third party liability for crime – Overlawyered

Liability roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 09:58:32 +0000

As one who wrote at length about the silicone-implant litigation at the time — founded as it was on junk science theories hyped to panic potential plaintiffs — I agree that Elizabeth Warren has nothing to apologize for about her bankruptcy work for Dow Corning. Move on to better criticisms, please [Darren McKinney, WSJ] Related: Federalist Society teleforum on mass tort bankruptcies with Steven Todd Brown, Ralph Brubaker, and Dan Prieto;
“What should be the duty of public retailers whose customers have bizarre or offensive clothing, appearance, demeanor or behavior but do not actually engage in or threaten violence on the retailers’ premises? To avoid risk, should the retailers exclude them from their stores?” [Eugene Volokh quoting federal court opinion in Budreau v. Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc. (D. Maine)]
New York residents should brace for higher taxes as trial-lawyer-backed bill in Albany exposes public authorities to more road claims [John Whittaker, Jamestown Post-Journal]
“Kansas Supreme Court Throws Out Personal Injury Damages Cap” [Associated Press]
Whose proposal for joint trial counts as triggering removal of mass action under the Class Action Fairness Act? The court’s? Choice between federal and state courts implicates fundamental questions of fairness [Eric Alexander, Drug and Device Law on Supreme Court certiorari petition in Pfizer v. Adamyan]
Glyphosate, talc verdicts suggest juries may be paying more attention to purported smoking-gun documents than to scientific evidence on causation [Daniel D. Fisher, Northern California Record; Corbin Barthold, WLF] “Inconsistent Gatekeeping Undercuts the Continuing Promise of Daubert” [Joe G. Hollingsworth and Mark A. Miller, WLF]

Tags: bankruptcy, Class Action Fairness Act, Elizabeth Warren, junk science, Kansas, New York state, roads and streets, silicone breast implants, third party liability for crime

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

Deep pockets to blame after shopping cart dropped onto bystander

Walter Olson — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 04:05:10 +0000

In 2011, at the East River Plaza mall in East Harlem, two youngsters tossed a shopping cart “from a 79-foot-high landing outside a Target store,” nearly killing Marion Hedges below. Hedges and her family “sued Target, the mall and its security company for negligence in 2011, saying the businesses ignored past incidents involving kids fooling around with carts.” A jury has now awarded the family $45.2 million. “The Hedgeses previously settled with Target for a confidential sum. The six-person jury found the teens 10 percent responsible for Hedges’ injuries while assigning 65 percent of the fault to the mall and 25 percent to Planned Security Services.” [Julia Marsh and Kalah Siegel, New York Post] In 2015 the New York Post reported on the further extralegal adventures of one of the only-a-little-bit-responsible teen attackers, who had been sentenced to 6 to 16 months in a group home as punishment.

Tags: deep pocket, third party liability for crime

Deep pockets to blame after shopping cart dropped onto bystander is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Liability claims over Las Vegas mass shooting

Walter Olson — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 05:05:47 +0000

The negligence claims over the Las Vegas mass shooting could exceed $1 billion, with effects on some sectors of the liability insurance market as a whole [Sonali Basak and Hannah Levitt, Bloomberg/Insurance Journal]

Tags: disasters, hotels, insurance, Nevada, third party liability for crime

Liability claims over Las Vegas mass shooting is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Walmart sued after teen steals machete and kills her Uber driver”

Walter Olson — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 04:05:50 +0000

Because anti-shoplifting measures should be perfect, and because these days what isn’t reasonably foreseeable? “It is unclear whether Walmart employees and their security staff were aware that the girl had the weapons when she left the store.” [David Kravets, Ars Technica]

Tags: third party liability for crime, Wal-Mart

“Walmart sued after teen steals machete and kills her Uber driver” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 10:59:40 +0000

