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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• Roommate referral website does not discriminate by allowing users to list their preferences for roommate characteristics. "Holding that the [Fair Housing Act] applies inside a home or apartment ... would be a serious invasion of privacy, autonomy and security."
Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com

• 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

• 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

• 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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Yahoo! Fails Again to Stop Lawsuit Over Nude Photos Print

An Oregon judge has refused to dismiss an unprecedented breach-of-contract lawsuit, finding that a woman can sue Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) for breaking a promise to remove nude photos of her from its website.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken's decision is the latest milestone in a four-year-old case which she had previously dismissed in November 2005. An appeals court reinstated part of the case in May, finding Cecilia Barnes could proceed against Yahoo! on the theory that its promise to remove the photos amounted to an enforceable contract.

In Oregon, a “promissory estoppel” claim requires:

(1) a promise; (2) which the promisor, as a reasonable person, could foresee would induce conduct of the kind which occurred; (3) actual reliance on the promise; (4) resulting in a substantial change in position.

Barnes' ex-boyfriend posted the photos without her consent in Yahoo!'s profiles section. The key evidence in her lawsuit is a March 29, 2005 phone conversation in which Yahoo! director of communications Mary Osako allegedly assured her that Yahoo! “would put a stop to the unauthorized profiles depicting Plaintiff Barnes.”

According to an amended complaint filed in August, Osako had spoken earlier the same day to a local TV news reporter who was preparing a story about “Yahoo's indifference to the dangers to which Plaintiff Barnes was exposed.”

After her conversation with Osako, Barnes told the reporter that “Yahoo had promised to terminate the profiles.” But “in breach of [that] promise,” the complaint says, Yahoo! “failed to remove the unauthorized profiles ... until after the filing of this action.”

In denying Yahoo!'s motion to dismiss the promissory estoppel claim, Aiken ruled Dec. 8 that “it is reasonable to conclude Osako's intention in calling the plaintiff was ultimately to have plaintiff call the reporter and, in effect, diffuse [sic] the story before it aired.”

The allegations, she continued, also “lead to the reasonable and plausible inference that plaintiff  relied on defendant's promise by calling the reporter and informing him that there was no longer a news story worthy to air.”

Corporate spokespersons are, of course, capable of all sorts of devious manipulations. But it is unclear how Osako could have been so confident that Barnes would “defuse” the story by simply calling the reporter -- unless she assumed the reporter wouldn't visit the website to check whether Yahoo! had, in fact, removed the photos.

Barnes, moreover, does not allege that she told the reporter the story was no longer newsworthy and has acknowledged in a brief that “the amended complaint does not expressly allege that the unfavorable story was thereafter changed to a more favorable one because of Ms. Barnes’s call.”

As for the “substantial change” element of the promissory estoppel claim, Aiken reached a muddled conclusion, saying Barnes' position could have

substantially changed in that the profiles remained on the web longer than they would have absent plaintiff's reliance [on Osako's promise]. Additionally, it is reasonable to assume that strangers viewed the profiles and subsequently contacted plaintiff after the profiles would have been removed by defendant (had plaintiff not called the reporter).

Yahoo! has argued that if Barnes had failed to get the profiles removed before Osako made her alleged promise, her reliance on the promise did not change her position. “[T]he very premise of the Amended Complaint appears to be that Plaintiff was in the very same position after Yahoo!’s alleged promise as before,” it said.

Barnes' original complaint included a claim for negligence, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Yahoo! was immune under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

UPDATE

  • Yahoo! gave up the fight and settled the case, according to an April 19, 2010 court filing.


  • This story linked by:


    By Matthew Heller
    12/22/09


     
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