Sione Havili was convicted of felony arson. He pled guilty to tossing two plastic jugs filled with gasoline into a home. After serving his time, he wanted to play college football, like any average kid. Utah school officials denied him his right to play football and have now been sued. (“Former running back sues Utah AD, former president,” MSNBC Jul. 10.) [Cross-posted at SoCalLawBlog]. Good for Utah. Torching someone’s house is just plain wrong.
Posts Tagged ‘Utah’
Utah tax refund class action
Echoes of California’s celebrated smog-fee affair:
A class-action lawsuit seeking refunds for 120,000 Utahns wrongly charged millions of dollars in sales taxes for floor coverings and installation has been criticized as a full-retirement plan for lawyers rather than a boon to consumers.
That is because the erroneously taxed consumers could have gotten a full refund — simply by calling the Utah State Tax Commission and making a claim.
“There was no need for a class-action lawsuit,” said Assistant Attorney General Clark Snelson, who represented the Utah State Tax Commission in litigation against challenging the tax collections. “Individuals had the ability to come to the Tax Commission to get their refund, which made the lawsuit unnecessary.”
Under the terms of the settlement, “half of the $5.7 million settlement goes to plaintiffs’ attorneys and investigators”. (Dawn House, “Was tax refund lawsuit needed?”, Salt Lake Tribune, Jun. 30).
Illinois alienation of affection
While just about everything else has become more actionable in today’s compensation culture, there has been a countertrend in family law. Most states have barred suits for the ancient tort of “alienation of affection” by jilted spouses. Utah (May 18, 2000) and North Carolina are exceptions, as is Illinois; there, Steven Cyl is suing a neighbor he says stole his wife. “Is this thing for real?” asks the defendant. Previous Illinois alienation-of-affection plaintiffs include the always-entertaining ex-Rep. Mel “Did I win the Lotto?” Reynolds, whose case was thrown out for unspecified reasons. (Steve Patterson, “‘This guy, he ruined my life’ — so man sues”, Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 15 (via Bashman); “Former Congressman Mel Reynolds takes estranged wife’s lover to court”, Jet, Aug. 12, 2002; “Davidson Wrestling Coach Awarded $1.4 Million For ‘Theft of Wife?s Heart'”, North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, May 23, 2001). The ever-obnoxious Pat Buchanan approves. (“What is a Family Worth?”, Aug. 11, 1997; Hutelmyer v. Cox (N.C. App. 1999)).
A different kind of judicial hellhole
We’ll stipulate that Warren Jeffs is not a sympathetic defendant. We’ll further stipulate that that’s an understatement. Jeffs, who calls himself “The Prophet,” is the current leader of the cultish polygamous “Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” estimated with 10,000 members, a few dozen of whom are his wives. (The Church broke off from its namesake when the mainstream Mormons abolished polygamy in 1890.) “Utah and Arizona prosecutors have been investigating allegations of welfare and tax fraud, incest, child abuse and forced marriages of young girls to adult men in the FLDS community” on the state border. Jeffs allegedly grants himself the power to re-assign spouses and children amongst families. The FLDS has also been excommunicating hundreds of teenage boys, allegedly to reduce competition for wives in the cult; the youths, who’ve grown up uneducated, are now completely isolated from their families and the community they grew up in.
Lawyers across the country have been bringing lawsuits. We make no comment on the claims of assault, terroristic threats, extortion, molestation, and kidnapping; such claims are legally legitimate to the extent that they’re true.
More problematic, however, are the allegations of fraud and conspiracy and the demand for injunctive relief and some damages: the complaint poses that FLDS promised “eternal life” to its members; by excommunicating the plaintiffs, they have not only breached that promise, but they have caused the plaintiffs to “suffer[] the emotional and psychological injuries resulting from… having been condemned to eternal damnation.” One can immediately see the trouble that could arise from making theological disputes actionable (see also Feb. 9). Courts have enough trouble adjudicating truth; it is perhaps not wise to also ask them to adjudicate Truth. The risk is that the failure of criminal authorities to adequately intercede may prompt civil courts to create precedents with consequences beyond a polygamous cult getting its just deserts. (AP, Aug. 30; Angie Wagner, “Ousted from sect, ‘lost boys’ start anew”, AP, Sep. 7; Sylvia Moreno, “Polygamous Sect Moves In, And Texas Town Asks ‘Why?'”, Washington Post, Sep. 7; Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven; Child Protection Project; Phoenix New Times coverage) (via Heller).