Another day, another lawsuit charging a social media company with material support for terrorism. This time it’s Twitter and IS attacks in Paris, Brussels [Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare; Tim Cushing, Techdirt] More: And yet another (Dallas police officer versus Twitter, Facebook, and Google; listed as one of the filing attorneys is 1-800-LAW-FIRM, no kidding, complaint h/t Eric Goldman);
“Woman Sues Chipotle for $2 Billion for Using a Photo of Her Without Consent” [Petapixel]
“Hot-Yoga Guy and His Cars Are Missing” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
From Backpage.com to unpopular climate advocacy, state attorneys general use subpoena power to punish and chill [Ilya Shapiro]
Dept. of awful ideas: California assemblyman proposes registry of hate crime offenders [Scott Shackford]
But oh, so worth it otherwise: “Not one Kansas state senator is a lawyer, making compliance with obscure statute impossible” [ABA Journal]

Tags: Dallas, hate crimes, Kansas, lawyers, photography, sex offender registries, social media, subpoenas, terrorism, third party liability for crime, Twitter

January 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lawsuit: Apple should pay for distracted-driver crash

Walter Olson — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 05:05:00 +0000

The driver responsible for a fatal Texas crash was using the FaceTime app and a lawsuit says Apple should have to pay for the resulting damages [NY Daily News, complaint via Amy Alkon]

Tags: Apple, cellphones, third party liability for crime

Lawsuit: Apple should pay for distracted-driver crash is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

December 28 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 10:57:43 +0000

Washington Supreme Court: psychiatrist can be sued for failure to act when patient expressed homicidal thoughts, even though signs did not point to particular victim [Seattle Times, opinion in Volk v. DeMeerleer; compare Tarasoff duty-to-warn line of cases]
University of Oregon, which suspended a law professor over an off-campus Hallowe’en costume, could use a refresher on free speech [Josh Blackman, Jonathan Turley, Hans Bader, Susan Kruth/FIRE, Eugene Volokh]
Prenda Law saga continues: “Feds charge porn-troll lawyers in major fraud, extortion case” [Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Joe Mullin/ArsTechnica, indictment, our past coverage including this on attorney Hansmeier’s branching out into ADA web-accessibility complaints]
Alas, incoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been a big defender of civil asset forfeiture [George Will, syndicated/San Angelo (Tex.) Standard-Times]
Oklahoma law will force restaurants, hotels among others to post signs aimed at discouraging abortion [AP, Eugene Volokh]
Time to repeal the Community Reinvestment Act [Howard Husock]

Tags: forfeiture, law schools, Oklahoma, Oregon, psychiatry, third party liability for crime, Washington state

December 28 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Facebook, Twitter, Google sued by Orlando shooting victims’ families”

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 16:42:41 +0000

“Facebook, Google and Twitter are being sued by the families of three victims slain in the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub for allegedly providing “material support” to the Islamic State.” [USA Today]

Tags: Facebook, Google, terrorism, third party liability for crime, Twitter

“Facebook, Twitter, Google sued by Orlando shooting victims’ families” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Teen shot by friend, survivors sue government

Walter Olson — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:15:51 +0000

“The family of a 13-year-old boy fatally shot by a friend in a wooded area of Joint Base Lewis-McChord has sued the federal government, alleging a hole in the fence around the base contributed to his death.” [Tacoma News-Tribune]

Tags: premises liability, third party liability for crime, Washington state

Teen shot by friend, survivors sue government is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 1 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 04:05:14 +0000

Report: TV comedy incorporated old footage of videogame from YouTube clip, then sent clip’s originator takedown notice based on its having content identical to that in show [Damien McFerran, NintendoLife]
Claim of negligent security: Planned Parenthood sued over Denver abortion clinic shooting [Reuters]
Trail of fraudulent overbilling in latest False Claims Act leads back to — well, the NYC government [New York Daily News, U.S. Attorney press release]
Hillary Clinton continues to recite untruths about the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), the federal gun liability law; we’ve made that point a number of times, but now Dave Kopel has a post going into more detail;
Why Coyote yearns to exit California businesses: “my mental bandwidth is consumed by regulatory compliance”;
“Judge of bogus ‘postal court’ files purported judgments, claims only nouns have legal meaning” [ABA Journal] “Sovereign citizen” talk found in various other parts of the English-speaking world, also Germany where some argue Weimar Republic is still in effect [Lowering the Bar; sequel (“Sovereign Citizens Also Bothering Scotland”); our folk law heading]

Tags: California, folk law, Hillary Clinton, Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, qui tam, third party liability for crime

June 1 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system