• 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
  
|
|
Rape Victim Claims Chat Line Dangerous to Minors (4/5/07) |
 |
 Even if it does not enjoy the immunities of an Internet service provider, a dating service should still not be liable for the rape of a 14-year-old Georgia girl by a man she met on its phone chat line.
The mother of the girl, identified only as Julie Doe, last week filed a negligence suit against Quest Personals that alleges the phone chat system “poses a danger and hazard to underage minors” because it has no effective age verification procedures.
Quest Personals requires users to be over 18, but Julie Doe lied about her age when she joined the chat line in early 2006.
The service “has implemented no meaningful protections or security measures to prevent underage users from ... talking to complete strangers many times their age, and from subsequently being enticed to meet by sexual predators,” the complaint, which seeks injunctive relief and unspecified damages, says.
Wayne McDonald, 58, was arrested in May 2006 on charges of assaulting Julie Doe and two other girls at his Marietta, Ga., home. He pleaded guilty and is serving 20 years in prison.
A similar negligence case filed against MySpace ran into the liability shield of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). A Texas judge ruled in February that the Web site, as a provider of an “interactive computer service,” could not be sued for failing to implement safety measures to protect minors.
In Julie Doe's case, a threshold issue would be whether a phone chat line is an “interactive computer service.” Courts have interpreted the scope of the CDA broadly and Quest Personals' system uses a technology -- “interactive voice response” -- that allows the caller to interact with a computer.
But the MySpace ruling suggests Quest Personals may not need the CDA's protection to successfully defend the case.
Applying tort law principles, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said MySpace had “no duty to protect” a minor from a sexual predator “nor to institute reasonable safety measures on its website. If anyone had a duty to protect [the minor], it was her parents, not MySpace.”
In a separate claim for infliction of emotional distress, Julie Doe's mother says she did try to protect her after discovering her use of the chat line. She asked Quest Personals to close the girl's account, but
Quest brazenly refused to do so, stating that [she] could not prove that Julie Doe was not under eighteen years of age.
That alleged conduct, however, does not appear to be enough to support liability since it was surely the rapist, rather than Quest Personals, who “intentionally and proximately caused [the mother's] extreme emotional distress.”
By Matthew Heller
4/5/07
|
|
-
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
Get too close to the Burning Man fire and you assume the “obvious and inherent” risk of being burned, a California appeals court has ruled in dismissing a personal injury lawsuit against the operators of the iconic countercultural arts festival.
Read more...
-
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.
Read more...
-
Jury Chills Rights in Strip Search Case
A jury has reached a chilling decision in the civil rights case of a Southampton, N.Y., woman, clearing four police officers in the exclusive resort community of liability for performing a strip search on her after a minor marijuana bust.
Read more...
-
Toxic Bra Suits Won't be Combined in Ohio
A rash of lawsuits against Victoria's Secret alleging defectively manufactured underwear is continuing with eight new cases filed in the past two months. But in a setback for plaintiffs, a judicial panel has refused to consolidate all the litigation in Ohio.
Read more...
-
Wedding Fiasco Suit Really Takes Cake
Sandra Newsom's wedding disaster lawsuit may -– literally –- take the cake. The New York woman has sued a cruise ship operator for ruining her wedding reception by serving a coconut-containing cake to which she had an allergic reaction.
Read more...
-
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.
Read more...
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
