• Owners of Who Dat?, Inc. sue the NFL and the New Orleans Saints for trademark infringement, seeking to protect the mark that "has become one of the most recognizable in all of America and quickly became well-known around the world."
Who Dat?, Inc. v. NFL Properties
• Army bomb disposal expert sues the makers of "The Hurt Locker" for plagiarizing his life story. The film is "nothing more than the exploitation of a real life honorable, courageous, and long serving member of our country’s armed forces, by greedy multi-billion dollar 'entertainment' corporations."
Sarver v. The Hurt Locker
• Former patient sues the Cincinnati hospital where he was sexually assaulted by a transgender nurse. The nurse's "employment while masquerading as a member of the female gender in a hospital environment involved an unreasonable risk of harm to others."
Evans v. University of Cincinnati
• Federal judge enjoins the City of Phoenix from enforcing a noise ordinance against "sound generated in the course of religious expression," finding the right of churches to ring bells outweighs "the City's interest in preserving the peace and tranquility of its neighborhoods."
St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish v. City of Phoenix
• 5th Circuit says a Texas city's junked vehicle ordinance applies to a cactus planter made out of wrecked Oldsmobile 88. "Irrespective of the intentions of its creators ... the car-planter is a utilitarian device, an advertisement, and ultimately a 'junked vehicle.'"
Kleinman v. City of San Marcos
• Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols notifies a federal judge that he has gone on hunger strike, saying he is "prepared to die if necessary because he is done allowing his body to be defiled by [ ] refined and dead foods."
Nichols v. Federal Bureau of Prisons
• Texas judge finds the makers of a film about Rin Tin Tin did not infringe on the trademarks of a breeder of German Shepherds. "Defendants['] title 'Finding Rin Tin Tin: The Adventure Continues" is a fair use of the term 'Rin Tin Tin.'"
Rin Tin Tin, Inc. v. First Look Studios
• Illinois appeals court says the contact sports exception to negligence liability does not apply to the case of an athletic trainer who was struck in the eye by a hockey puck while refilling water bottles. Michael Weisberg "suffered injuries as a result of alleged conduct that was not inherent to the sport of hockey."
Weisberg v. Chicago Steel
 
|
|
Good Samaritan Surgeon Not Immune from Suit |
 |
A divided North Dakota Supreme Court has found that the state's Good Samaritan law does not apply to a medical malpractice case against a surgeon who volunteered to assist a colleague in an emergency procedure.
Dr. Inder Khokha, a general surgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Williston, assisted in the removal of a kidney from Rosie Chamley in February 2004. During the operation, Chamley's vena cava was damaged and she died five days later at another hospital.
“We are of the opinion that Dr. Khokha, as a matter of law, had an expectation of remuneration ... and is precluded from claiming immunity under the Good Samaritan Act,” a 3-2 majority of the Supreme Court ruled in reinstating the wrongful-death claim of Chamley's husband.
But Justice Daniel J. Crothers warned in a dissent that the majority's ruling would discourage surgeons from offering help in an emergency and “reduces the chance the next patient in Rosie Chamley's situation will survive the operating room.”
Chamley was originally admitted to Mercy Medical Center for the removal of kidney stones. The emergency arose after she suffered excessive bleeding and her urologist, Dr. Salem Shahin, concluded that she required a kidney removal.
Khokha was waiting in the doctors' lounge to operate on another patient when Shahin requested his assistance.
North Dakota's Good Samaritan law protects a person from liability “for acts or omissions arising out of a situation in which emergency aid or assistance is rendered,” but does not cover “Any person rendering aid or assistance with an expectation of remuneration.”
The trial court found the immunity applied to Khokha and summarily dismissed William Chamley's case against him. Khokha testified that at the time of the surgery on Rosie Chamley he was “trying to save the patient's life ... and wasn't thinking of anything else.”
But District Judge Steven L. Marquart, sitting by designation, wrote for the Supreme Court majority that
the combination of Dr. Khokha's being a salaried employee of the hospital and performing the procedure in the hospital ... caused him to have an expectation of remuneration when he was rendering the aid.
Crothers accused the majority of “going outside the [Good Samaritan] statute and adding a test for the physical location where Dr. Khokha rendered services.”
“I cannot agree with my colleagues that Dr. Khokha should be stripped of immunity as a matter of law because he received the same pay for trying to save the life of another physician's patient as he would have, had he done nothing,” he concluded.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Mary Muehlen Maring urged the Legislature to amend the law “to define 'with an expectation of remuneration' such that the immunity defense is not available to persons who 'ordinarily receive remuneration' for rendering care to a patient in a hospital setting.”
|
UPDATE
A Minot, N.D., jury in August 2008 cleared Dr. Khokha of any liability in the death of Rosie Chamley.
|
By Matthew Heller
5/13/07
|
|
-
Perfume Allergy Case Settles for $100,000
A Detroit city planner with an allergy to perfume is savoring the sweet smell of legal success after the city agreed to pay her $100,000 and be more sensitive to the chemically sensitive.
Read more...
-
Teen's Suit Puts Mug-Shot Publisher Against the Wall
A new publication in Lincoln, Neb., milks mug shots for humor. But a teenager whose arrest photo appeared in Cuffed doesn't see the funny side of it and has sued the publisher for misappropriating his image.
Read more...
-
BA Settles 'Reckless' Baggage Handling Suit
Limiting its liability to a group of only 13 airline passengers, British Airways (NYSE: BAY) has settled a first-of-its kind lawsuit that accused the airline of being “inexcusably reckless” in its handling of passengers' baggage.
Read more...
-
Judge Says "Gay" Still Defamatory in Texas
What one court has called “a veritable sea change in social attitudes about homosexuality” has evidently not reached Texas where a judge ruled that an airport security guard can sue a radio show host for calling him “gay” on the air.
Read more...
-
Mom Says Hospital Gave Her Wrong
Baby to Nurse
Because of a hospital's error, Jennifer Spiegel became an involuntary wet nurse to another woman's newborn son. Now she is suing the hospital for its malpractice in providing her with the wrong baby to breastfeed.
Read more...
-
Case Over MySpace Page Chills Student Speech
Several recent court rulings have been protective of off-campus student speech -– with the exception of a very shaky decision that a dissenting judge said “vests school officials with dangerously overbroad censorship discretion.”
Read more...
-
Motorist Who Flipped off Cop Gets $50K From City
The citation of a motorist for displaying his middle finger to a police officer -– what a judge described as a “somewhat innocuous” gesture -- turned out to be quite expensive for the City of Pittsburgh as it agreed to pay $50,000 to the bird-flipper.
Read more...
|
Spears v. Allergan, Inc.
Court: Orange County (Calif.) Superior
Subject: Botox death
Verdict: Defense
Patterson v. Hudson Area Schools
Court: USDC, E. Mich.
Subject: Student harassment
more
|
|
McClain v. Pfizer, Inc.
Date: 3/2/10
Court: USDC, Conn.
Hearing: Jury trial in case over unsafe lab conditions.
Sherman v. McDonald's Corp.
Date: 3/23/10
Court: Washington County (Ark.) Circuit
Hearing: Jury trial in case over nude photos.
more
|
|
|
