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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Widow Loses Bid to Use Late Husband's Sperm Print

 

Joseph Kievernagel

Joseph Kievernagel is not going to be a posthumous father –- despite the wishes of his widow, who claims she is entitled to conceive a child with his frozen sperm.

The Sacramento County, Calif., sheriff's deputy was killed in a July 2005 helicopter crash, leaving behind a vial of sperm that his widow, Iris Kievernagel, described in a court document as an “asset of no financial value” but “of immense sentimental value.”

The couple had begun in vitro fertilization at a fertility center and, after Joseph's death, Iris filed a petition in probate court to have the sperm distributed to her.

But in their contract with the clinic, Joseph checked the box indicating the sample should be discarded upon his death rather than donated to Iris. And the California 3rd District Court of Appeal this week upheld a probate judge who denied her petition.

“[I]n determining the disposition of gamete material, to which no other party has contributed and thus another party’s right to procreational autonomy is not implicated, the intent of the donor must control,” the opinion said.

Joseph's parents opposed the petition, arguing that the contract was a valid expression of his wish not to father a child posthumously.

In the seminal (pun intended) case of Hecht v. Superior Court, 16 Cal.App.4th 836 (1993), a California appeals court found that a deceased man possessed a sufficient interest in his frozen sperm to bequeath it to his girlfriend. William Kane had indicated in his will that he wanted to have posthumous children with Deborah Hecht.

Iris Kievernagel argued that a surviving spouse has a right to procreate and the appeals court should follow the precedent of a case in which a divorcing couple could not agree on the disposition of cryogenically-preserved preembryos stored by a fertility clinic.

The Tennessee Supreme Court applied a balancing test in Davis v. Davis, 842 S.W.2d 588 (1992), ruling that “Ordinarily, the party wishing to avoid procreation should prevail, assuming that the other party has a reasonable possibility of achieving parenthood by means other than use of the preembryos in question.”

But the 3rd District refused to deviate from the donor intent rule of Hecht and weigh Iris Kievernagel's interests against those of her late husband. “The probate court found by a preponderance of evidence that it was Joseph’s intent that his sperm be discarded upon his death,” Justice Fred K. Morrison wrote. “That finding was sufficient.”

The case, Morrison concluded, was distinguishable from Davis because “there is only one gamete-provider ... Only Joseph had 'an interest, in the nature of ownership, to the extent that he had decisionmaking authority as to the use of his sperm for reproduction.'”

An attorney for Iris Kievernagel said the court failed to consider “the near-impossibility of determining someone's intent when they pass away” and leave no will. But any appeal to the California Supreme Court is unlikely to overcome the evidence of the checked box.

Joseph Kievernagel, 36, died while on aerial patrol with another sheriff's deputy. The probate judge found he was opposed to having children, but agreed to fertility procedures because of his wife's strong desire for children.

By Matthew Heller
9/16/08


 
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