I need to find out the actual case names of lawsuits discussed at the
www.overlawyered.com website (and also a few discussed at the "Stupid
Lawsuit Collection" website, www.power-of-attorneys.com/
stupid_lawsuit_collection.asp?wacky=0 - 28k).
There are 27 lawsuits for which I need the case name. I am willing to
pay $5 per case name, if you are unable to find out the case names of
every one of the 27 cases listed below.
Here is an example of the format I need for each case name:
(Stuff v. Kmart Corp., Cal., Los Angeles Country Super. Ct., No. EC
028718, Jan. 18, 2001)
If you cannot get this level of detail, I would be willing to pay $4
per case just for the case name and state it was filed in (e.g. Stuff
v. Kmart Corp., CA)
The cases follow. Please advise on your progress as you go along. My
suspicion is that you will be able to find most of these through
Lexis/Nexis, which I don't have access to.
best regards and thanks in advance.
Bill Biggar
CASE #1
Overlawyered.com, Dec., 1999, II
Auto/PTSD
Case name?
Andrea Karlson was hit by George B. Daniels in a low speed auto accident.
The accident was so minor that neither party needed an ambulance nor a tow-truck.
Karlson?s lawyer argued that the accident had caused post-traumatic
stress disorder by bringing back memories of childhood abuse, and that
the condition was so bad that she was unable to continue her work as a
flight attendent.
Jury: $523,000
?Car accident brings back bad memories: $523,000?
CASE #2
Overlawyered.com, Oct. ?03
Govt. Negligence
Case name?
An 11 year old girl fell out of a New Orleans streetcar?s window. Her
arm was crushed when she fell out.
The city said that the girl?s mother should have been monitoring her
behavior more closely.
Jury: $51.4 million dollars to girl.
Jury celebrated by taking picture with the judge and the girl?s
lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, on the steps of the courthouse.
?Fell out streetcar window: $51.4 million?
CASE #3
Overlawyered.com, Oct. ?03
In Los Angeles, Dr. Angelo Grouse, a black doctor visiting the city
was driving a car which unbeknownst to him, had been erroneously
reported stolen. Police pulled the car over, and handcuffed and
arrested Dr. Grouse. They also refused to look at the rental papers
in the cars glove box when Dr. Grouse professed his innocence.
Dr. Grouse spent two hours in jail before the error was found.
Jury: $33 million ($18.8 million from Budget Rent a Car; $15.5 million
from City of Los Angeles).
?Arrested for DWB: $33 million?
CASE #4
Overlawyered.com, Oct. ?03
Products Liability
In 1992, the baby of Shelly Moore, of Texas, burned to death in fire
in her mother?s car.
The mother claimed that the fire must have started by a cigarette she
thought was extinguished, though she did testify that she used a
disposable lighter that occasionally would keep burning once used, to
the point that she would have to blow it out to extinguish the flame,
and that she had toss the lighter onto the seat of the car shortly
before the fire in the car started.
Phillip Morris settled the case for $2 million dollars, the first time
it has ever settled a product liability case over the fact that their
cigarettes keep burning even when not being smoked.
?Cigarette starts fire: $2 million?
CASE #5
Overlawyered.com, September ?03
ADA
Woman in wheelchair sues San Francisco theater when she is forced to
use the men?s room, and even that cubicle would not latch fully with
the wheelchair inside.
Settle: $150,000
In an El Torito restaurant, where the customers? bathroom were on the
second floor (and they had a policy against letting customers use the
employees bathroom on the first floor), a wheelchair-bound customer
was eventually forced to urinate in the restaurant?s parking lot,
surrounded by cars? headlights.
Jury: $80,000
?No handicapped bathroom: $150,000?
CASE #6
From ?Stupid Lawsuit Collection?
Workplace Safety
Look up case
Cheryl Vanevender sued the convenience store she worked at after
injuring her back opening up a giant pickle jar.
Jury: $2.2 million
?Hurt back opening big pickle jar: $3 million?
CASE #7
Overlawyered.com, July ?02, III
CR ? sex discrimination/harassment
Case name?
Six female Ralph?s supermarket employees brought suit accusing their
manager, over a decade of time, of calling them ?vulgar names,?
?manhandling them,? and throwing items like phones, clipboards, and
heavy mailbags at them.
Jury: 6 x $5 million = $30 million; reduced by judge to $8 million.
?Called vulgar names and stuff thrown at them: $8 million?
CASE #8
Overlawyered.com, July ?02, III
CR ? race
Govt. Liability (School)
Case name?
Vincent Peries, a Sri Lankan teacher in the NY public schools, was
harassed by his Special Education students, who made fun of his accent
and ethnicity.
Students were deemed to have created a hostile work environment.
Settled: $50,000
?Teacher made fun of by students: $50,000?
CASE #9
Overlawyered.com, June ?02, II
Negligence
Case name?
A woman lied down on the tracks in a tunnel of New York?s subway
system. She was subsequently hit by the E-Train, and her face and
hands badly injured. She denied that she was trying to commit
suicide, saying she ?couldn?t remember? why she had lied down on the
tracks.
