Louisiana: Oil pump maker may be liable for child’s injuries
BOSTON, MA — The manufacturer of an oil pump may be liable for injuries suffered by a child who attempted to ride its machine, the Louisiana Court of Appeals has ruled in reversing a summary judgment.
The defendant manufactured an oil pump that was located on a parcel of undeveloped property.
The plaintiff’s 13-year-old son suffered serious injuries when he attempted to ride the pendulum for the pump.
Citing similar accidents elsewhere in Louisiana and across the country, the plaintiff sued the defendant for negligence.
The defendant argued that it was not a foreseeable risk that children would attempt to use its oil pump for a recreational purpose.
The court disagreed, explaining that “we cannot conclude that the scintilla of direct evidence presented by [the plaintiff] was insufficient to allow a reasonable juror to conclude that [the defendant] should have expected an ordinary person in the same or similar circumstances to use or handle the pumping unit in this way.”
Massachusetts: ERISA settlement is taxable, says U.S. Tax Court
BOSTON, MA -- A lump sum received in settlement of an ERISA claim constitutes taxable income, the U.S. Tax Court has ruled affirming a $112,000 deficiency assessment.
In 2005, the taxpayer received a lump-sum payment of $334,000 to settle an ERISA lawsuit over the denial of long-term disability benefits.
The taxpayer did not include any of the settlement in her taxable income for the 2005 tax year. She argued that the lump-sum payment was excludable from income under §105(c) of the Internal Revenue Code, which generally protects amounts received by an employee for the permanent loss of a body member or function.
But the court concluded that the payment was taxable income because it compensated the taxpayer primarily for lost employment rather than for her disability.
“Payments under the [taxpayer’s] disability policy, even if in the form of a lump-sum settlement, are designed to replace the income an employee lost due to a disability and are computed with regard to the employee’s absence from work. Accordingly, on the basis of the record, the court finds that the lump-sum settlement payment to [the taxpayer] fails the requirements of §105(c)(2) because it was computed arithmetically with reference to [the taxpayer’s] absence from work and not to the nature or severity of her injury,” the court said.
Washington, D.C.: Wordiest Supreme Court ever
BOSTON, MA — There is finally an explanation for why DC Dicta recently needed a new, stronger prescription for eyeglasses: opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court are longer than ever.
The New York Times reports that last term, the median length of a majority opinion was 4,751 words - a new record, according to the number-crunching political scientists. When you add concurring and dissenting opinions to the mix, the median jumps to a record-setting 8,265 words. The word count for the opinions in the case Citizens United v. FEC topped 48,000 - roughly the length of “The Great Gatsby,” the Times states.
Compare that to the 1950s, when the high court averaged about 2,000 words per opinion.
With all those words, The Court must be imparting much clearer legal standards for lower courts, law students and legal practitioners to understand, right? Not so, legal experts say.
Take, for example, the decision in the employee “sexting” case City of Ontario v. Quon. The Court took up that case to decide whether employees have a privacy interest in the messages they send on employer-issued mobile devices.
But the Court decided not to decide that issue.
“A broad holding concerning employees’ privacy expectations vis-à-vis employer-provided technological equipment might have implications for future cases that cannot be predicted,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the opinion. “It is preferable to dispose of this case on narrower grounds.” So the Court, finding that the employers search was reasonable, did just that. And that took about 6,800 words.
And longer opinions are not necessarily better ones, University of Michigan law professor Edward H. Cooper, told the Times. “The more things you say, the more chances you have to be wrong and the more chances you have to mislead the lower court.”
Georgia: Postal Service told to pay $11.6 million for crash
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — A federal judge in Athens has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to pay $11.6 million to a woman and her son who were injured in a highway accident in Monroe four years ago.
Judge Clay Land decided the amount of compensation last week after a trial.
Court documents show the bulk of the money will go toward caring for the woman’s child, Anthony Bilbrey, who suffered a severe brain injury while still in his mother’s womb. The documents show Anthony was delivered by an emergency C-section that doctors performed on his comatose mother, Mary Bilbrey.