Update: Philly juries not kind to fen-phen plaintiffs
Contrary to some expectations, Philadelphia juries have not been proving a soft touch for “opt-out” plaintiffs who’ve journeyed there from around the country to sue drugmakers over alleged side effects from the diet-drug compound. One recent jury awarded a mere $4,000 to five women from Utah after a three-week trial, and another returned an outright defense verdict in a case brought by four Philadelphia women. Most of the plaintiffs exhibit heart murmurs and other subtle heart irregularities which they contend were brought on by the use of Pondimin and Redux, but a plaintiff’s lawyer says their case is weakened because most display no symptoms and are not under a doctor’s care for the claimed irregularities. “They don’t have treating doctors who will back up their stories,” agrees a lawyer for Wyeth. “The juries aren’t buying it.” (L. Stuart Ditzen, “Diet-drug lawsuits netting slim payoffs”, Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 16). For more on fen-phen, see Jan. 25, Jan. 6 and links from there; Apr. 28 ($1 billion verdict in Texas for fatality claimed to be linked to drug).
Update: U. of Utah settles won’t-swear actress’s suit
“The University of Utah agreed yesterday to let students opt out of activities that conflict with their religious beliefs, settling a lawsuit brought by a Mormon drama student who refused to recite lines that contained the F-word and took the Lord?s name in vain. Christina Axson-Flynn, 24, had sued the university in federal court, accusing it of violating her to right to freedom of speech and religion.” (“College, Mormon student settle theatrical-swearing case”, AP/First Amendment Center, Jul. 15; Elizabeth Neff and Shinika A. Sykes, “U. settles case over student’s rights on stage”, Salt Lake Tribune, Jul. 15). The “university will reimburse Axson-Flynn for tuition and fees paid during the 1998-99 academic year and, through the state’s risk management office, pay her attorneys’ fees of approximately $250,000.” (Angie Welling, “U., Axson-Flynn settle civil rights suit”, Deseret News, Jul. 15). See our coverage of Jan. 24, 2000 and Feb. 16, 2004.
“Attorney loses lawsuit over Super Bowl show”
“Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl halftime show may be a lot of things, but it’s apparently not worth $5,000. A judge rejected a Utah lawyer’s claim that CBS owner Viacom should pay him $5,000 for having to see Jackson’s bared breast during the Feb. 1 show. Eric Stephenson, contending false advertising, sued Viacom in small-claims court.” (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, May 27). On the earlier Boobgate lawsuit by Terri Carlin of Knoxville, Tenn., see Feb. 5, Feb. 8 and Feb. 14.
Update: Mormon actress can sue over script profanity
Updating our story of Jan. 24, 2000: “University of Utah theater professors may have violated the constitutional rights of a former student when they refused to allow her to omit profanity from an in-class performance, a federal appeals court ruled [Feb. 3].” Overturning a district court decision, the unanimous Tenth Circuit panel said Christina Axson-Flynn was entitled to a jury trial on her claim that the university theater program violated her rights when it refused to let her avoid reciting profane lines assigned to her characters, and that its claim to be standing on pedagogical principle was a pretext for religious discrimination. (Angie Welling, “Ex-U. actress to get jury trial in bias lawsuit”, Deseret News, Feb. 4). More: David Bernstein comments. Update Jul. 17: case settles.
Citibank class action: another two cents
St. Petersburg Times has an article quoting this site’s letters comment section at some length, and also quoting yours truly. (Stephen Nohlgren, “Jingly justice or puny payoff?”, Feb. 9). The case has also been examined recently in Forbes (William Baldwin, “Lawyers 1, Consumers 0”, Feb. 16); Chuck Shepherd’s News of the Weird; and the Salt Lake Tribune (Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells, Jan. 14: Salt Lake City resident Bob Cole got a check for two cents)(more on class actions).
More on California antispam law
Reason Online (Dec. 8) has now published a longer version of my piece on California’s very bad new anti-spam law, which will spell courtroom trouble for legitimate marketers nationwide unless the federal CAN-SPAM bill, which would override it, is enacted instead. The new version goes into detail about some of the precedents that make the California law scary, including the litigation that has arisen under Utah’s one-year-old law giving individual recipients a right to sue over spam, and the record of junk-fax class actions filed pursuant to a federal 1991 law; these discussions had to be left out of last week’s Wall Street Journal version of the piece (see Dec. 3) for space reasons.