First Circuit – Overlawyered

Great moments in slip and fall claims

Walter Olson — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 09:58:16 +0000

The First Circuit has upheld a trial court’s dismissal on summary judgment of an outside worker’s suit against an auto dealership over a slip-fall injury he incurred on the floor in its garage and service area. The court noted that the reason for his presence at the dealership was that his company had been hired to clean it, and that he had said in his deposition that “typically there would be oil and grease everywhere” on that part of the floor after a day’s operations. Besides deeming the hazard to be open and obvious, the trial court had “noted Massachusetts precedent holding that a property owner does not owe a duty of care to a plaintiff where ‘the danger presented to the plaintiff was one that he had been hired to cure.'” [LaPointe v. Silko Motor Sales, First Circuit]

Tags: First Circuit, personal responsibility, premises liability, slip and fall

Great moments in slip and fall claims is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

No duty for gas station to paint pavement grooves

Walter Olson — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 04:58:17 +0000

“Woman catches her shoe in groove in pavement at Tewksbury, Mass. gas station; she falls, is injured. Woman: The station had a duty to warn me of the danger, perhaps by painting the grooves (which are mandated by state law to contain spills) brightly. First Circuit: There is no such duty. But here’s a Judge Selya vocab quiz for your trouble: pellucid, behoof, animadversions, and rescript.” [John Kenneth Ross, Short Circuit on Potvin v. Speedway LLC]

Tags: First Circuit, oil industry

No duty for gas station to paint pavement grooves is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 10:01:52 +0000

Scranton, Pa. federal judge “denies ‘exorbitant’ request for nearly $1M in attorney fees after $125K recovery” [ABA Journal; arose from bad faith insurance action on underlying uninsured motorist claim that settled for $25,000]
As PETA settles monkey selfie case with hapless photographer, details confirm that “Naruto is really just a prop to be deployed in the case as PETA sees fit.” [Ted Folkman, Eriq Gardner, earlier] A sad catalogue of litigation abuse enabled by PETA’s donors [Frank Bednarz thread]
Lively First Circuit opinion upholds extortion conviction of small town police chief [Bob Dunn, Berkshire Eagle, U.S. v. Buffis via IJ’s John Ross, “Short Circuit“; Lee, Mass.]
She beat DOMA and the IRS too, and all in great style. My appreciation of Edith Windsor [Cato at Liberty]
“North Carolina’s Fickle Finger of Redistricting” [also by me at Cato at Liberty]
Me: “Posner was the judge lawyers really didn’t want to run into if they had bad class action settlements to defend” [Jonathan Bilyk, Cook County Record, earlier]

Tags: animal rights, class action settlements, feeing frenzy, First Circuit, North Carolina, photography, redistricting reform, Richard Posner, sexual orientation, WO writings

September 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The Oxford comma case

Walter Olson — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 18:10:25 +0000

Sorry to be a grump about the Oxford comma case (O’Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy, First Circuit), but the ambiguity was contrived and “resolve ambiguities in favor of liability” is not a good rule. [Casey Sullivan/FindLaw, Lowering the Bar]

Tags: First Circuit, wage and hour suits

The Oxford comma case is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Thwarted love and insurance coverage

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 05:52:01 +0000

From the First Circuit’s opinion introducing the case of Sanders v. Phoenix Insurance Company, arising out of somewhat lurid facts touching on both insurance coverage and professional responsibility:

SELYA, Circuit Judge. This case begins with a tragic tale of unrequited love and morphs into a series of imaginative questions regarding the coverage available under a standard form homeowner’s insurance policy. But when imagination runs headlong into settled legal precedent, imagination loses. Recognizing as much, the court below dismissed the complaint. After careful consideration, we affirm.

Tags: First Circuit, insurance, judges

Thwarted love and insurance coverage is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system