Capitol Records v. Thomas
Jury in the retrial of a music downloading
case awards $1.92 million in damages against a Minnesota woman -- eight times more than the award at the original trial.
Padilla v. Yoo
California judge says an "enemy combatant" can sue a former U.S. government lawyer for creating the "legal construct" that allowed him to be tortured while in custody.
Olson v. Cohen
California woman allegesSacha Baron
Cohen assaulted her on the stage of a bingo hall where he was filming a scene for his upcoming movie "Bruno."
Craigslist v. McMaster
Website files suit seeking court protection from unconstitutional threats by the South Carolina attorney general to prosecute it for failing to block ads that solicit prostitution.

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• Boston judge refuses to require Massachusetts to include materials that deny the Armenian genocide in the public school curriculum.
"[T]he decision as to what to teach about ... the Armenian genocide must be made by elected officials, educators, and teachers rather than by federal judges."
Griswold v. Driscoll

• Kentucky Court of Appeals upholds a $3.7 million jury award against a school board for ignoring a student's complaints that several teachers had molested her. Plaintiff Lynne Maner "presented sufficient evidence that the Board was deliberately indifferen[t] in its failure to act." Maner v. Fayette County Board of Education

• 6th Circuit revives the racial bias case of an African-American couple who sued a hotel for refusing to host their wedding reception. "There is a genuine issue of material fact in this case as to whether ... the Hotel denied them the right to enter into a contract because of their race." Keck v. Graham Hotel Systems

• San Francisco judge rules that a city did not violate a hiker's rights by failing to protect her from an attack on public land by a rancher's cattle. "[P]laintiffs have not alleged facts supporting a claim that the City was deliberately indifferent to a known or obvious danger" to Jo Dee Schmidt. Schmidt v. Hoover

• Divided New York appellate court says a golfer is not liable for striking another golfer in the eye with an errant drive. The defendant's failure to yell "Fore" before hitting the ball "does not rise to the level of creating a dangerous condition over and above the usual dangers inherent in participating in the sport of golf." Anand v. Kapoor

• Sioux tribal members file a class action seeking their share of as much as $900 million held in trust by the federal government as compensation for the "taking" of the Black Hills of South Dakota. The plaintiffs have split from other Sioux who refuse to take the money, insisting on the return of the land.
Different Horse v. Salazar

• Texas Court of Appeals says a gas station owner is not liable for the negligence of an attendant who accidentally shot a customer while showing him a gun. The attendant's "actions were not merely a misuse of his authority; they were utterly unrelated to his duties."
Glass v. Williams

• San Francisco judge denies Chevron Corp.'s request for $485,159 in court costs from impoverished Nigerian villagers who sued the company for human rights violations. "The economic disparity between plaintiffs, who are Nigerian villagers, and defendants, international oil companies, cannot be more stark."
Bowoto v. Chevron






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Paramedic Sued for MySpace Posting about Rape Print

myspaceIn what may be the first case of a health provider breaching confidentiality on MySpace, a Portland, Ore., rape victim has sued an ambulance paramedic who published details of the crime after transporting her to the hospital.

Simon Green was a member of an American Medical Response paramedic team that attended to the victim on Feb. 15. She had been raped and beaten by a stranger at her Southeast Portland apartment.

Oregon law protects “information of a personal nature such as ... that kept in a personal, medical or similar file” from public disclosure. But in a March 4 posting on his MySpace page, Green recalled how he had taken “a lady our age to the hospital after being raped at knife point, by a caucasian [sic] male of average build.”

While the paramedic did not disclose the victim's name or exact address, he provided the approximate location of the rape and detailed her description of the assailant. “All told he was in her apartment about an hour, and this very pretty, otherwise normal woman's life is irrepprably [sic] changed,” he said.

As a result of the posting, the woman alleges, “the media contacted [her] to question her about the assault” and she has suffered emotional distress and other damages of at least $1 million.

Green breached his duty to “protect the plaintiff from the unauthorized disclosure of her protected health information,” the complaint says, while his employer is liable for negligent hiring, training and supervision.

The fact that the media found the victim suggests Green disclosed enough in his posting to make her identifiable. And Oregon lists “emergency medical technician” among the health care providers covered by its “protected health information” law.

But some courts have declined to extend the physician-patient privilege to communications between a paramedic and a patient. Since ambulance technicians are not “physicians,” the Louisiana Supreme Court said in Med-Express v. Tarpley, 629 So.2d 331 (1993),

there is no privilege as to any type of communication made to them by the injured party nor as to any observations they may have made about the injured party's condition.

In Shulman v. Group W Productions, 51 Cal.App.4th 850 (1986), the California Court of Appeals found that a nurse on an airborne rescue team did not violate the physician-patient privilege because there was no evidence she “was working as the agent for or under the supervision of any physician while the rescue was in progress.”

Green could also raise the defense that his disclosures served the public's interest in crime prevention. “My advice: fight,” he recommended in his posting. “It's only a knife, and any rapist is a coward who will probably turn tail at any resistance.”

The case may turn out to be one of the more significant of at least 17 MySpace-related suits (see table) that have been filed in the past year or so.

This story linked by:


By Matthew Heller
4/30/07

 

 
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  • No Prayer Now for Preacher's Suit Over "Religulous"

    Less than three weeks after being sued for defrauding two former parishioners of $600,000, a Florida preacher dropped his $50 million lawsuit alleging the Bill Maher documentary “Religulous” falsely portrayed him as a charlatan, On Point has learned.
    Read more...
  • Man Burned at Burning Man Assumed Risk

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  • Lawyer's 'Prove Me Wrong' Offer No Joke to Student

    A Texas law student may have taken a $1 million “prove me wrong” challenge seriously, but the criminal defense lawyer who made the challenge on a TV news show appears to have done so with enough tongue in cheek to avoid liability for not paying up.
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  • Jury Chills Rights in Strip Search Case

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  • Wedding Fiasco Suit Really Takes Cake

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  • Woody Allen Got $5M After Judge Shredded Defense

    A week before American Apparel agreed to pay Woody Allen $5 million for misappropriating his image, a judge had shredded the clothing company's First Amendment defense based on its CEO's “mental processes,” On Point has learned.
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RC_OnFile

Sugawara v. Pepsico
Subject: False Cereal Advertising
Document: Order Granting Dismissal

Ozzy Osbourne v. Tony Iommi
Subject: Rock Band Trademark
Document: Complaint

Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan
Subject: State Secrets
Document: Petition for En Banc Review

Savio v. Peterson
Subject: Wrongful Death
Document: Complaint

Kerr v. New Orleans Police Department
Subject: Male Skirt-Wearing
Document: Complaint

more

RC_OnTrial

Capitol Records v. Thomas
Court: USDC, Minn.
Subject: Digital music downloading
Verdict: $1.92 million

ASPCA v. Ringling Bros.
Court: USDC, D. Col.
Subject: Illegal "taking" of elephants by circus

more


RC_OnTheDocket

Howard K. Stern v. Rita Cosby
Date: 7/7/09
Court: USDC, S. N.Y.
Hearing: Motions for summary judgment in defamation case.

Goldberg v. Paris Hilton Entertainment
Date: 7/9/09
Court: USDC, S. Fla.
Hearing: Jury trial in breach-of-contract case.

more


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