U.S. v. Arizona
Arizona judge enjoins enforcement of a new immigration law's requirement that police determine the immigration status of
every person who is arrested.
McGuire v. United Airlines
Michigan woman says a United Express flight crew locked her in a plane for nearly four hours after it landed because they failed to ensure that all passengers had disembarked.
R.H. v. Schenectady Sch. Dist.
Middle school student says he was suspended for wearing rosary beads because the rosary "is considered a gang-related symbol" and cannot be worn in school.
Fields v. Smith
Judge strikes down a law that bars transgender prison inmates from receiving hormone therapy at taxpayers' expense, finding it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
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• Iowa judge says a sheriff denied the applications of a father and son for concealed weapons permits in retaliation for their political activism. "This is a great reminder that the First Amendment protects the sole individual who may be a gadfly, kook, weirdo, nut job, whacko, and spook, with the same force of protection as folks with more majoritarian and popular views." Dorr v. Weber

• 5th Circuit rules that a school district violated the religious freedom of a Native American boy by requiring him to wear his long hair in a bun on top of his head or in a braid tucked into his shirt. The boy "has a sincere religious belief in wearing his hair uncut and in plain view."
A.A. v. Needville Ind. Sch. Dist.

• 11th Circuit denies a challenge to an ordinance restricting handouts of food to the homeless in Orlando parks. "[W]e are unpersuaded that the conduct of simply feeding people ... is expressive for First Amendment purposes."
First Vagabonds Church v. City of Orlando

• Boston judge slashes a jury award in an illegal music downloading case from $675,000 to $67,500. "The award in this case ... lacks any rational foundation and smacks of arbitrariness." Sony v. Tenenbaum

• Iowa Supreme Court suspends a voyeuristic attorney indefinitely for peeping on women through windows. "[W]e cannot overlook the serious, egregious, and persistent nature of [Mark] Templeton’s misconduct and the effect it had on his victims."
Disciplinary Board v. Templeton

• Pennsylvania judge strikes down the state's blasphemy law in a case brought by a film producer who wanted to name his company "I Choose Hell Productions." "'Choosing hell' may be an irreverent choice for a corporate name, but under the Constitution, this fact alone cannot be the basis for its suppression from the public debate." Kalman v. Cortes

• Cancer patient sues Wal-Mart for firing him after discovering that he uses medical marijuana for pain relief. "[N]o corporation doing business in Michigan should be permitted to flout state laws protecting patients who use medical marihuana in accordance with state law." Casias v. Wal-Mart Stores

• 11th Circuit rules that the operator of an Internet porn dorm was engaged in illegally operating a business in a residential zone. "Business objectives are the sole reason individuals are paid to live and engage in sexual activities at the 27th Street residence."
Flava Works v. City of Miami




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Woman's Death Blamed on Hotel Exec's "Hedonism" Print

Taking employment law into uncharted waters, a $645 million lawsuit alleges the operator of the Hard Rock resort in Las Vegas is liable for the death of its former CEO's girlfriend because it consented to his “hedonistic lifestyle.”

Michelle Hatchel

Ed Scheetz

Michelle Hatchel, 23, died of a drug overdose Aug. 29, 2007 while staying at a Las Vegas condominium with Ed Scheetz, who was then the chief executive officer of Morgans Hotel Group (NASDAQ: MHG). Members of Hatchel's family filed a wrongful-death suit last week that names both Scheetz and Morgans as defendants.

According to the complaint, Scheetz flew Hatchel to Las Vegas from New York on Morgans' private jet for a weekend of cocaine and sex. She was killed, it says, “as a proximate result of the Defendants' ... wrongful and/or negligent acts or omissions” in the three-bedroom penthouse suite leased by Morgans.

An autopsy report attributed Hatchel's death to “acute, multiple drug intoxication (oxycodone, cocaine).” Police allegedly found more than seven grams of cocaine and a prescription bottle in Scheetz's name for oxycodone, an opiate painkiller, in the condo.

Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, an employer is vicariously liable for an employee’s torts committed within the scope of employment. The plaintiffs suing Morgans have given a novel twist to that theory by arguing that Scheetz's behavior mirrored the raunchy “image” of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

The complaint is not exactly a model of clarity. In attempting to explain Morgans' vicarious liability, it says:

Plaintiffs are informed and believe that a part of the “Hardrock” marketing’s strategy its target demographic patrons included hedonistic sexually permissive and promiscuous lifestyle which also included use of illegal and/or illegally obtained, provided, given, and/or supplied controlled substances including but not limited to cocaine and oxycodone ...

Scheetz's lifestyle, the suit says, involved “multiple sexual partners,” the “voluminous use and abuse” of cocaine, and the providing to others of oxycodone, and since his hedonism was a “living example of [the] 'Hardrock' image ... all of his actions, inactions, and/or omissions [at the time of Hatchel's death] were within the course and scope of his employment.”

The case goes far beyond any precedent in Nevada, which, under a statute enacted in 1997, has limited employer liability for the intentional conduct of an employee.

An employer is not liable for harm or injury, NRS 41.745 says, if the employee's conduct:

(a) Was a truly independent venture of the employee;
(b) Was not committed in the course of the very task assigned to the employee; and
(c) Was not reasonably foreseeable under the facts and circumstances of the case considering the nature and scope of his employment.

In Prell Hotel Corp. v. Antonacci, 469 P.2d 399 (1970), the Nevada Supreme Court found a casino operator liable for a blackjack dealer's assault on a customer because the assault occurred “within the scope of the very task assigned to [the dealer], that of dealing '21.'”

There is no such connection between Hatchel's death and Scheetz's duties as a CEO. Even if Morgans sanctioned his “hedonistic proclivities” and he was using its plane and condo, it surely did not assign him the “very task” of providing illegal drugs to Hatchel.

Moreover, “considering the nature and scope of his employment,” it was hardly foreseeable to Morgans that Scheetz's behavior would result in Hatchel's death.

According to police, Scheetz returned home to the condo about 8 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2007 and called 911 to report that a woman, whom he described as his girlfriend, was not breathing. Hatchel's family say in their suit that he lied to police when he told them she was still alive when he left the condo for work at 9 a.m.

Late on Aug. 28, Hatchel sent a friend a text message from a closet in the condo. “Things are really bad. Ed has been so mean to me,” it said.

Scheetz resigned as CEO of Morgans three weeks after Hatchel's death. He settled an earlier wrongful-death suit filed by her father and the new case may well be an attempt to leverage a settlement out of Morgans, which operates luxury hotels in such cities as New York, Miami and London.

UPDATE

  • As On Point reports here, the Hatchel family agreed to a settlement with Scheetz and dropped their claims against Morgans.



  • By Matthew Heller
    On Point


     
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