beacon Journal, Mar. 3). However, some Ohio legislators are proposing to enact a law precluding wrongful-birth lawsuits; a bill to that effect passed the state senate this past week, but has not yet been considered by the house (Jim Provence, “Bill would protect doctors from ‘wrongful birth’ suits”, Toledo Blade, Mar. 1). More on wrongful-birth suits: Sept. 16, 2004 and links from there; May 1 (Australia) and Jun. 14, 2005. More: WizBang takes an extremely dim view of the parents in the case (Mar. 3).
Duller times in Australian outback
“The Outback’s Bachelor and Spinster Balls, one of Australia’s most cherished traditions and notorious for binge drinking, casual sex and dust, are at risk of dying out. …the growing culture of litigiousness ensures that insurance premiums are now so high that many balls have been forced to cancel. … ‘Insurance is killing a lot of events in the bush, including B and S balls and rodeos,’ said Barry McMahon, who runs a national Bachelor and Spinster website and has been to dozens of balls.” (Nick Squires, “Outback’s notorious B and S Balls bite the dust”, Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Feb. 11).
Canadian high court to rule on social-host liability
“The Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments [last] Wednesday about a case that will decide if hosts are responsible for the behaviour of their alcohol-consuming guests. The issue stems from a 1999 New Year’s Eve drunk driving accident caused by Desmond Desormeaux, who left a house party near Ottawa after consuming 12 beers.” A victim in the subsequent crash “has been seeking compensation from Desormeaux’s hosts, Julie Zimmerman and Dwight Courrier, for letting him drive home drunk.” The Ontario courts have thus far ruled against her case. (CTV, Jan. 19). See Sept. 12, 2002. Many but not all American states have embraced social-host alcohol liability, and the topic has also stirred controversy in Australia, where the high court of the largest state, New South Wales, rejected the principle recently (Feb. 23, 2005).
Australia roundup
Australia’s enactment of significant legislative curbs on liability claims has had the desired effect, according to coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald last year:
Public liability and personal injury writs have nosedived and insurance premiums fallen in the wake of restrictions on people’s right to sue, two new reports have found.
Released yesterday, the reports show insurance has become more affordable in the past 12 months while the number of people suing councils, government departments and public groups has fallen dramatically….
The Assistant Treasurer, Mal Brough, who released the reports at an Insurance Council of Australia conference, said tough decisions by federal, state and territory governments were behind the falls.
“The Commonwealth, state and territory governments took hard decisions to halt a blowout in unaffordable and frivolous claims,” he said. “This has resulted in real and tangible benefits to the community in the form of more affordable and accessible insurance cover.”
“Cover is more widely available, premiums are coming down and personal responsibility has been restored,” said Insurance council executive director Alan Mason. (“Liability claims take a tumble”, AAP/Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 12). As if to symbolize the turn in sentiment, the High Court in October, over dissents from two of its members, denied recovery (Vairy and Mulligan, PDF) to two men who in separate incidents had injured themselves diving on the New South Wales coast and sued municipal authorities (Melbourne Herald Sun, undated). More on the trend: Dec. 9, 2003 and May 30, 2004; PoL Apr. 15, 2005.
Not that all the problems have been solved. Bret Walker, SC, former president of the Law Council of Australia, delivering the annual lawyers’ lecture for the St James Ethics Centre, warned that ethical tangles for Oz lawyers are multiplying as law slides into the status of big business; enterprise lawyers are getting too close to their clients, while the rise of large class actions, and of suits backed by professional litigation funders, poses its own perils: “No one who has advised, or appeared, on either of these models or modern litigation could be unaware of the fertile soil they present for conflicts of the most venal kind.” (Richard Ackland, “It’s a dodgy law of nature that says big is better”, Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 21).
Among Australians keen on steering clear of litigation risk are famed children’s entertainers The Wiggles:
As part of the Wiggles circus, [Paul] Paddick [friendly pirate “Captain Feathersword”] has had to curb his natural exuberance. For example, none of the Wiggles ever touch children. And when they are photographed with children, they always adopt their now-famous “pointy fingers” pose — “so there is no doubting where their hands are”, Paddick explains….The Wiggles team insisted that touching children, however innocently, was inappropriate — and open to the risk of litigation, particularly as the monetary value of the Wiggles brand name rose. (Steve Meacham, “The master of sword play”, Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 3).
Update: Richard Branson not the only Virgin
News from Australia: “A Federal Court judge dismissed the conglomerate’s application to ban a small businesswoman from using the word ‘virgin’ in the name of her internet service provider and website-developing business, and lambasted Virgin for dumping ‘an ocean of unnecessary and unhelpful material’ on the court.” (Vanda Carson, “Branson loses his Virginity”, Dec. 27). For other far-reaching claims by Branson’s company to uses of the word “Virgin”, see Jul. 29.