Spotlight

• Design defects in playground at fast-food restaurant leave 8-year-old severely injured

Recent Cases

Admiralty

• Failure to follow proper safety measures at sea where coal carrier collides with vessel

Attorneys

• Attorney fees incurred by lawyer representing herself are recoverable
• Ban on “super lawyers” advertisements may be unconstitutional

Automobile Accidents

• Failure to obey speed limit, maintain lane
• Failure to accelerate slowly through intersection
• Excessive speed, running red light

Aviation

• Failure to transmit forecast of severe storms where pilot dies in plane crash
• ADA preempts intentional infliction of emotional distress claim based on flight attendants’ behavior

Civil Rights

• Suit against football team alleging pregame searches are invasion of privacy may proceed

Commercial Litigation

• Breach of contract where company reneges on deal to sell two professional sports teams

Consumer Protection

• Arbitration provision in customer agreement lacking mutuality of remedies cannot be enforced
• Consumers need not allege they were overcharged to have standing to sue for RESPA violations

Damages

• Plaintiffs in case alleging child was abused at day care may recover damages for future mental anguish
• Punitive to compensatory damages ratio should be 1:1 if certain factors apply

Employment Law

• Title IX retaliation where female university coaches harassed after complaining of gender inequality
• Sex discrimination where female brokers earn less, given fewer accounts
• ADA violations against court officers forced to remove hearing aids during exam

Evidence

• Printed Web pages from government Web sites are self-authenticating
• Expert was sufficiently qualified based on training, work experience to testify on cause of tire failure

Family Law

• Deceased husband’s company not entitled to proceeds from deceased wife’s life insurance policy

Government Liability

• Failure to properly investigate, report prior claims of sexual abuse where city employee abuses boy
• Failure to yield to pedestrian struck by city bus in crosswalk

Insurance

• Each individual’s exposure to asbestos-containing product is separate occurrence
• Insurer refuses UIM coverage for driver injured by police officer chasing speeding driver

Intentional Torts

• Conversion, civil theft where diamond jeweler claims it did not receive valuable pink diamond

Medical Negligence

• EMTALA violations
• Untimely diagnosis of brain tumors
• Improper installation of shoulder positioning chair
• Failure to order repeat stress test
• Failure to rule out postoperative graft occlusion
• Improper handling of placental abruption

Negligence

• Failure to keep divers in sight where scuba diving student drowns
• Creation of unsafe trip for traveler attacked by men in hotel room
• Negligence claim stated against tire service that installed new tires only on vehicle’s front

Practice & Procedure

• Navajo court has jurisdiction over product defect claim by tribal member against nonmember
• Desire for privacy does not overcome presumption of public access to court records

Premises

• Failure to provide security where woman raped in apartment complex parking lot
• Inadequate support causes man, woman to fall four stories after wooden rail detaches from porch
• Failure to remedy, warn of ice where woman slips, falls on icy sidewalk
• Failure to maintain premises where woman slips, falls on spaghetti on store’s floor

Products Liability

• Claimants failed to prove causation in case alleging vaccine caused autism
• Fraudulent concealment of cigarettes’ addictiveness, risks of smoking
• Defective design permitting excess rearward sound in fire truck siren equipment
• Lack of proper guard on go-kart
• Fold-over defect in fentanyl patch
• Federal law does not preempt claims against manufacturer of artificial hip replacement device
• Defective pins, harness in tree stand

Professional Negligence

• Failure to provide prophylactic treatment for dental patient with hereditary angioedema
• Insurance agents had no duty to notify insured that carrier had been financially downgraded
• Negligent misreading of Pap smear
• Negligence action against attorney in criminal case accrued when client received postconviction relief
• Attorney owed duty to former real estate client who was given right of first refusal in property contract
• Arbitration clause between resident and nursing home did not apply to nurses working at the home

Railroads

• FELA liability where ballast in rail yard creates uneven surface

Schools

• Failure to supervise students where female special education student raped by two male students
• Coaches’ indifference to player’s dehydration does not violate Fourteenth Amendment

Toxic Torts

• CERCLA graft of discovery rule onto “statutes of limitations” includes statutes of repose

Utilities

• Failure to properly inspect meter loop assembly

Workplace Safety

• Failure to maintain brakes where “yard goat” runs over worker in truck yard
• Lack of safety guard, interlock system allows power press to crush worker’s hand
• Failure to maintain, repair warehouse where security gate falls on worker

In this Issue

• Articles
• Court Documents