Today we discussed strict liability for wild animals in the wake of the terrible tragedy in Canada. Bakersfield, California is facing another area of traditional strict liability after a man lost his leg to shrapnel from a demolition of a power plant and various others were injured. Such demolitions fall within ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous activities subject to common law strict liability rules.
Continue reading “California Demolition Blows Off Man’s Leg And Injuries Four Others”
We often discuss the strict liability rule governing wild animals in tort law. This morning Canada is dealing with a tragic and bizarre case in which two young boys — aged five and seven — were killed by a python that escaped a pet store and slithered through their ventilation system into their room. Reptile Ocean owner Jean-Claude Savoie lives above the store and was hosting the two boys for a sleepover with his own son who was unhurt.
Continue reading “Two Boys Strangled To Death In Their Sleep By Escaped Python”
Last week, there was a bizarre and tragic accident killing Amy Stiner, 37, and Melissa Moyer, 38. The two women were hiking in Maine when they became lost. They were rescued only to get into their car and drive of a boat ramp and drown. Adding to the tragedy, Stiner was four months pregnant. Moyer left behind a 12 year old son.
Continue reading “Two Women Are Rescued On Hike Only To Die After Driving Off Pier In Maine”
There is a tragedy in California that has led to a particularly challenging question of proximate causation. It appears well established that Arman Samsonian, 19, was driving recklessly when he slammed his SUV into a utility pole and a fire hydrant. It was a bad combination. When two individuals ran over to help, they were both electrocuted to death by the electrified water from the hydrant in contact with a fallen wire. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Karen Nudell last week approved charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for the deaths of good Samaritans, Irma Zamora (right) and Stacey Schreiber (left). The defense insists these were unforeseeable intervening acts that should not be the basis for criminal charges.
Cyclist Lance Armstrong spent years vehemently denying that he was taking performance-enhancing drugs and attacked those who accused him of being a cheater. Now, he is essentially arguing that it was clear all along that he was a cheater so he does not have to give anything back to the U.S. government for the sponsorship contract with U.S. Postal Service. In his filing, Armstrong insisted “The government wanted a winner and all the publicity, exposure, and acclaim that goes along with being his sponsor. It got exactly what it bargained for.”
The video below shows a Spanish passenger train hurtled off the tracks right in front of a camera. The entire train derailed killing 80 people and injuring another 140. The energy and force released in such a crash is immense and, in what is likely to be played repeated in lawsuits, the driver said that they were doing 120 miles per hour coming into the turn. That would be twice the limit for the urban section. He was heard exclaiming “we’re only human, we’re only human” after the crash.
We have previously discussed difficult cases (here and here and here) where physical appearance is a job criteria — leading to claims of gender discrimination. Now, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson has ruled that cocktail servers known as the “Borgata Babes” at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa can be required to keep their weight within proscribed limits as part of their job. Johnson ruled against 22 cocktail servers in a decision that found that these positions are part entertainment and part waitress — allowing the company to specify appearance requirements for women described as “eye candy.” The company required women not to gain more than seven percent body weight after their hiring. They wear cleavage-bearing bustiers and high heels at work.
It is something of a doggie whodunit. Citizens in Olathe, Kansas are debating the killing of a six pound Yorkie named Precious. Carl Henrichson is accused of killing Precious by standing on her while he claims that he was protecting his larger Labrador dog from a neighborhood menace.
Continue reading “Precious: Victim or Villain? Kansas Town Debates Death Of Yorkie”
We often discuss the proper damages for failure to diagnose cancer, including the calculation of the reduction in survivability (area where we disagree with our English cousins in torts). How about a misdiagnosis of cancer when the patient is cancer-free? That is the issue that faced a jury in Texas where Herlinda Garcia, 54, went through the highly traumatic process of chemotherapy only to discover that she never had cancer to begin with.
There is an unspeakable tragedy in India that again shows the lack of deterrence and regulation in that country over food safety, a problem also prevalent in other countries like China. Twenty-two children are dead after lunch in their school in Chhapra. The food was obviously poisoned and officials believe that the culprit was a pesticide. Two of the children of the headmistress, Meena Devi, were also sickened. She is now reportedly on the run with two other teachers.
Continue reading “Headmistress Flees After 22 Children Die From Poisoned Lunch At India School”
Corporal James Angelo Palermo, 40, of the San Marcos, Texas police department is under arrest today after his department reviewed an arrest of a predestrian who was allegedly roughed up by Palermo in a false arrest. The woman lost two teeth and suffered a concussion. Palermo is now charged with aggravated assault by a public servant.
After an Asiana Airlines passenger jet crashed and burned at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, 2013, a Bay Area TV station published what it claims were the names of the pilots, including Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Low, Ho Lee Fuk, and Band Ding Ow. Unbelievably, as shown below, no one at KTVU-TV picked up on the joke and the anchor read the names in all seriousness. It turns out that a summer intern with the National Transportation Safety Board was the culprit in passing along the names. Now, Asiana is suing the station for injury to its reputation, a novel claim that could raise questions over not just the fact of injury but the degree of injury in such a prank.
Remember the case of the Iowa Supreme Court upholding the firing of a dental assistant because she was too attractive for her boss to resist? The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in December that a dentist did not commit gender discrimination in firing an attractive female employee, Melissa Nelson, at the request of a jealous wife. After a national outcry, the Court surprised many by suddenly vacating its earlier decision and taking back the case. Many hoped the court would discard its prior opinion. Think again. The Court has issued a new opinion with the same conclusion and ramping up its prior holding.
We have previously discussed the legal blindspot for businesses that sell products with a claim of a divine touch like ChristianMingle.com and heaven-blocking bullets for Muslims. An analogous issue was raised this week with a filing in Los Angeles in which Klarissa Castro is suing her former psychic, Jennifer Williams and her company, Psychic Readings By Yana, over her failure to life a curse on her love life. The case could be dismissed under the notion of “a fool and her money are soon separated” but there were some interesting wrinkles in the psychic treatment.
Continue reading “California Woman Sues Former Psychic Over Failure To Lift Love Curse”
The medical staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital Center in Syracuse, New York may have committed the ultimate act of malpractice in 2009 — a litany of errors that culminated in doctors wrongly pronouncing her dead and preparing to harvest her organs when Caroline Burns, 41, suddenly opened her eyes. What is equally troubling is that the hospital was fined just $6000 and never called to account in a court of law. Burns committed suicide a few years later in 2011. It is not clear why she or her family chose not to sue (also some reports have her name as Colleen Burns).