• 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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Penis Pump Judge's Staff Settle Claims for $340K |
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The former administrator of Grafton, Mass., did not sexually harass his secretary by staring at her breasts, a jury has ruled, apparently agreeing with the defense that his eye movements were “normal mannerisms” caused by a medical condition.
Russell Connor saw an opthalmologist after Nancy Billings complained about his staring -– which had made her so uncomfortable she held a piece of paper in front of her chest while walking through the office. The doctor diagnosed him with “alternating intermittent exotropia,” a condition that causes the eyes to wander and not maintain focus.
Reversing the summary dismissal of Billings' discrimination case, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it could not “reasonably accept” that “a man's repeated staring at a woman's breasts is to be ordinarily understood as anything other than sexual.”
“[T]he defendants' innocent explanation for Connor's behavior is certainly not the only reasonable view of the evidence,” it ruled in a February 2008 decision.
But the exotropia diagnosis was convincing enough for a federal jury in Worcester to return a defense verdict last week, concluding a six-year litigation that cost the Town of Grafton about $400,000.
“No evidence has been presented that Mr. Connor's alleged conduct was sexual in nature or anything other than his normal mannerisms relative to his difficulty with eye contact,” the town argued in a court brief. “The observations and testimony of virtually all the witnesses called by the plaintiff ..., as well as Mr. Connor, all support the undisputed fact that Mr. Connor's eye movements were involuntary and without intent or focus.”
The jury also rejected Billings' claim that the town retaliated against her because she filed a complaint against Connor, transferring her to a secretarial job in the recreation department. “This sends the wrong message to employees of Grafton, and to women,” her attorney told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Billings alleged that soon after she began working for Connor in September 1999, she noticed he was looking at her chest during their conversations. He would “make eye contact, and then his eyes would shift down to [her] chest,” she testified. “It was always the same.”
During one workday, Connor stared at Billings so much that she went home to change out of the sweater she was wearing before returning to the office. She alleged at least three dozen staring incidents over the three-year period she worked for Connor.
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor summarily dismissed the case in July 2006. But the 1st Circuit found he had put “undue weight on the fact -- undisputed though it was -- that Connor's alleged behavior did not include touching, sexual advances, or 'overtly sexual comments to or about her.'”
"[H]arassing conduct need not be motivated by sexual desire to support an inference of discrimination on the basis of sex,” the court said, quoting Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, 523 U.S. 75 (1998).
By Matthew Heller 11/6/08 
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Donald Thompson
The misconduct of former Creek County District Judge Donald Thompson, who masturbated with a penis pump while presiding over trials, has ended up costing Oklahoma taxpayers $340,000 in settlements of lawsuits filed by two of his employees.
Zelma Hindman, who was Thompson's secretary, and Lisa Foster, his court reporter, sued the state for hostile work environment discrimination and retaliation. They each got settlements of $170,000 because Thompson fired them for testifying before the Council on Judicial Complaints.
Foster alleged among other things that her termination violated her free-speech rights. The settlement of her case immediately followed a judge's decision last month denying a motion for summary judgment in which Thompson argued her testimony did not involve a matter of public concern.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Terence Kern includes this priceless quote:
If Plaintiff’s testimony of Defendant Thompson’s outrageous behavior on the bench -- including the fact that Defendant Thompson used a penis pump, shaved his scrotum, and urinated in a trash can –- does not amount to speech that “disclose[s] wrongdoing ... or other malfeasance on the part of [a] governmental official in the conduct of [his] official duties,” then it is difficult to imagine speech that would fall into this category.
On the hostile work environment claims, Kern found that both Hindman and Foster were “unable to demonstrate that Thompson’s allegedly harassing behavior ... was due to [their] gender.”
Thompson was convicted of four felony indecent exposure charges and, after serving 20 months in prison, recently lost his license to practice law.
By Matthew Heller
11/6/08
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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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