A federal jury awarded a Wisconsin prisoner $295,000 after officials forced him to sleep on a wet, moldy mattress for two months. Reggie Townsend, 29, is serving time for reckless homicide and won the judgment against the New Lisbon Correctional Institution.
Continue reading “Wisconsin Prisoner Wins $295,000 for Moldy Mattress”
Category: Torts
A case out of Eagle County, Colorado presents a novel question in both criminal law and torts. Jacob Weiss, 19, is charged with manslaughter because he allegedly handed a loaded gun to his suicidal roommate.
Weiss shared an apartment with the 18-year-old, who had discussed suicide. Weiss then gave him a loaded shotgun. Both had been drinking.
Under Colorado law, it is a Class 4 felony to assist in a suicide.
One interesting question is whether, if this can be manslaughter, it can be considered an intentional tort or negligence. Obviously, there are defenses of consent, assumption of the risk, and contributory negligence — depending on the type of tort alleged. However, particularly if the victim (who had not been identified) was viewed as disturbed or lacking capacity at the time, the family could seek civil recovery.
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Diane Cockrell, 52, has pleaded no contest to three criminal counts related to the deaths of two neighbors (including a 91-year-old man) killed by her bulldogs. The sentencing in Michigan occurs as the most famous mauling case of Diane Whipple continues in California. These cases are often brought both criminally and civilly by victims or their survivors.
Continue reading “Dog Owner Sentenced in Dog Mauling Case”
Former Mets minor leaguer and sometime actor Joseph Petcka is on trial for killing his girlfriend’s 8-year-old tabby, Norman. It is a good example of such cases where both criminal and civil charges can be brought. His former girlfriend Sports Illustrated reporter Lisa Altobelli insists that it was intentional while Petcka insists that it was an accident.
In the latest product case manufactured in China, a French retailer has pulled Chinese-made sofas from the market after people developed a chemical reaction from sitting on them. The culprit appears to be an excessive treatment of an anti-mold chemical. This follows arrests in the Chinese tainted milk case.
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Now, this makes for an interesting torts case. Andy Lees, 72, was toward that he was dying with little time left by St. Johns’s Hospital. The Scottish man proceeded to give away all that he owned to friends and relatives — except for money spent on the funeral. Then he not only failed to die of cancer, but it turns out that he does not have lung cancer at all.
Continue reading “Good News, Bad News: Scottish Man Gives Away All of His Wealth After a False Diagnosis of Terminal Cancer”
Tort law has long treated the mishandling of a corpse harshly due to the obvious emotional distress caused by such negligence. When Miguel Olaya’s wife of 26 years died of cancer, he probably thought the worst was over. That is before he gave her body to American Airlines to ship to Ecuador. The airline allegedly lost his wife Teresa for four days and could not tell him where she was.
In a controversial decision, California Superior Court Judge John S. Einhorn sentenced four friends involved in the death of professional surfer Emery Kauanui to relatively short sentences of between 90 and 349 days. All pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. A fifth individual, Seth Cravens, is awaiting trial. The five men were called the Bird Rock Bandits and alleged by prosecutors to be a gang in LaJolla, California. In the meantime, his mother (shown with the surfer) has sued the Bird Rock Bandits, their parents, and the bar (where the fight began) in a wrongful death action.
Continue reading “The Bird Rock Bandits v. The “Flying Hawaiian”: Four High School Friends Sentenced in Killing of Professor Surfer Emery Kauanui”
This is an extraordinary and deeply disturbing story. In Polk County, a sexual predator of young men named Sgt. Scott Lawson was allowed to carry out a personal fantasy as an officer with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in pursuing and abusing young men during his 11-year career. In 2002, Lawson chased two young men in his unmarked police car (without activating his lights) and allegedly forced them into an accident — killing Miles White and seriously injuring Adam Jacoby. There is evidence that Lawson rammed their car — forcing it into a tree — but the police investigators allowed Lawson’s car to be removed from the scene and did not interview Lawson. He was heralded by police as a hero until he was later found to be a sexual predator of young boys.
A new former hospital worker has been arrested for a third time for stealing from patients, including the rent money of own elderly victim. Tacoma Jawara worked at the Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Usually, saints are known to heal such conditions as deafness, but a woman in Genoa has successfully sued the Santo Stefano for hearing loss due to the ringing of its church bells. The church will have to pay 60,000 euros for its ringing nuisance. It is actually a type of tort action that is routinely seen in the United States and, more often than not, rejected.
Continue reading “For Whom The Bells Toll: St. Stephens Deafens Woman in Italy”
A likely tort case has emerged from a bizarre accident outside of a San Francisco 49ers pre-season game. A police horse named Seattle was on patrol when he was spooked by a plastic bag and broke free. He collided with 78-year-old Eugene Caldwell, who fell and hit his head. He later died from the injury. It is a very tragic accident that may raise a difficult question of animal liability for the city.
Continue reading “Seattle Kills 78-Year-Old San Francisco Fan”
Carroll Master went to watch the Greensboro Grasshoopers play in Greensboro, North Carolina with his wife and his two-year-old son. It would cost him his eye. Master was hit in the left eye by a foul ball. It is the latest in such spectator injuries and is part of an ongoing debate over the liability of such teams for torts.
Continue reading “Grasshoppers Destroy Man’s Eye and Disclaim Liability”
Now this could make for an interesting tort case — literally. Ok, it was technically an apple cake not a torte but liability is likely to follow a bizarre accident over a typo in a published recipe in Stockholm, Sweden. Instead of calling for two pinches of nutmeg, a type in the cooking magazine Matmagasinet called for “20 nutmeg nuts” resulting in at least four poison cases.
A rather fluid first amendment controversy is brewing over police conduct at the Yankee stadium. Fan Brad Campeau-Laurion says that when he tried to go to the bathroom during the singing of “God Bless America,” he was roughed up a bit and then thrown out of the stadium. It appears that this has been a long complaint by fans over a sing-or-get-out policy by George Steinbrenner.
Continue reading “Potty Patriotism: Atheist Thrown Out of Yankee Stadium for Trying to Go to Bathroom During the Singing of God Bless America”