There was a scary moment in Plainfield, New Jersey recently after a distracted 67-year-old was looking at her cellphone and walked over a barrier and fell into a sidewalk cellar for Acme Windows. The question of liability is likely on the mind of the company even though the woman appears to have suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Hershey company just made a novel, if unsuccessful, defense against a lawsuit claiming that it routinely underfilled boxes of Reese’s Pieces and Whoppers. We have all experienced that moment of irritation when we opened a box of candy to find it half full. After Robert Bratton sued, the company argued that the “audible rattle” was sufficient warning for consumers. That did not prove enough for U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey of the Western District of Missouri, at least for the purposes of pre-trial dismissal. Laughrey has green lighted the case for a full trial.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Yesterday I fielded an article concerning a rather distressing mandate by an Oregon county weed control agency seeking to force the application of hazardous herbicides onto a 2,000 acre organic farm owned by Azure Farms. Sherman County Oregon maintains this scorched earth policy is necessary to abate, or more specifically “eradicate”, weeds listed by state statute as noxious.
Now, the scientific community is responding to this overreaching government action by acting in the interests of health and responsible environmental stewardship through advocacy in the hopes that officials in Sherman County will reconsider their mandate.
Dr. Charles Benbrook is a highly credentialed research professor and expert serving on several boards of directors for agribusiness and natural resources organizations. Having read news of Sherman County’s actions, he penned an authoritative response I believe will make informative reading for those concerned by present and future implications in the forced use of herbicides under the rubric of noxious weed eradication, and the damage to organic farming generally arising from such mandates.
We recently discussed the discovery of a dead bat in a salad bag. It appears that you can also have some ground golf ball to go with your salad if you shop at Harris Teeter. Frozen hash browns sold in nine states by Harris Teeter and Roundy’s were found to have pieces of golf balls. McCain Foods USA’s recall notice said the golf balls apparently were “inadvertently harvested” along with the potatoes and chopped up.
At Walmart, Fresh Express promise an “organic mix” and it delivered more than it advertised. A customer in Florida found a bat inside of its Organic Marketside Spring Mix. It was not this bat but it was reportedly a bat. What is interesting from a torts perspective since two people started to eat the lettuce. That raises a question of negligent infliction of emotional distress.
We have previously discussed (and here and here)the liability issues associated with eating competitions. This week we have see two deaths in pancake eating and doughnut eating competitions. Caitline Nelson, 20, died at a fraternity and sorority event at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Travis Malouff, 42, died in a giant donut competition in Denver, Colorado.
In Kentucky, United States District Court Judge David J. Hale has ruled that President Donald Trump’s statements at a campaign rally could be viewed as incitement to violence. At a March 2016 rally, Trump told supporters to :get ’em out of here” in reference to protesters. Supporters proceeded to assault protesters Henry Brousseau, Kashiya Nwanguma, and Molly Shah who filed this action. Hale rejected the claims that the lawsuit violates President Trump’s free speech protections. They are suing for incitement to riot, vicarious liability, and negligence.
