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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Careless Cart Loading Alleged in Death Case Print

Florida premises liability law appears to be generous enough toward plaintiffs that Home Depot (NYSE: HD) could be held liable for the death of a customer who was allegedly struck by an overloaded shopping cart being pushed by another customer.

The widow of Richard Zanard, 80, sued Home Depot last month, alleging he died in November 2006 as a result of the negligence of an employee at a store in St. Augustine, Fla., who assisted Billy Sanders in loading a cart with a vertical stack of “several large garbage cans.”

Even though the height of the cans “clearly obscured” Sanders' vision, the complaint says, the employee “allowed Mr. Sanders to proceed out of the store and into the parking lot having created this danger ...” Unable to see “objects or people in his direct path,” Sanders then “ran directly into Mr. Zanard with the Home Depot cart he was pushing.”

Zanard, an attorney, suffered a fractured hip from the impact and died nearly three weeks later of complications from surgery to repair it.

The suit also names Sanders and his employer as defendants, but Home Depot would obviously have the deepest pockets for a judgment. “Given the size and nature of the products sold by Home Depot,” Nancy Zanard alleges,

it was reasonably foreseeable that standard shopping carts could be stacked so high as to obstruct the view of a customer as he or she pushed the cart through the store or exiting the store and in the adjacent parking lot.

Florida courts do not appear to have addressed a case of negligent cart-loading before. But Kolosky v. Winn Dixie Stores, 472 So.2d 891 (1985) -- the case of a woman injured in a collision with three boys running through a grocery store playing tag -- may favor Zanard's widow.

Reinstating a $100,000 jury award, the 4th District Court of Appeal said evidence that store employees observed the children “running unsupervised through the store aisles several times over the course of approximately thirty to forty-five minutes” was “sufficient to support a finding of constructive notice of the dangerous condition and a reasonable opportunity to correct it.”

Winn Dixie cited cases in which a business was not found liable for injuries inflicted on one customer by another, but the appeals court ruled they were distinguishable because “each involves a sudden, unexpected action by the tortfeasor where there was no prior indication that the tortfeasor was engaging in the type of conduct which caused the injury.”

In the Zanard case, Home Depot may have had “actual notice” of a dangerous condition if the employee helped Sanders load his cart.

As for causation, Nancy Zanard only needs to show that some injury to her husband –- not necessarily the exact injury he suffered –- was the reasonably foreseeable consequence of Home Depot's conduct. In Kolosky, “[E]xactly that type of injury which is foreseeable from children running unrestrained through a store did in fact occur: they ran into a customer and knocked her down,” the 4th District noted.

The court also expressed approval of a case in which an Oklahoma judge held a store liable for an accident caused by a five-year-old who had been allowed to run unsupervised through the aisles pushing a shopping cart.

 

By Matthew Heller
11/11/08

 

 
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    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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    Read more...
RC_OnFile

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

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RC_OnTrial

Doe v. Discovery Day Care
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Subject: Child molestation
Verdict: $3,000,000

Hoback v. City of Chattanooga
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Subject: PTSD discrimination
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RC_OnTheDocket

Brown v. Herbert
Date: 12/16/11
Court: USDC, Utah
Hearing: Motion to dismiss polygamy case

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