Who's Judging For The Common Good?
CG announces it's Top 5 Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2003
A critical part of the role of judges is deciding who can sue for what, but these days anyone can sue for just about anything.
Common Good has begun what it plans to make an annual event by announcing the top five ridiculous lawsuits of 2003. While the circumstances in these cases are serious, sometimes even tragic, judges who fail to eliminate unreasonable or extortionate suits only add to Americas growing fear of litigation and undermine the common good.
Perri v. Furma Restaurant, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly USA No. 9924778) Illinois Court of Appeals No. 96 L 10655 January 6, 2003
Parents can sue Chinese restaurant for hot tea burn, even though a child from their family caused the burn by spinning the lazy susan. In this case, the Illinois Court of Appeals overruled a very sensible opinion by trial judge Mary Mulhern. Judge Mulhern threw the case out on the grounds that the parents should have been supervising the child: Thats what Asian restaurants do. They serve tea, whether its ordered or not. Reinstating the case, Justice Cohen of the Court of Appeals said that the restaurant should have anticipated that Jordans (the childs) parents would fail to notice or prevent Jordan from disturbing the pot of hot tea, even if the teapot was in fact obvious. Justice Cohen also thought that whether the burn was caused by 4-year-old Jordan (who spun the lazy susan) or by the waitress (who brought the tea) was a question for the jury. Other Chinese food lovers can expect to pay for Justice Cohens indecision through higher prices or lack of hot tea.
Blair L. Hornstine v. Township of Moorestown, et. al., United States District Court, District of New Jersey, Judge Freida L. Wolfson, May 30, 2003.
Student can get injunction against school preventing it from allowing another student to share the award of Valedictorian. Because of chronic fatigue, Blair Hornstine took all her classes at home with a private tutor, paid for at taxpayer expense. Her weighted grade point average was the highest in her class, but only a fraction of a point above that of another student who had achieved it without one-on-one teaching at home. The school wanted them to share the award of Valedictorian. Hornstine literally made a federal case of it and succeeded in getting the judge to issue an injunction, preventing the school from appointing co-honorees. Judge Freda Wolfson chided the school district for denigrating Hornstines remarkable achievements as a special needs student. Unfortunately, those remarkable achievements did not include crediting her sources. Harvard University rescinded Hornstines Fall 2003 acceptance when it turned out that she had plagiarized material in a local newspaper article. The decision on valedictorian should have been left to the school. Judge Wolfsons decision will only encourage more lawsuits challenging schools authority.
Gary Dailey v. Board of Review, et. al., No. 30730 in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, November 10, 2003
Truck driver, who lied about having drivers license, wins suit to get unemployment benefits. Gary Dailey was hired as a line technician at an air terminal. His duties included driving gasoline trucks and driving off the airport grounds to buy bulk gasoline and transport passengers. After many attempts to obtain a copy of Daileys license (about which he repeatedly lied), his employer discovered it had been suspended four years earlier. Dailey was fired. The West Virginia unemployment compensation board refused Dailys application for unemployment, and a lower court agreed. That didnt stop the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from reversing. What Dailey did was simple misconduct not gross misconduct, and he should get paid. Apparently in West Virginia, unlawful behavior is rewarded.
Ellen Hall v. Tim Henn, et. al., No. 95431, December 18, 2003 (unpublished opinion)
Woman who broke her arm on backyard snow luge can sue neighbor who invited her and other friends and neighbors to use the luge. There is a statute in Illinois that says you cant get sued if you open your property to the public and someone gets accidentally hurt. So why is there no protection here? According to the Illinois Supreme Court, you are only protected from suit if you open your land to the public not to invited guests. To disallow invited guests from suing renders an absurd and unjust result, said Justice Bob Thomas, reversing a sensible trial court decision. The snow luge apparently can be considered an unnatural and dangerous condition even though the victim called and asked if she and her daughter could come over and use it. So for Illinois residents, every guest truly is a potential lawsuit.
See: National Law Journal, Foster Kids Cost a State $10 Million, Dee McAree, Vol. 25, No. 14, pg. 4, December 1, 2003. The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington), Costly Foster-Care Verdict Stems from Poor State Supervision; But Liability for Kids Crimes Should be Limited, pg. B06, November 19, 2003. Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington), Large Verdict Raises Concerns: Case against DSHS Spotlights Gap in Liability Law, pg. A8, November 24, 2003.
Victim of beating by foster kids can sue state for failing to properly raise them. Four boys assaulted 16-year-old Said Aba Sheikh, causing permanent brain damage an obvious tragedy. Three of the four attackers were old enough to be tried as adults and received sentences from 8 to 10 years. But since two of the attackers were foster kids, the family of Aba Sheikh sued the State of Washington for providing inadequate care to the foster kids; the case was allowed to go to trial and the family won a $10 million jury verdict. In addition to consuming substantial taxpayer monies, the outcome puts the state in an unworkable position: the state must place foster children in the least restrictive environment, but can now be held liable when poorly-supervised children commit crimes. The case also, in one columnists words, smacks of overzealous litigation. In addition to filing civil suits against the assailants, the family sued the county (settling for $4.5 million) and the Shell station where the attack occurred (winning $300,000). They might also have sued the court that, a mere 24 hours before the attack, returned one of the assailants to his inadequate foster home, over a state social workers objections.
