Championship bodybuilder Doug Burns, who sued the government of Redwood City, Calif. over an incident in which police scuffled with him not realizing that his erratic behavior was the result of insulin shock, defended his decision to file a suit but agreed that the dollar amount assigned was over the top. “The lawyers jacked up the amount, because they always expect to settle for less. ‘Something like this shouldn’t have a $5 million dollar price tag on it. I should have had a better look at the amount. It’s my fault,’ Doug told [blogger Amy Tenderich]”. (Diabetes Mine, Jun. 22).
Posts Tagged ‘California’
Wounded in shootout, sheriff’s deputies sue widow
Last year in Shingle Springs, Calif., a schizophrenic 34-year-old named Eddie Mies gunned down his father and then engaged in a shootout with sheriff’s deputies which resulted in his own death and the wounding of three deputies. Now two of the deputies have sued Karen Mies, mother of the slain gunman and widow of his slain father, as well as her late husband’s estate and surviving son for a combined $8 million for “for emotional distress, medical expenses, loss of earning capacity, and punitive damages.” They claim the family should have controlled Eddie better, and say the deputies “suffered anxiety and humiliation” in addition to their physical injuries.
Attorney Phillip Mastagni of Sacramento, “whose family law firm works for police unions across Northern California”, is representing the two deputies, Jon Yaws and Greg Murphy, in the suit filed in El Dorado County. Mastagni says he is confident that the suit will overcome the “firefighters’ rule”, a doctrine that historically has barred lawsuits by public safety officers against those whose negligence has allegedly led to emergencies. The rule has decayed considerably in recent years in some jurisdictions, and suits by firefighters, police, paramedics and other rescuers have multiplied.
The defendant, Mrs. Mies, a hospice nurse, had this to say:
“June 5 was a tragic day for me and my family, and it was a tragic day for the deputies who were injured,” Karen Mies said. “We were all victims that day. But this lawsuit is victimizing our family again. What do they want? My husband’s dead, my son’s dead. Do they want my house and my 10-year-old car?”
(Dorothy Korber, “Son battled officers; now mom fights suit”, Sacramento Bee, Aug. 10). Smallest Minority (Aug. 20) is particularly intrigued by allegations of “bunkers and tunnels” supposedly maintained by the younger Mies.
Public criticism that followed initial reports of the lawsuit doesn’t seem to have softened Yaws and Murphy any: per one later account (AR15.com Forums, scroll to update at end of first entry, source not identified) they’ve upped their demand to $38.4 million. What are said to be excerpts of other recent local coverage can be found on page 6 of the same extensive comments section. And the name of the third injured deputy, the one who did not sue, deserves to be recorded in this place as well: it is Melissa Meekma. More: Pro Libertate.
No conscience clause for California fertility doctors
They’ll have to assist unmarried women in giving birth even if doing so violates their religious scruples, according to a new California Supreme Court decision involving a lesbian applicant. As Bookworm Room points out (Aug. 19), and as we noted in the earlier Bay Area conscience controversy over gender-switch breast surgery, it makes a practical difference (if not one of libertarian principle) that there are plenty of other fertility clinics around San Diego that would be happy to step into the gap. The doctors in the case at hand might still escape liability because a ban on marital-status discrimination as such was not yet part of state law at the time they rejected Guadalupe Benitez; Benitez will win if she shows that the true motivating factor was her lesbianism. (Egelko, SF Chronicle, Recorder). The ruling also allows doctors to excuse themselves on the basis of religious scruples if there is a second doctor within the same practice — but not, apparently, a doctor across town at a different practice — willing to perform the work in question. And of course the legislature in Sacramento could readily help bring peace to the culture war by inserting into the law a generously drafted conscience clause — if it wanted to. More: Miller, IGF; opinion, PDF.
