North Dakota: Woman sues over fingers severed in meat grinder
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota woman who says four of her fingers were severed in an electric meat grinder is suing the companies that designed and sold the machine she alleges was defective and lacked sufficient safety warnings.
The Grand Forks Herald reports that 53-year-old Ruth Bornsen of Larimore and her husband, Nathan, are seeking more than $150,000 in damages in the incident at his meat processing business in Emerado. The suit was filed against Pragotrade and Cabela’s.
The Pragotrade company denies the allegations and says the couple’s negligence caused Bornsen’s injuries. Retailer Cabela’s is seeking to be dismissed as a defendant because it did not make the grinder.
Ohio: Students who sued to pay about $5K to Ohio Univ.
ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — Central Ohioans who claimed Ohio University classes fell short of expectations have agreed to pay $4,750 in a settlement with the school.
The university had countersued for nearly $9,300 in tuition and fees after Joshua and Lisa Golden of Westerville filed a lawsuit last year over accounting and macroeconomics courses they both took.
The Athens Messenger reports the Goldens argued they shouldn’t have to pay for the classes. They claimed an instructor failed to show up, that equipment malfunctioned, and other issues.
The university denied the allegations while acknowledging that bad weather delayed one class by up to 20 minutes.
Neither side admits any wrongdoing in the settlement entered earlier this month.
Nebraska: 2nd lawsuit filed over nonprofit for blind in Omaha
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha nonprofit that helps blind people find jobs faces another discrimination lawsuit.
Glen Moss is suing his former employer Outlook Nebraska Inc., saying blind workers are blocked from filling supervisory positions and that sighted workers are treated better.
Moss is legally blind. His lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Omaha. It’s similar to a lawsuit filed in October by the National Federation of the Blind of Nebraska Inc.
Outlook Nebraska Eric Stueckrath has said the allegations had been deemed unfounded by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.
According to its website, Outlook Nebraska promotes employment for the blind and produces paper products for government entities.
South Dakota: Appeals court affirms ruling favoring diocese
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s ruling favoring the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City in a lawsuit brought by a woman who says a priest sexually assaulted her in 1987.
A judge last year granted summary judgment in favor of the diocese on the grounds that Pamela Baye and her husband, Sylvan Baye, filed their lawsuit after the statute of limitations ran out.
The couple appealed, but the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis affirmed the decision this week.
The lawsuit said it was during therapy in 2006 that Pamela Baye remembered the assault from 19 years earlier.
Indiana: Man sues airport over restrictions on having protests
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man is suing Fort Wayne International Airport, alleging that its new restrictions on protests violate his free speech rights.
The federal lawsuit filed last week by Paul Anthony Stanton argues that the new rules restrict his ability to hand out copies of the U.S. Constitution to protest the federal government’s new airport security measures. He alleges that they violate the First Amendment.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Stanton, says the rules set a limited “free speech zone” outside the terminal and requires protesters to apply for a permit.
ACLU attorney Gavin Rose tells The Journal Gazette that Stanton’s activities would have “no effect on airport operations whatsoever.”
Airport officials say the rules are necessary to protect the public and airport staff.
Illinois: Brothers drop civil suit to get back seized cash
GENEVA, Ill. (AP) — An attorney for two brothers who say Aurora police illegally seized $190,040 in cash from their vehicle has dropped their civil lawsuit against the city.
Attorney Patrick Kinnallay didn’t say why Jesus and Jose Martinez dropped the lawsuit Tuesday. Kinnallay also declined to tell The (Aurora) Beacon-News what they will do next to reclaim the money, which is now held by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The city says the brothers were under surveillance in a drug investigation when they were stopped last October. A search of their vehicle found no drugs, but investigators seized the cash.
In November, a now-retired judge ordered the cash returned, but the city refused, saying the money was being held by Illinois State Police, who later passed it on to the federal agency.
Kansas: Settlement terms over Little House museum unknown
INDEPENDENCE, Kan. (AP) — The company that produced the “Little House on the Prairie” television series has settled a lawsuit with a museum on the southeast Kansas homestead where author Laura Ingalls Wilder once lived.
Friendly Family Productions filed the lawsuit in 2008 in federal court in Los Angeles against Little House on the Prairie Inc., a nonprofit group that runs a small museum on a farm outside Independence. The California company that based the television series on the best-selling book said it owned the rights to the name “Little House on the Prairie.”
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed and both sides declined to discuss it. A spokeswoman for the plaintiffs, Carol Stogsdill, and an attorney for the defendants, Steve Durchslag, confirmed Tuesday that the settlement was signed Monday in New York.
The museum wasn’t open Tuesday and calls to Schodorf’s cell phone weren’t immediately returned.
According to court documents, Friendly Family Productions filed the lawsuit after the producers of a stage musical based on the book broke off negotiations over merchandising rights. The documents state that the producers of the musical, which opened at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, were concerned about finalizing a deal because of the Kansas museum’s claims to the name.
At the time the suit was filed, Little House on the Prairie museum President Jean Schodorf said the museum had turned down an offer of $40,000 from Friendly Family for the museum’s trademark and to change the name of its website and online store.
Between 12,000 and 15,000 visitors each year visit the Kansas site where the Ingalls family lived between 1869 and 1871. Schodorf and her brother, television journalist Bill Kurtis, own the family farm. The site was discovered in 1977, when two researchers from the Kansas State Historical Society found the cabin’s foundation and well.
The museum includes a replica of the family’s log cabin, along with two other buildings from that era — a one-room schoolhouse and a period post office — that were moved to the site from other locations.
