• 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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No Harassment Found in Silk-Pajama Seduction Suit |
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Teyonda Wertz
Suggesting a double standard is alive and well in female-to-male sexual harassment cases, a Chicago jury has ruled that a top state administrator did not have a male employee fired for refusing to have sex with her.
Carlos Estes, 37, was terminated less than a month after spending a night with his boss in a Springfield, Ill., hotel while on business for the Illinois Department of Human Services. He alleged chief of staff Teyonda Wertz, 59, ordered him to share a two-room suite with her and, while wearing silk pajamas, tried to seduce him.
“You'll make love to me or you'll lose your job,” he quoted her as saying.
Wertz admitted wearing the pajamas, but insisted she kept her bedroom door shut and never propositioned Estes, who was working as her “special assistant.” And the jury found the state was not liable for sexual harassment or retaliation, apparently believing its explanation that Estes was fired for improper personal use of state-owned vehicles.
“On balance, we didn't think that whatever happened in that hotel room caused him to lose his job,” juror Charles Kitchen told the Chicago Sun-Times.
But Estes' attorney Dana L. Kurtz said a female plaintiff would have prevailed if the roles had been reversed. “Had a male supervisor arranged to share a hotel room with a female subordinate, there'd be no question," she said. “Any employer would've settled that case long ago.”
“There's still a stigma for men who are sexually harassed by their female bosses," Kurtz added.
Defense attorney William C. Anderson III had played on the stereotype that men simply don't decline offers of sex. “No touches, no kisses, no caresses. We're all grown-ups here. Does that sound like a truthful and believable scene?” he asked in his closing argument.
Estes was hired in March 2003 to, among other things, drive Wertz to DHS functions. After they arrived in Springfield for a conference on May 6, 2003, he testified, she offered him the sofa bed in her suite because he did not have a personal credit card to book a room for himself.
According to Estes, his boss had previously referred to him as a “boy toy” and “arm piece.” When they went up to the suite, she allegedly changed into the pajamas, climbed into her bed and told Estes, who was sitting on the sofa, to get undressed.
He refused her sexual advances, he said, but frightened of losing his job, changed into pajamas and lay on the bed, where they eventually fell asleep without touching.
Wertz's boss, Human Services Secretary Carol Adams, fired Estes on May 30, 2003. She testified that he had misused a state vehicle, parking it at O'Hare International Airport while on vacation.
But Kurtz noted that Estes was not given progressive discipline as were co-workers who violated the same policy. Wertz and Adams, moreover, were close friends and U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman said in denying a defense motion for summary judgment that “the record supports the inference that the discharge decision was actually made by Wertz and rubber-stamped by Adams.”
By Matthew Heller
3/31/08
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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.
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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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