The documents state Mary Bilbrey was riding in a car driven by her fiance, who lost control when a Postal Service truck pulled in front of him, and that the car struck a fence, causing a board to strike her in the stomach.
Iowa: Jury awards estate $546K in nursing home death
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The estate of a retired farmer who died after an accident at a nursing home has been awarded more than $546,000 from the home and an ambulance service.
A Polk County jury has ruled in favor of the family of Wilbur Jackson, an 89-year-old who died after an accident at Friendship Manor Care Center in Grinnell in June 2009.
Jackson was being taken on a gurney to an ambulance for tests at a nearby hospital when one of its wheels dropped into a crack in a walkway outside the home. The gurney flipped over and his head struck the pavement. He lapsed into a coma and died within days.
The jury found Friendship Manor was 90 percent at fault, and Midwest Ambulance Service of Iowa was 10 percent.
Maryland: Baltimore company sues over wraparound earmuffs
BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore company famous for its ear warmers that wrap behind the head is accusing a well-known retailer of ripping off its signature product.
180s Inc. filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Baltimore against New Hampshire-based Brookstone Inc. The complaint says Brookstone’s “Luxe” earmuffs infringe upon three of its patents.
The attorney for 180s and Brookstone representatives did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
180s is known filing lawsuits to protect the intellectual property behind its biggest seller. The company settled a similar suit against Gordini USA Inc. in June.
New Jersey: Supreme Court to hear mayor-and-cop case
WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) — The New Jersey Supreme Court is expected to consider whether someone can simultaneously serve as a police officer and mayor in the same municipality.
Wildwood Mayor Gary DeMarzo claims he should be allowed to do both as long as he’s on unpaid leave from the force, but an appeals court ruled otherwise, forcing him to choose between jobs.
DeMarzo was elected to the Wildwood city commission in May 2007 while he was still working as a police officer. He became mayor in 2009.
Former Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. and former Commissioner Bill Davenport challenged DeMarzo’s job status, claiming multiple conflicts of interest.
DeMarzo told The Press of Atlantic City that he’s happy the high court will hear the case.
He said restrictions that would prevent municipal employees from holding elected office while on a leave of absence “preclude a segment of the population from getting involved” in their government.
“I know it’s a bigger issue than Gary DeMarzo,” he said.
Attorney Matthew Priore, who represented Wildwood in its initial case against DeMarzo, has said that if DeMarzo had remained a city employee, despite the leave of absence, “He would have control over (his superiors’) jobs, their duties and their compensation and simultaneously be under their command on a daily basis.”
New Jersey law does not prohibit dual-office holding by an employee and commissioner in the same town, but no law expressly permits it. Wildwood argued the two offices should be deemed incompatible.
“I don’t think that you can honestly do both,” Troiano said. “I think for the good of all governments no employee that is on the books should be a commissioner or council person.”
No date has been set yet for the Supreme Court to hear arguments in the case.
Nebraska: Man sues over mentally ill wife’s jail death
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island man filed a lawsuit alleging that his wife’s mental illness was left untreated while she was in county jail, and that she suffered a fatal head injury as a result.
A grand jury ruled Julie Lutt’s January 2009 death in Hall County jail accidental.
Her husband, Joel Lutt, says in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court that he told Grand Island police that his wife took medication for mental illness and had recently been placed in protective custody because of her disability. He contends that police should have informed county jail workers and that jail staff should have noticed his wife’s unstable behavior and given her proper care.
Lutt’s lawsuit names both Hall County and the city of Grand Island, and it seeks $5,000 in funeral expenses and other unspecified monetary damages.
Attorneys for the county and city did not immediately respond to phone messages left Tuesday.
Julie Lutt was arrested Jan. 11, 2009, on suspicion of third-degree domestic assault. She died two days later at a Kearney hospital. According to a 911 recording, Lutt fell and hit her head soon after being taken to the jail.
Lutt’s death was the jail’s second since it opened in July 2008.
Jeffrey Todd Hansen died at the jail a month after it opened. Hansen’s relatives said he hanged himself using his pants and a railing in a handicapped-accessible cell. A grand jury cleared the county of criminal wrongdoing in that death, but recommended changes to handicapped-accessible cells and their use.