Six minutes before the accident, a 911 call came in from someone who
had seen her on the tracks. Subway officials were able to contact the
driver, who slowed down to between 10 and 15mph. In such a case,
less than 10mph is the policy. Plaintiff contended he would have been
able to stop in time if he had slowed down to the lower speed.
Jury: $14.1 million; reduced to $9.9 million because the judge found
the woman to be 30% responsible for the accident.
?Hit by subway car: $9.9 million?
CASE #10
Overlawyered.com, April, 2002, III
Toxic Torts ? mold.
Case name?
TV personality Ed McMahon sued (who) after toxic mold growing in his
house ruined the house and killed his pet dog.
Confidential settlement amount, but reported to be $7 million by a
national mold litigation magazine (a national litigation mold
magazine?).
?Toxic mold in house: $7 million?
CASE #11
Overlawyered.com, Feb, 2002, I
Fraud
Case name?
Two women who said they were deceived by leaders of a fundamentalist
church called, ?The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of the
Saints of the Last Days? because the Church had promised to produce
Jesus Christ in the flesh, in exchange for substantial contributions
from the ladies ? namely, property and water rights.
When the Lord failed to appear, they sued.
Jury: $270,000 to Kaziah Hancok (spelling?) and $20,000 to Cindy Stewart.
?Church promises Jesus will appear: $290,000?
CASE #12
Overlawyered.com, Jan, 2002, III
Premises ? slip and fall
Hernandez v. J.C. Penney
Hernandez, a shopper in California at a day after Christmas sale,
slipped and fell on hangars, clothes, and other debris on the ground
at the hectic J.C. Penney store. She hurt her knee, ankle, and lumbar
region of her spine.
Both the store?s Department Manager and Assistant Manager had been on
break at the time, and all of the other sales people were busy
assisting other customers, so the jury found that the store had
provided inadequate supervision.
Settled: $349,999
?Slipped and fell while shopping: $349,999?
CASE #13
Overlawyered.com, Dec, 2001, II
Premises ? workman?s comp
Case?
Nathan Lett, a deliveryman for Aramark Corp. in Illinois, was attacked
by Canadian Geese on his employer?s property.
He filed a workman?s compensation claim because he had broken his
wrist while defending himself from the birds.
He asserted that the company had ?a duty to warn workers because the
building was in an area that attracked geese.?
Panel awarded him: $17,000
?Attacked by geese: $17,000?
CASE #14
Overlawyered.com, Nov, 2001, I
CR ? reverse harassment suit/Right to Privacy
Case name?
A male employee was accused of rape by a co-worker at their company, Rohm & Haas.
The company immediately investigated the claim, per their sex
harassment policy, subjecting the male to a ?police style
interrogation.?
The male argued that the company invaded his privacy and embarrassed
him with the investigation and said that investigating a charge of
rape was really a matter for the police to investigate, not the
company.
Jury: $150,000 to male.
Jury: Also found his accuser to be guilty of defamation of his
character, but decline to order her to pay him any money.
?Falsely accused of rape: $150,000?
CASE #15
Overlawyered.com, Aug., 2000,I
CR ? race
Class Action
Case name?
Twenty-one African-American employees sued Interstate Bakeries, the
makers of ?Wonder Bread,? charging that the company maintained a
hostile work environment in which racial slurs were tolerated and
African-Americans were seldom promoted.
One man testified that he had not been allowed to take off Martin
Luther King Day, even though causasian workers where given time off to
watch a San Francisco Giants baseball game.
Jury: $11 million in compensatory damages and also $121 million in
punitive damages, the latter of which was reduced by the judge to $24
million.
That?ll buy some baseball tickets!
?Racial slurs by supervisors: $35 million?
CASE #16
Overlawyered.com, Aug., 2000, III
Negligence/School
Nieuwendorp v. American Family Insurance Co.
In 1995, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a jury verdict against the
parents of a child who attacked his teacher at school. The child had
been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder, and had
been prescribed Ritalin, but the parents had taken the child off the
medicine.
The child, a 4th grade special education student, subsequently
attacked the teacher, pulling her hair, as a result of which she fell
to the ground and hurt her back.
The jury decided the parents were at fault not because they had taken
the child off of the medication, but because they had failed to warn
the school that they had done do.
Jury: $170,000 to teacher
?Teacher attacked by 4th grader: $170,000?
CASE #17
Overlawyered.com, Oct., 2000, III
Consumer Fraud/Products Liability
Case name?
A Texas couple who bought a Dodge Ram pick-up truck for use in their
horse-transportation business sued Chrysler and their dealership,
claiming that they were misled as to the truck?s towing capacity.
The couple did not suffer any physical injury, but the vehicle was not
strong enough to pull their horse trailers. As a result, they ended
up losing their horse-transportation business, and the husband
suffered depression.
Jury awarded them $83.5 million, of which $82.5 million were punitive damages.
Follow up? See Margaret Cronin Fisk, ?Jury Tags Chrysler for $83
million? in Nat?l Law Journal.
?Defrauded by car dealer and car maker: $83.5 million?
CASE #18
Overlawyered.com, July, 2000, III
Retaliation
Case name?
