Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) will resign today from his seat in Congress. In addition to the political pressure from his own party, Weiner had a couple of strong legal reasons to resign.
Continue reading “Weiner To Resign”
Category: Torts
There is an interesting Long Island case that could be the basis for a lawsuit on the mishandling of a corpse. In spreading her father’s ashes around his favorite places (including on a dinosaur at the Museum of Natural History), Jennie Spooner, from Amityville, found an array of garbage in the urn, including ballpoint-pen springs, glass shards, metal staples and a half-melted crucifix.
Continue reading “Long Island Woman Finds Garbage in Cremated Remains Of Father”
There is an interesting torts case in Palm Harbor, Florida where four diners were burned by the banana foster at Ozona Blue Grilling Co. The waiter accidentally added too much rum to the bananas foster causing burns to the people around the table, including one severe burn case of a woman whose dress caught fire.
Continue reading “Banana Foster Tort: Four Customers Burned By Flambé”
For those of us who teach proximate causation, this tragic case seems something out of a torts class. In Quebec, a couple was killed when a 300-pound male black bear crashed through their windshield and proceeded out the back window. This may top the recent cases of death by totem pole and casket.
Continue reading “Canadian Couple Killed By Flying Bear”
There is a sharp disconnect between two prank stories this morning. When Tyrell Morton put an inflatable girl in the girl’s bathroom at his high school, he ended up with a felony charge and a potential jail sentence of eight years. However, when three eighth-grade girls from Dunbar Middle school in Florida tackled an 11-year-old boy and stripped him naked (and proceeded to videotape him and taunt him), they were let go as a simple prank in bad taste.
Continue reading “Florida Boy Attacked, Stripped Naked in Public, and Videotaped By Three Girls — Resulting In No Charges”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has caused a considerable stir with a warning that cellphones may increase the risk of brain tumors. If you are interested, the study below ranks cellphones by the radiation that they emit. My iPhone seems a bit high, but here is the list.
Continue reading “WHO Warns Cellphone Use Is “Possibly Carcinogenic”: How Much Radiation Does Your Cellphone Emit?”
I pledge not to use The Jerk in the following story. Steve Martin has been named as one of the victims in an impressive international forgery scheme. Martin paid $850,000 in July 2004 for Landschaft mit Pferden (Landscape With Horses). Later he sold it at a loss of 200,000 euros to a Swiss businesswoman. It was then found to be a fake.
Continue reading “Real Men Don’t Buy Campendonk: Steven Martin Named As Victim in Massive Forgery Scheme”
There has long been criticism of the employment rates claimed by some law schools after graduation. However, Anna Alaburda, a 2008 graduate from Thomas Jefferson School of Law, has taken the matter to court with a lawsuit over alleged misrepresentations that led her to go $150,000 in debt. She cites the statistics given by the school to U.S. News and World Report showing an 80 percent employment rate.
Continue reading “Thomas Jefferson Law Graduate Sues Over Allegedly Misrepresentations Over Employment Rates”
Tiffany Startz, 22, is facing has been charged in a bizarre case after she punched a rapper on a dare last September in Joliet, Illinois — killing John “Fatboy” Powell. It is a modern version of the case of Harry Houdini who reportedly died after a college student punched him repeatedly in the stomach to test his claim of being able to withstand blows. As discussed below, the student was never charged. Startz, however, is facing reckless conduct and battery charges stemming from the incident at a garage party.
Continue reading “The Death of Fatboy: Criminal Charges Brought In Dare Gone Bad”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
John T. Williams, a Native American woodcarver, died after being shot 4 times by Officer Ian Birk on August 30, 2010. Dashcam video is shown below.
Continue reading “Seattle Pays $1.5M to Family of Victim of Police Shooting”
San Antonio is dealing with not just the controversial fatal shooting of an unarmed teen but new disclosures that the officer was previously named four times for termination from the police force. Reports indicate that Officer Daniel Alvarado of San Antonio’s Northside Independent School District has been named on four occasions for termination due to misconduct but was never actually fired. He is now on suspension after he chased 14-year-old Derek Lopez, who punched another teen at a bus stop and ended up shooting him to death in a shed.
Continue reading “San Antonio Officer Fatally Shoots Unarmed Teen Who Scared Him — Previously Suspended Four Times From Force”
For FBI agent Fred Kingston, it was a sweet assignment. The FBI had seized a stolen 1995 Ferrari F50 — one of only 50 such cars in the United States. Kingston was instructed to move the car from the FBI garage and so Kingston reportedly called Assistant US Attorney J. Hamilton Thompson to come along for the ride. The agent ended up crashing the car — causing $750,000 but now the Justice Department insists that it is not liable for the damage.
Continue reading “Joy Ride for Justice? FBI Agent Wrecks Stolen Ferrari After Taking Friend Out For A Spin . . . DOJ Refuses To Pay For Damage”
The Kentucky Supreme Court has handed down an important ruling (below) that Christopher Egan can make a paternity claim even if the child is the result of an adulterous affair. It is the rejection of a long-standing bar on such claims under a type of “dirty hands” rule for adulterous affairs. The court turned its back on a long line of morality based cases once called “bastardy cases.” Justice Bill Cunningham (right) in dissent accused the court of throwing the institution of marriage on the “funeral pyre of modern convenience and unanchored values.” Justice Daniel Venters (left) excellent majority decision is available below.
Continue reading “Kentucky Supreme Court Recognizes Paternity Claim From Adulterous Affair and Puts An End To The “Bastardy Cases””
Florida dentist Michael Hammonds, 57, has been arrested for assault and battery after getting into a wrestling match with a patient over a pair of dentures. When police arrived, they found bruise marks on Virginia Graham, 85, who tried to get her dentures back from Hammonds and was allegedly held given her will at the office.
Continue reading “Taking the Bite Out of Crime: Florida Dentist Arrested After Fighting 85-Year-Old Patient Over Dentures”
In England, Katie Dagley, 19, died in an accident as bizarre as it was tragic. In something out of a proximate cause question on a torts exam, a traffic light-controlled bridge malfunctioned after a slug cause the lights to malfunction. That’s right, investigators believe that the slug left a trail across a circuit board that caused it to short out. That caused the lights to malfunction and Dagley proceeding against traffic on a one-land bridge in Tamworth, Staffordshire.
Continue reading “Slug Causes Traffic Death in England”