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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• Maryland appeals court says dog owners can be held strictly liable for pit bull attacks. "Because of its aggressive and vicious nature and its capability to inflict serious and sometimes fatal injuries, pit bulls and cross-bred pit bulls are inherently dangerous." Tracey v. Solesky

• Woman who has been diagnosed as a sex addict sues a school district for failing to prevent her from having sex with male students on the school bus when she was in 11th grade.
Barksdale v. Egg Harbor Township Bd. of Ed.

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Lisnoff v. Stein

• Class action alleges the YMCA deceives consumers by representing that it practices "Christian" values while allowing its gyms to be used for gay sex trysts. "YMCAs around the country ... are currently being used as brothels for cruising, with the YMCA's knowledge and implicit consent."
Keister v. YMCA

• Social workers are not liable for a sexual assault on a 5-year-old boy by a 16-year-old male placed in an adoptive home. "To rule against the individual defendants in this case would definitely break new ground."
Doe v. Braddy

• Student sues college for refusing to grant her the "reasonable accommodation" of a single room after she complained about her roommate's exhibitionist behavior.
Blankmeyer v. Stonehill College

• School district can be sued over a guidance counselor's sexual relationship with a student who was over the age of consent. "The inherent imbalance of power between a guidance counselor in a public school and a student may render opportunistic sexual predation sufficiently shocking, even with a 'consenting' student over sixteen, to form the basis of a substantive due process claim."
Doe v. Fournier

• Utah judge finds a "credible threat" that Utah County officials will prosecute a polygamist and his wives for bigamy. The officials' acts "suggest that an actual prosecution of Plaintiffs is forthcoming."
Brown v. Herbert

• Louisville, Ky., strip club sues a competitor for displaying an electronic sign outside a convention center that said "Don't go to Godfathers, their girls are ugly and have crabs."
The Godfather v. Trixie's Lounge

• A lawyer cannot sue two women he dated for posting derogatory comments about him on liarscheatersrus.com. "[W]hen viewed within the larger context of the website on which they were posted, there can be no doubt that a reasonable reader would understand the comments to be opinion." Coulotte v. Ryncarz

• Oglala Sioux tribe sues beer makers and Whiteclay, Neb., bars for enabling alcohol abuse on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The illegal trade in alcohol has "caused devastating injuries to the Lakota people and massive financial damages to the [tribe]."
Oglala Sioux Tribe v. Schwarting




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Survival Test Death Blamed on "Reckless" Guides Print

 

Dave Buschow

 

A liability release should provide no defense for an operator of wilderness survival adventures if its employees withheld emergency water from a New Jersey man who died of thirst while hiking in the Utah desert.

Boulder Outdoor Survival School, known as BOSS, promises the opportunity to “live in the moment and experience the wilderness to the fullest.” During the first, or “Impact,” phase of a BOSS field course, students hike in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, limited to drinking only such water as they find along the way.

“Our goal is to take you ... past those false limits your mind has set for your body,” the company says on its Web site.

Dave Buschow, 29, reached his physical limits during the “Impact” phase of a 28-day, $3,175 field course last July. After hiking for 10 hours in the desert heat, he collapsed and died of dehydration –- less than 100 yards from a cave with a pool of water.

According to a wrongful-death suit filed last week by his parents, BOSS's instructors on the hike ignored Buschow's symptoms of distress including hallucinations –- at one point, he mistook a tree for a person. And even though they were carrying emergency water, they allegedly never provided him with any.

“The Employees ... knew that Dave was suffering from, among other things, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, heat exhaustion, and/or heat stroke,” the complaint says, and their “gross negligence was a direct and proximate cause of Dave's death.”

It was the first death on a BOSS survival exercise. “I wanted him to accomplish getting to the water and the cave for rest,” instructor Shawn O'Neal wrote in a statement obtained by the Associated Press, explaining why he did not offer water to Buschow.

In applying for the course, Buschow signed a liability release form which refers to the risk of “heat- and water-related problems” and warns that “you must hike under adverse conditions ... with little or no food or water.” And BOSS has already invoked that release as a bar to any claims resulting from Buschow's death.

“Mr. Buschow expressly assumed the risk of injury or death prior to participating in the BOSS course,” it argued in a complaint for declaratory relief filed in January.

The company also suggested Buschow was not in the best of shape. “[He] told several other students that he had attempted to gain a few pounds before the course but otherwise had done nothing to prepare for the trek.”

But the liability waiver would not be a defense to gross negligence. And O'Neal's statement suggests he was so focused on pushing Buschow past his “limits” that he condemned him to a death march.

“He said he could not go on,” he wrote. “I felt that he could make it this short distance and told him he could do it as I have seen many students sore, dehydrated and saying 'can't' do something only to find that they have strength beyond their conceived limits.”

UPDATE

  • The parties dismissed the case Dec. 28, 2007 after reaching a settlement.

  • By Matthew Heller
    5/8/07

     

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