• 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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Are Strip Clubs Safe from Flying Footwear? |
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 The careless stripper bug has struck again in Florida where a patron of a Pompano Beach men's club has alleged he was injured when a dancer's flying shoe hit a mirrored ceiling, sending glass raining down on him.
Charles Privette's suit -– which may be the first to allege negligent performance of a pole dance -– follows that of investment banker Stephen Chang, who sued a Manhattan strip club in January over injuries he allegedly sustained during a lap dance.
A dancer at the aptly-named Booby Trap club, Privette says in his complaint, “negligently performed her pole dance routine when one of her high heeled shoes flew up into the air and struck the mirrored glass ceiling causing the mirror to shatter and fall onto Plaintiff.”
Privette, who was sitting in the front row near the stage, suffered a small laceration to his eyebrow, headaches and nose bleeds, according to his attorney. The suit seeks at least $15,000 in damages.
The club “had a duty to ensure the safety of its patrons” and breached that duty “when its employee failed to perform her routine in [a] reasonably safe manner,” the suit says.
Booby Trap general manager George Gettinger has confirmed that such an incident happened but said paramedics were not too concerned about Privette's injuries after they arrived at the scene. “A quote from the paramedics was, 'I can't believe you even called us for this,'” he told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
A wayward shoe, curiously enough, was also the alleged cause of Chang's injury at the Hot Lap Dance Club in November 2007. During the course of a lap dance, his complaint said, the dancer “suddenly swung around, striking the plaintiff in the eye with the heel of her shoe.”
One can only hope that the strip club industry gets a grip on this problem before any more innocent patrons are harmed as a result of negligent strippers and their flying footwear.
By Matthew Heller
10/16/08 
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Ernie Chambers
If you sue God, you have to -– in the legal sense, at least -– serve God, a judge has ruled in dismissing a Nebraska state senator's bizarre suit against the Almighty because he did not serve it on the defendant.
“Given that this Court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named Defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice,” Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon A. Polk said, meaning the complaint cannot be refiled.
Sen. Ernie Chambers filed his suit in September 2007, seeking a permanent injunction ordering God “to cease harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.” He said he was making a point about access to the court system after other legislators tried to limit “frivolous lawsuits.”
Plaintiffs in Nebraska have six months in which to serve a defendant but Chambers had not done so by the March 2008 deadline.
At a hearing in August, the senator urged Polk to waive service because God, as an omniscient being, would not need formal notice of a lawsuit. Rather than debate whether God exists, he suggested, the judge could just accept the existence of God as fact –- that is, take “judicial notice” of it.
“If God is omnipresent,” Chambers, an avowed atheist, said, “then he is here in Douglas County and in this courtroom.”
But Polk wouldn't go that far. “[T]his Court has no jurisdiction to make further orders except to formalize the dismissal,” he said in his order.
Despite the ridicule he has already attracted by filing the suit, Chambers told the Omaha World-Herald he is considering an appeal. "It is a thoughtful, well-written opinion," he said. "However, like any prudent litigator, I want to study it in detail before I determine what my next course of action will be."
By Matthew Heller
10/16/08
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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.
Read more...
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Abuse Victim Can Sue Ex-DA Over 'Sexting' Messages
A Wisconsin judge has protected a domestic violence victim from a rogue prosecutor, finding that she can sue him for sending her text messages in which he pressured her to have sex with him.
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Four Loko Maker Says Users Knew of Health Dangers
The maker of Four Loko has previewed its defense of a slew of product liability lawsuits, arguing that the physical effects of the energy drink's mixture of alcohol and caffeine — far from being an undisclosed risk to consumers — are precisely what made it so popular.
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Mortician Sued for Speaking Ill of the Dead
In a first-of-its-kind unprofessional conduct lawsuit, a woman has sued her former boss at a Michigan funeral home for making an indecent comment about the body of a dead man in front of her.
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'Next Friends' of Orcas Bid to Stop SeaWorld Slavery
An animal rights lawsuit against SeaWorld for enslaving five killer whales at its aquatic theme parks in San Diego and Orlando may sink even though humans are representing the orcas as their “next friends.”
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Jury Finds No Harm to Boy From Wrongful Circumcision
In a blow to supporters of male “genital integrity,” an Indiana jury has ruled that a doctor did not injure a boy by circumcising him when he was an infant even though his mother wanted him to be left intact.
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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.
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Marsh v. Air Tran Airways
Subject: Roaches on a plane
Document: Complaint
Classic Media v. J.G. Wentworth
Subject: "Lassie" copyright
Document: Complaint
Kardashian v. Old Navy
Subject: Publicity rights
Document: Complaint
McKee v. Laurion
Subject: Doctor defamation
Document: Opinion
Francis v. U.S.
Subject: Bear attack
Document: Decision
more
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Doe v. Discovery Day Care
Court: Miami-Dade Circuit
Subject: Child molestation
Verdict: $3,000,000
Hoback v. City of Chattanooga
Court: USDC, E. Tenn.
Subject: PTSD discrimination
Verdict: $680,000
more
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Brown v. Herbert
Date: 12/16/11
Court: USDC, Utah
Hearing: Motion to dismiss polygamy case
more
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