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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Opinion Defense to Shield Imus in "Ho" Slur Suit? Print

 

Kia Vaughn

Don Imus lost his job at CBS Radio for describing the Rutgers University women's basketball team as “nappy-headed hos,” but the shock jock appears to have a slam-dunk defense to the slander suit of one of the players.

Kia Vaughn alleges in a Bronx Supreme Court complaint filed last week that the word “ho” is commonly interpreted to mean “whore” and that it “was used, spoken and intended by the defendants to impute sexual unchastity, promiscuity and/or debauchery to the plaintiff.”

“Don Imus referred to my client as an unchaste woman,” Vaughn attorney Richard Ancowitz said. “That was and is a lie.”

But unless Imus decides to settle the case to avoid any further adverse publicity, he can surely win a speedy dismissal by arguing that his statement was not factual and therefore does not meet the legal standard for defamation.

UPDATE

  • Vaughn has withdrawn the suit, saying she wished to focus on her "academic pursuits as a journalism major and upon her basketball team."

    		•

    Under New York law, a defamation claim fails if “either the full context of the communication in which the statement appears or the broader social context and surrounding circumstances are such as to signal readers or listeners that what is being read or heard is likely to be opinion, not fact.” Brian v. Richardson, 660 N.E.2d 1126 (1995).

    A federal judge in Manhattan applied that test last week in dismissing a slander case against a New York City councilman who called the disc jockey known as Star a “sick racist pedophile.” Councilman John Liu was responding to Star's comments about the young daughter of a rival DJ.

    “[C]onsidering the over-all context and the circumstances in which defendant’s statements were made, no reasonable person would have believed that defendant was conveying a fact about plaintiff —- i.e., that plaintiff was engaging in acts of pedophilia -— rather than defendant’s opinion,” U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels said in his decision.

    Imus, similarly, used hyperbole as part of a comparison of the physical appearance of the Rutgers team with that of its opponent in the final of the NCAA women's tournament.

    “That's some rough girls from Rutgers,” Imus mused. “Man, they got tattoos and ...”

    “Some hard-core hos,” interrupted producer Bernard McGuirk.

    “That's some nappy-headed hos there,” Imus continued. “... And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know.”

    There is nothing in Imus's comments, moreover, to suggest to a reasonable listener that he was accusing any of the players of being a whore “based on some undisclosed information known only to him.”

    In a precedent that could hardly be more on point, the New York Appellate Division in 1999 said a woman whom Imus called, among other things, a “skank” while making fun of her on the air could not sue him for slander.

    "When considered in the context of the ribald radio 'shock talk' show in which they were made,” the court said in Hobbs v. Imus, 698 N.Y.S.2d 25 (1999),

    it is clear that the complained of statements would not have been taken by reasonable listeners as factual pronouncements but simply as instances in which the defendant radio hosts had expressed their views over the air in the crude and hyperbolic manner that has, over the years, become their verbal stock in trade.

    By Matthew Heller
    8/20/07
     
    rc_insidestories
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    • Abuse Victim Can Sue Ex-DA Over 'Sexting' Messages

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    • Four Loko Maker Says Users Knew of Health Dangers

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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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      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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      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.
      Read more...
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    RC_OnTrial

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