John Doe A v. Penn State
First Penn State scandal lawsuit says Coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a boy more than 100 times and the abuse was enabled by the school's "negligent oversight."
Bradley v. Lohan
Former Betty Ford Center employee sues Lindsay Lohan for assault, alleging the actress threw a phone at her and yanked her wrist while refusing to be breathalzyed.
N.D. v. New York Post
Hotel maid allegedly raped by French politician sues the New York Post for falsely reporting that she is a prostitute who "routinely traded sex for money" with male guests.
Reinhart v. Mortenson
Two Montana residents allege the author of "Three Cups of Tea" "fabricated material about his activities and work in Pakistan and Afghanistan" to sell the book.
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• Student alleges a prank involving a bottle rocket and another student's anus backfired, causing him to fall off the deck of a frat house.
Helmburg v. Alpha Tau Omega

• 5th Circuit reinstates a jury verdict finding a man employed by an engineering firm was sexually harassed by a male supervisor. "The text message 'I want cock' could be taken as an explicit sexual proposition." 
Cherry v. Shaw Coastal

• Massachusetts appeals court says the ex-wife of a man who fatally shot himself with a gun he had stolen cannot sue the gun's owner for wrongful death. "We conclude that public policy dictates that [Charles] Milot's criminal conduct acts as a bar to recovery."
Ryan v. Hughes-Ortiz

• Pennsylvania woman alleges her former employer discriminated against her because she wore a fake penis to assist her in her female-to-male transition. "Plaintiff's use of the prosthetic device was concealed and in no way interfered with the ability of Plaintiff to do her job." Davis v. J&J Snack Foods

• Son of a woman charged with murdering her husband cannot use the proceeds from the victim's life insurance policy to fund his mother's criminal defense. "[A]llowing the distribution of these proceeds to a third party who has clear intentions to transfer part of these proceeds to her, undermines the principles underlying the Slayer’s Act and federal common law."
In Re: Estate of Michael Burkland

• Oregon judge rules that a self-proclaimed "investigative blogger" is not "considered 'media' for the purposes of applying a negligence standard in a defamation claim." Obsidian Finance v. Cox

• Seattle judge says an actress cannot proceed anonymously in her suit against the IMDb.com website for publishing her age. "[W]hile Plaintiff may face public ridicule and embarrassment if she elects to go forward under her real name, the injury she fears is not severe enough to justify permitting her to proceed anonymously."
Doe v. Amazon.com

• Family of an 11-year-old girl who was crushed by a boulder of ice says forest ranger negligence caused her death. Rangers "did not warn users of the risk of harm associated with the dangerous, unstable snow and ice" at the Big Four Ice Caves in Snohomish County, Wash. Tam v. U.S.

• 3rd Circuit dismisses a breach of data security case against a payroll-processing company. "Appellants' allegations of an increased risk of identity theft as a result of the security breach are hypothetical, future injuries."
Reilly v. Ceridian Corp.

• Oregon judge denies First Amendment protections to a blogger. "Defendant cites no cases indicating that a self-proclaimed 'investigative blogger' is considered 'media' for the purposes of applying a negligence standard in a defamation claim."
Obsidian Finance v. Cox

• A transsexual who was fired from her government job while she was in the process of becoming a woman wins her sex discrimination suit. "[A] government agent violates the Equal Protection Clause’s prohibition of sex-based discrimination when he or she fires a transgender or transsexual employee because of his or her gender non-conformity."
Glenn v. Brumby

• New York man sues a Texas fertility clinic for wrongful insemination, alleging it failed to obtain his consent before using a sample of his sperm to impregnate his ex-girlfriend.
Pressil v. Advanced Fertility

• Nebraska judge rules that school officials may have illegally disciplined students for wearing t-shirts in honor of a slain friend suspected of gang membership. "[Q]uestions of fact remain whether Plaintiffs’ speech occurred in a context likely to provoke gang violence or other disruptions of school activities."
Kuhr v. Millard Public Sch. Dist.




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Goose Attack Tests Railroad Worker Injury Law Print

A West Virginia railroad worker is causing a bit of a flap in his industry by suing his employer for failing to protect him from an unusual workplace hazard –- a nesting goose.

Aaron Richards is seeking more than $75,000 for injuries suffered in an alleged goose attack at a CSX Transportation railyard near Ravenswood, W. Va. While performing a brake inspection on a train, he alleges in a complaint filed earlier this month,

a goose which was previously known by Defendant to have nested in its yard area suddenly jumped out from under one of the railcars, striking Plaintiff, and causing him to fall resulting in injuries.

“[T]he injuries and damages sustained by Plaintiff were caused by the negligence of Defendant in violation of the Federal Employers' Liability Act,” Richards says.

The suit has inspired plenty of ridicule, with one contributor to a train workers' online message board saying the plaintiff's lawyer -– W. Michael Frazier of Huntington, W. Va. -- is “the real goose ... looking for a golden egg.”

The skeptics ignore the generosity of FELA, which requires employers to provide a reasonably safe workplace. As the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has said, “[T]he plaintiff in a FELA case may reach the jury with only circumstantial evidence of very slight employer negligence playing a part in producing the plaintiff's injury.” Dewalt v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 869 F.2d 1489 (1989).

In a seminal case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a jury award to a railroad crew foreman who lost both of his legs after suffering an insect bite.

“The evidence present was sufficient to raise an issue for the jury's determination as to whether the insect emanated from” a stagnant, vermin-infested pool near where the foreman had been working, the court said in Gallick v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., 372 U.S. 108 (1963).

CSX denies any negligence in a pro forma answer to Richards' complaint, saying “the alleged incident underlying Plaintiff's claim was not reasonably foreseeable by Defendant.”

But geese have a reputation for aggressively defending their territory. And if CSX knew Richards' alleged attacker was on its property, that could be enough to establish liability.

“It is the responsibility of the railroad to make that yard a safe place to work and if that means getting rid of the birds, they should have done it,” says another contributor to the trainorders.com website.

The 2nd Circuit said in the case of a railroad worker bitten by a large German Shepherd mix dog that liability did not depend on whether the dog had vicious propensities, but

whether the [railroad] knew or should have known that a large German Shepherd-mix dog was on the premises, and if so, whether an employer using reasonable care should have investigated further or taken other steps to inform and protect its employees. Gallose v. Long Island Rail Road Co., 878 F.2d 80 (1989).

UPDATE

  • A jury returned a defense verdict July 21, 2009, finding that CSX did not negligently fail to warn Richards of the hazard presented by the goose.


  • This story linked by:


    By Matthew Heller
    2/29/08


     
    rc_insidestories
    • Jurors' Comments Fuel New Trial Bid in Bullying Case

      Jurors may have opened the door to a new trial in a Maryland school bullying case by saying they returned a verdict for the defense because they were afraid of setting a bad precedent for school systems throughout the country.
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    • Guest Can Sue Motel 6 Over Attack by Woman's Pimp

      A guest who paid for sex with a prostitute at a Motel 6 did not assume the risk of being attacked several hours later by the prostitute's pimp, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled in an unusual premises liability lawsuit against the motel operator.
      Read more...
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