August 20 roundup
- Lawyers’ contingency fee is temptation to ethical corner-cutting in consumer debt collection, too [Miami Daily Business Review, Popehat; Orlando’s Palmer Reifler & Associates, mass mailing of demand letters to accused shoplifters]
- Discussion continues on loser-pays with me and many others at NewTalk, and note comment from Ontario lawyer [through today]
- Age bias suit by Hollywood writers gains traction. Next, actors? [Ink Slingers via Class Action Blawg weekly review]
- Class action against Quebec lottery on behalf of problem gamblers finally set for trial [CP/Yahoo, Lee Distad via Class Action Blawg, earlier]
- Should we and other commentators avoid mentioning litigants’ real names so as not to intrude on their Google legacy? [comments at Ron Miller/Md. Injury]
- California lawmakers OK feel-good “Donda West Law” but it won’t do much to keep impulsive clients from rushing into plastic surgery [GruntDoc, Cameron Turner/EURWeb, Truth in Cosmetic Surgery Blog]
- Probably not a swift career move for lawyer to tell bar disciplinary panel “Go to hell.” [ABA Journal]
- Class action forces HUD to allocate more to some Indian recipients, so it cuts other programs, bad news for North Carolina’s Lumbee tribe [Fayetteville, N.C. Observer courtesy US Chamber]
- Environmental authorities won’t press charges against man who shot protected rattlesnake that had just attacked and bitten him [eight years ago on Overlawyered]
Update: California courts won’t ban homeschooling
“A state appeals court lifted the cloud it had cast on the homeschooling of 166,000 California children and ruled Friday that parents have a right to educate their children at home even if they lack a teaching credential.” (Egelko, SF Chron; Malkin; earlier). More: Raymond Tittmann, Federalist Society “Engage”.
Void our AP test results? See you in court
Orange County, Calif.: “Educational Testing Service said Trabuco Hills High students were allowed to talk, use study aids and send text messages.” So it voided test results for about 400 of them, and is being duly sued by a lawyer representing some. (Seema Mehta, “Testing group reveals why it voided AP exams of about 400 students at O.C. high school”, L.A. Times, Jul. 24).
California trans fats: Terminator Nanny
Governor Schwarzenegger has signed into law the first statewide ban on the use of the maligned ingredient by restaurants and food service facilities. (Samantha Sondag, “Gov. signs nation’s first statewide ban on trans fats in restaurants”, San Francisco Chronicle, Jul. 25).
P.S. Speaking of the nanny state in California, Los Angeles is moving to ban new fast food restaurants from poorer sections of South Central L.A. on the explicitly paternalistic grounds that it knows better than local residents what they should be eating. Prof. Bainbridge has more.
“Welcome to the Nanny State Nation”
It’s going on from California to New York City: a Drew Carey feature for Reason.tv.
Cop shot by 3 year old sues gun maker
Perhaps it would have been too complicated for Enrique Chavez of Anaheim, Calif. to sue himself for allowing his three year old son access to the loaded gun in the back seat of his pickup truck. So he’s suing Glock instead. “Chavez, 35, is also suing the manufacturer of the gun’s holster and the retail stores that sold him the gun and the holster. He bought the gun at the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club and purchased a holster made by Uncle Mike’s and Bushnell Outdoor Products from Turner’s Outdoorsman.” (“Officer hurt in accidental shooting sues gun maker”, AP/San Luis Obispo Tribune, Jul. 9 via Glock Talk Forum).
July 8 roundup
- Business groups have signed off on dreadful ADA Restoration Act aimed at expanding disabled-rights lawsuits, reversing high court decisions that had moderated the law [WSJ; more here and here]
- U.K. man to win damages from rail firms on claim that trauma of Paddington crash turned him into deranged killer [Times Online]
- Patent cases taken on contingency lead to gigantic paydays for D.C.’s Dickstein Shapiro and Wiley Rein [Kim Eisler, Washingtonian; related last year at Eric Goldman’s]
- Fort Lauderdale injury lawyer disbarred after stealing $300K in client funds; per an ABA state-by-state listing, Florida has not enacted payee notification to help prevent/detect such goings-on [Sun-Sentinel; more]
- I’ll pay top dollar for that spot under the bridge: tech firms hope to outbid patent trolls for marginal inventor rights [ABA Journal]
- Enviro-sympathetic analysis of Navy sonar case [Jamison Colburn, Dorf on Law, first and second posts via Adler @ Volokh]
- Obama proposal for youth national service “voluntary”? Well, schools will lose funds if they fail to meet goals [Goldberg, LAT; bad link fixed now]
- Not-so-independent sector: under pressure from Sacramento legislators (Feb. 6, PoL May 30), California foundations pledge to redirect millions toward minority causes [CRC]
- James Lileks on lawyer-friendly Microsoft Minnesota settlement [four years ago on Overlawyered]