Law Reporter - Vol. 51, No. 10, December 2008
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December 2008, Volume 51, No. 10
Recent Cases
Admiralty
- Failure to properly maintain, operate equipment where zinc bromide tank on vessel overheats
- Unseaworthiness where seaman struck by chain stopper while vessel undocked
Attorneys
- EAJA allows reimbursement for paralegal services at prevailing market rates
- Law firm cannot be forced to arbitrate with client based on retainer agreement with affiliated firm
Automobile Accidents
Aviation
- ADA does not preempt state law tort claim alleging false imprisonment by airline
- Failure to inspect airline’s operations, equip with enhanced ground proximity warning system
Civil Rights
- Town ordinance prohibiting roadside solicitation for employment violates First Amendment
- Excessive force by police who restrained man after he suffered epileptic seizure
Commercial Litigation
- Sherman Act violations where ready-mixed concrete manufacturers fix prices
- Consumer fraud where company uses MySpace to send spam
Consumer Protection
- Arbitration clause depriving mortgagors of substantive remedies is unconscionable
- TILA does not shield lenders from liability for failing to provide borrowers with clear rescission notice
Damages
- Compensatory damages amounting to $8 per day are miscarriage of justice warranting new trial
- Mother of injured child cannot recover for infliction of emotional distress without expert proof
Employment Law
- Title VII violations where sexual, racial comments made to health care facility employees
- Rescission of job offer to transsexual is sex discrimination under Title VII
Evidence
- Conversations between hearing impaired person and other party are not inadmissible hearsay
- NTSB safety recommendations are inadmissible in civil suits
Family Law
Government Liability
Insurance
- Breach of contract where insurer refuses to pay life insurance benefits
- Bad faith where insurer delays payment of property damage claims following hurricane
Intentional Torts
Medical Negligence
- Failure to timely diagnose brain tumor
- Untimely diagnosis of Rocky Mountain spotted fever
- Negligent performance of colonoscopy
- Failure to diagnose coronary artery disease
- Negligent cataract surgery
- Untimely treatment of retinopathy of prematurity in newborns
- Negligent patient monitoring
Negligence
- Speeding skier collides with another
- Allowing minor to ride ATV unsupervised
- Negligent brake maintenance where U-Haul truck rolls over renter
Practice & Procedure
- Bankruptcy case may be reopened where debtors seek to include personal injury action as asset
- Court may not decertify class after judgment where there were no changed circumstances
Premises
- Failure to provide adequate security where man was shot, killed outside apartment
- Improper security where man was shot in club bathroom
Products Liability
- Consumer expectation test applies to case involving air bag
- Defective design of SUV fuel tank system
- Defibrillator fails to deliver shock
- Federal law does not preempt claim alleging failure to warn of antidepressant’s pediatric suicide risk
- In lawsuit alleging injury from gadolinium-based contrast dyes, joinder of dye distributor was proper
- Joinder of medical defendants in suit against hernia repair patch manufacturers was proper
- Prescription drug user develops pathological gambling addiction
- Subcontractor has standing to sue product manufacturer under equitable subrogation
Professional Negligence
- Negligent tax advice
- Breach of clergy fiduciary duty claim requires unique vulnerability and inability to self-protect
- Improper supervision of priests
- Archdiocese, diocese were not liable to out-of-state plaintiffs alleging abuse by schoolteacher
- Former matrimonial attorneys could obtain client’s confidential records
- Letters to law school and bar association were defamatory per se, but may have been privileged
