Posts Tagged ‘criminals who sue’

“No Suing Your Getaway Driver for Crashing, Court Rules”

California has a statute barring negligence claims by persons injured while committing or fleeing from felonies of which they have been duly convicted. In this case it operated to cut off a case by two burglars who’d hoped to get money by suing a third over their injuries in a getaway crash. [Lowering the Bar; Espinosa v. Kirkwood, No. E048472 (Cal. App. 4 Dist. June 23, 2010), PDF]

Oz: “Letter bomber Colin Dunstan wins compensation”

Australia: “A man who held the nation to ransom with a letter-bomb campaign has won compensation linked to the failed workplace love affair that sparked the terror reign.” [Herald-Sun] In other Antipodean workplace news, a man currently jailed on child porn charges has won an unfair dismissal case against his former employer, food company Nestle, notwithstanding “allegations that he had routinely harassed women in the workplace, and even attempted sabotage” by placing a sexual drawing into a box of the company’s products. [Herald-Sun]

Stripper: getting tipsy was part of my job (update)

Patsy Hamaker, who in 2007 had an alcohol-related one-car wreck on the way home from The Furnace (NSFW link, unless you work some place that approves of stripclub websites) and sued her employer over the accident, claiming that the club encouraged her to drink, won $100,000 from a Jefferson County, Alabama, jury, somewhat less than the $1.2 million she sought.

Hamaker, whose stage name was Tessa, went to work at The Furnace on Oct. 17, 2007. She drank enough that night for her blood-alcohol content level to rise to nearly three times the legal limit, was pulled by security from one of the VIP rooms, and then left after at least three attempts to stop her, according to testimony during the trial. Her car wrecked on the interstate, and she suffered a broken nose and back.

The club’s records show a customer bought Hamaker one “dancer drink,” a commission drink or bottle ranging in price from $12 to $2,500. The club did not have a record of other drinks she may have [ordered on her own].

Attorneys for the Furnace pointed out that dancers can specify their preference for non-alcoholic or diluted dancer drinks. And the club’s general manager, Jennifer Etheridge, testified that she does not want dancers getting intoxicated. Asked why, Etheridge said: “You try working with 30 drunk people.”

(Erin Stock, “Former stripper gets $100,000 in lawsuit: Blamed club for drunken wreck”, Birmingham News, Feb. 2) (h/t P.E.).

Update on Ogborn v. McDonald’s

Those of you who have attended my “Law of McDonald’s” talks in California and Florida may recall the case of the strip search hoax. A Florida man who was unusually persuasive would call dozens of fast food restaurants until he could find someone who would believe he was with the police and who would disrobe employees (or themselves) at his instructions; though there have been other lawsuits seeking to blame the fast food restaurants for this, courts have generally thrown them out. One exception was the case of Ogborn v. McDonald’s, where two targets of the hoax successfully sued for millions. On Friday, the Kentucky Court of Appeals largely affirmed the lower court judgment, though it reduced the punitive damages received by Donna Summers (who gave an Alford guilty plea for her role in the strip search) from $1 million to $400,000. McDonald’s hasn’t yet decided whether to appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court. (Andrew Wolfson, “Appeals court upholds $6.1 million strip-search verdict against McDonald’s”, Kentucky Courier-Journal, Nov. 20, via ABA Journal).

“Convicted thief sues store he robbed”

Scott Thomas Zielinski was shot while robbing Nick’s Short Stop Party Store in Clinton Township, Michigan, at knifepoint, and is serving an 8-to-22 year sentence. Now he’s suing the store’s owner and some of its clerks for in excess of $125,000 for pain and suffering and emotional distress. [WXYZ] More: reader VMS recalls the story of an unrepaired stair tread.

“Inmate sues to get vintage truck owned by couple he killed”

Florida death row inmate William Deparvine has a bona fide law degree, which has helped him keep going in his extensive litigation against the survivors of Richard and Karla Van Dusen. Deparvine was found guilty at trial of killing the Van Dusens for their vintage Chevy pickup, which he claims to have bought. [St. Petersburg Times via Obscure Store, whose headline is quoted above]

Prescription drug abusers, be not ashamed

Under the holding of a recent court opinion, if you were never prescribed a drug but unlawfully grab and pop pills that had been prescribed to someone else, you (or your estate) can sue the manufacturer anyway for side effects you are said to have suffered. The court did disallow claims for failure to warn, but left standing claims that the drug (fen-phen) posed too high a risk to users overall [Beck & Herrmann, Crowe v. Wyeth, E.D. Pa. applying Missouri law]