Vanessa Steele Inman, a stripper, sued the Miss Nude World
International pageant and the Pink Pony Strip Club in Atlanta.
She maintained that rigged balloting had favored another contestant,
and that she was blackballed at clubs throughout the country in
retaliation for refusing to do lap dances, be auctioned off to
golfers, or allow her breasts to be covered with whipped cream for a
whipped cream eating contest.
Jury: $2.4 million, of which $835,000 was compensatory and $1.6
million was punitive.
?Stripper blackballed by strip clubs: $2.4 million?
CASE #19
Overlawyered.com, June, 2000, I
CR - Sex
Case name?
A group of female members of Haverhill Golf and Country Club in Boston
sued their club, alleging that the club?s policy did not allow them to
tee-off at the most desirable times, for example on Saturday and
Sunday mornings.
Jury: $1.9 million to the women, and sensitivity training for the club.
?Female golfers given bad tee-off times: $1.9 million?
CASE #20
Overlawyered.com, May, 2000, II
Alienation of Affections
Case name?
Candi Vessel, of Utah, sued her cheating husband?s girlfriend, for
?alienation of affections.?
Jury: Husband?s new girlfriend must pay the wife $500,000.
?Wife sues cheating husband?s girlfriend: $500,000?
CASE #21
Overlawyered.com, May, 2000, II
CR ? sex
Case name?
Peter Corradino, a waiter at TGIFridays, complained of female
employees touching him and grabbing for his private parts. When he
protested their actions, male employees called him names like ?fag?
and ?queer.? He complained to management, and brought suit for sexual
harassment.
Jury: $125,000
?Man sexually harassed by female co-workers: $125,000?
CASE #22
Overlawyered.com, May, 2000, III
Negligence?
Case name?
Linda K. Powers, 41, a dental hygienist from Atlanta, sued her dance
partner, Mike D. Lastufka.
The two were dancing when her partner tried a ?shag-style spin move?
and broke her thumb in the process.
Jury: $220,000 for the broken thumb.
?Thumb broken by dance partner: $220,000?
CASE #23
Overlawyered.com, March, 2000, I
Fraud
Case name?
Barbara Carlisle and her parents, George and Velma Merriwether, bought
two satellite dishes for a cost of $1100 dollars each in 1995.
They contend that the company, Gulf Coast Electronics, tried to gouge
them out of $1200 by using a tricky financing scheme created by
Whirlpool Financial National Bank.
Gulf Coast Electronics settled for an undisclosed amount during the trial.
Jury ordered Whirlpool to pay the family $581 million, the punitive
portion of which the judge reduced to a mere $300 million.
?Ripped off by satellite TV salesman: $300 million?
CASE #24
Overlawyered.com, Feb., 2000, I
CR ? excessive force/Dog bite
Case name?
Mindro Donchev, an escaped murderer from Bulgaria, lived for over ten
years in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, surviving by
breaking into vacant vacation cabins.
In 1998, during an arrest for burglary of one of the cabins, he was
confronted by police, and, armed with ?knives, handguns, and a pointed
stick,? resisted arrest.
In the struggle to arrest him, a police dog mangled his foot, leading
to the eventual loss of two of his toes. He sued for the use of
excessive force.
Jury: $412,500 for the burglar?s loss of two toes.
?Mauled by police dog: $413,500?
CASE #25
Overlawyered.com, Jan, 2000, II
CR ? race/Retaliation
Case name?
Eunice Lafate sued her employer, Chase Manhattan Bank, contending
she?d been passed over for promotion because of her race.
She lost the case.
But then she brought a second suit, alleging that subsequent to the
first lawsuit, she had been cut out of management meetings and given
bad evaluations in retaliation for having sued.
Jury: $600,000
?Retaliated against for bringing suit against company: $600,000?
CASE #26
Overlawyered.com, April, 2000, I
Products Liability
Faryniarz v. Nike
Ms. Faryniarz, an orthopedic surgeon, trip and fell while jogging in
Nike shoes. She asserted that the shoes? shoelaces were ?too long?
and that they caught in a pull tab on the back of the opposite shoe
which was ?too rigid,? and thus caused her fall, during which she
sustained injuries to her hands and wrists that interfered with her
doing her job as an orthopedic surgeon.
She sued for $10 million dollars on each of three counts of product liability.
Outcome?
?Fell because shoelaces were too long: $10 million?
CASE #27
Overlawyered.com, November ?03
Govt. Negligence
NO NAME OF PLAINTIFF OR DEFENDANT GIVEN. Need to have these and others looked up.
Somali refugee badly beaten up by foster kids living in a foster home
in West Seattle.
State was shown to be negligent because state social workers did not
put the kids who assaulted the refugee in a ?more restrictive?
environment. (One possible reason for this was because state laws
require foster kids to be put in ?the least restrictive, most
family-like?setting possible.)
Jury: $8.8 million from State of Washington; $300,000 ffrom Shell Oil
because the beating took place at a gas station franchised by the
company.
Note: see also, Sept. 13-14
?Beaten up by foster kids. State pays $8.8 million? |
