NYU Professor José Angel Santana says that he was doing what any responsible academic would do when faced with a student who missed 12 out of 14 assignments: he gave him a “D”. The problem, he alleges, was that the student was Hollywood hunk James Franco (left) from “127 Hours.” He says that he was ridiculed by the star and fired by the school over the decision. Franco gained fame portraying James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.
Continue reading “Celebrity Curve? NYU Professor Sues After Being Fired Allegedly For Giving Star James Franco A Bad Grade”
Category: Torts
A Massachusetts restaurant has made news this week by requiring waivers before people eat its hot food. The waivers are being handed out at the East Coast Grill in Cambridge.
Continue reading “Tort or Torte? Restaurant Requires Waivers Before Customers Try Hot Food”
France is experiencing a massive tort scandal after it was discovered thousands of women were given breast implants containing industrial silicone rather than medical silicone. We have seen <a href="In Vassallo v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 696 N.E.2d 909 (Mass.1998), a court looked at the liability of one such company under an implied warranty of merchantability for failure to warn or provide instructions about risks. The appellate court Defendant did have actual or constructive knowledge.”>such cases in the United States of faux doctors using industrial silicone purchased from auto and home repair stores. Nothing, however, comes close to the French scandal. Over 30,000 women in France (as well as some in Spain and the UK) may have had the defective products from Poly Implant Prosthesis (PIP).
Continue reading “France Facing Crisis After Discovery That Tens of Thousands of Women May Have Been Given Industrial Silicone In Breast Implants”
We have followed a long line of hunting accidents and buck fever cases which are becoming more and more common as housing areas expand into rural areas (here and here). Now in Edinburg, Texas, police have taken two hunters into custody on suspicion of firing the stray bullets that cut down two middle school students at Harwell Middle School.
Continue reading “Police Reportedly Take Two Hunters Into Custody In Texas School Shooting”
We have been following a line of cases involving faux doctors performing cheap cosmetic surgery by using such medical material as “Fix-A-Flat” gel. The latest such case comes from New Jersey where Justin Street, 22, died after Kasia Rivera, 34, allegedly injected his penis with silicone in an enlargement procedure. Street died the day after the treatment in Rivera’s home.
Continue reading “New Jersey Man Dies After “Doctor” Injects Silicone Into His Penis in Home Procedure”
There is an interesting defamation ruling out of Oregon where U.S. District Judge Marco Hernández has ruled that blogger is not a journalist for the purposes of defamation rules in a dispute with a lawyer. Crystal L. Cox is a blogger from Eureka, Montana and accused Oregon lawyer Kevin Padrick with criminal and unethical conduct in a bankruptcy case. She relied on a statute offering higher standards to protect journalists from defamation actions and Hernandez rejected the claims. It is the latest in an ongoing debate of how to define a journalist for purposes of constitutional and tort law. Cox now stands subject to a $2.5 million award in favor of Padrick and Obsidian. Cox runs a site entitled Obsidian Finance Sucks (as well as other sites) and insists that she is an investigative blogger/reporter.
The Discovery Channel’s popular show “Mythbusters” has educated many on the realities and science of common myths. I personally enjoy watching the show with my kids. Now, however, I can show it as part of my torts class. This week, the show was doing an episode and sent a wayward cannonball through a house in Dublin, California (near Oakland) and into the window of a van parked outside.
Continue reading “MythBusted or Ultrahazardous Activity? Popular Show Sends Cannonball Through California Home”
This week, we witnessed an extraordinary appearance from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who told reporters that she has dirt on Newt Gingrich and would reveal at some later date — suggesting that the embarrassing disclosure would come from her service on an ethics review of Gingrich when he was House Speaker. I have been a long critic of Gingrich for some of his statements and policies, but I find Pelosi’s statements to be reprehensible and unethical. What concerns me, again, is the relative absence of criticism from Democrats who should show more principle in denouncing this type of politics.
Continue reading “Did Pelosi Violate House Rules or Commit Defamation In Claiming Dirt On Gingrich?”
I have previously criticized Virginia Tech for its well-documented failures in the massacre of its students and faculty in 2007 while commending the actions of individuals like Professor Liviu Librescu who surpassed the school’s negligence with their own selfless heroism. One of the most outrageous aspects of the aftermath of the massacre was the use of ridiculously low liability caps of $100,000 in Virginia to deny recovery of reasonable damages by the families — and avoid full accountability over the school’s negligent conduct. Now the school is challenging a mere $55,000 fine for its negligence — a pittance in terms of the millions that it avoided through liability caps. While the school motto is Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), it views that in strictly non-monetary terms.
Continue reading “Virginia Tech Challenges $55,000 Fine For Negligence in 2007 Massacre”
There is an interesting potential tort lawsuit in the making in the movie “Breaking Dawn.” The Maryland-based Epilepsy Foundation issued a warning on Facebook to roughly 11,000 followers that the movie may cause seizures and should be avoided for those prone to certain types of seizures.
Continue reading “Is The Movie “Breaking Dawn” Harmful To Your Health? Foundation Issues Seizure Warning To Potential Moviegoers”
In Nanuet, New York, parents are irate after a second-grade teacher reportedly told her 7-year-old students that there is no Santa and that their parents leave the presents under the tree. In Chicago, the FOX Chicago news anchor Robin Robinson decided to make the case to a bigger audience and proclaimed on the news show that Santa was not real and parents should tell their kids that the presents come from them.
Continue reading “Santa Slips: Teacher and Reporter Under Fire Over Santa Comments”
As the class prepares for finals, I thought I would share the ultimate curve breaker. This woman guesses one letter and solves the entire puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.
Continue reading “Wheel of Fortune Savant”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Bo Muller-Moore, a folk artist from Montpelier, Vermont, decided to print up some T-shirts for friends that own a local farm. The slogan that was chosen was “Eat More Kale.” That phrase doesn’t sit too well with Chick-fil-A, whose lawyer claims “is likely to cause confusion of the public and dilutes the distinctiveness of Chick-fil-A’s intellectual property and diminishes its value.”
While some critics have panned the new movie “J. Edgar,” reviews among former FBI agents appear far more harsh. This article was sent to me by one of my students given our discussion this week of the rule that you cannot defame the dead. Indeed, the controversy over the film raises that very question as well as an interesting question of whether alleged homosexuality should still be considered per se defamation.
Continue reading “Could Hoover Sue J. Edgar?”
Jesse Dimmick may have made for a poor criminal but he makes for an even worse lawyer. Dimmick has sued a Kansas couple, alleging that they broke an oral contract to hide him in exchange for money. This particular breach resulted in his being shot by police.
Continue reading “You Can’t Say Dimmick Without Dim: Felon Sues Family For Break of Contract In Failing To Hide Him From Police”