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LA Clippers owner must pay $2.3m in fire lawsuit
Lawyer News |
2012/12/19 23:58
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Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been ordered to pay $2.3 million to an actress who lost most of her belongings in a fire at a West Hollywood apartment building he owns.
City News Service says a Los Angeles jury ruled against Sterling on Monday in a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by Robyn Cohen, who's perhaps best known for a role in the movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou."
The jury is now considering additional punitive damages.
Cohen sued over a 2009 fire that was caused by an electrical problem. She said a fire alarm horn and a dozen smoke detectors in the building weren't working.
Another actress, Kim Webster, and other tenants also sued Sterling but settled before trial. |
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Court denies rehearing on cigarette warnings
Lawyer News |
2012/12/10 13:02
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An appeals court on Wednesday denied the federal government's request to reconsider a decision blocking a requirement that tobacco companies put large graphic health warnings on cigarette packages to show that smoking can disfigure and even kill people.
In its filings, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., did not provide any reason denying the request for the full court or a panel to rehear the case.
In August, a three-judge panel affirmed a lower court ruling blocking the Food and Drug Administration mandate, saying it ran afoul of the First Amendment's free speech protections.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. The government has 90 days to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some of the nation's largest tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., sued to block the mandate to include warnings to show the dangers of smoking and encouraging smokers to quit lighting up. They argued that the proposed warnings went beyond factual information into anti-smoking advocacy. The government argued the photos of dead and diseased smokers are factual. |
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UK murder suspect's extradition case set for 2013
Lawyer News |
2012/12/03 18:56
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A U.K. court will wait until next year to hold the extradition hearing of a Briton accused of hiring a hit man to kill his wife during their honeymoon in South Africa — after his mental state is reviewed.
The lawyer for Shrien Dewani says he has flashbacks and is a "husk" of his former self. Attorney Clare Montgomery said Monday it is unthinkable he would be able to plan any escape.
Dewani's mental condition will be reviewed in April, with a full extradition hearing set for July.
The 32-year-old is accused of arranging the murder of his wife, Anni, 28. She was found shot dead in an abandoned taxi in Cape Town's Gugulethu township in November 2010.
In March, a British court halted Dewani's extradition, citing his mental state. |
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Brazil's first black Supreme Court president
Lawyer News |
2012/11/27 22:19
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Brazil's Supreme Court is now headed by a black justice for the first time.
Joaquim Barbosa was sworn in on Thursday. He became the only black ever to serve on the court when he joined it in 2003, even though more than half of the country's 192 million people identify themselves as having African descent.
Barbosa, 58, was elected in October to a two-year tenure as Supreme Court president. His election was a foregone conclusion since the court's presidency always goes to the justice who has served on the bench the longest.
Over the past several weeks he gained national and international renown presiding over a high-profile corruption trial involving a congressional cash-for-votes scheme. The court has convicted 25 people including the former chief of staff of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
President Dilma Rousseff, members of her Cabinet, state governors, congressional leaders and several sports and entertainment personalities were present at Barbosa's swearing in.
"The multiculturalism that characterizes the Brazilian people is evident here today with Joaquim Barbosa heading the highest court of the land," said Ophir Cavalcante, president of the Brazilian Bar Association in a speech during the swearing in ceremony. |
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Court rules on suit against West Memphis officers
Lawyer News |
2012/11/15 12:27
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A lawsuit brought against West Memphis, Ark., by relatives of two people who were fatally shot by the city's police officers during a two-state chase can continue, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed with a lower court that five West Memphis officers involved in the July 2004 shootings of Donald Rickard and Kelly Allen are not immune from possible liability in the deaths.
Rickard fled a traffic stop for a broken taillight in West Memphis and was chased across a Mississippi River bridge to Memphis. After Rickard and a West Memphis officer crashed with each other on a Memphis street, officers managed to stop the car again and fatally shot both Rickard and Allen, his passenger.
Officer Vance Plumhoff fired three shots into the vehicle. Officer John Bryan Gardner fired 10 times at the vehicle as it was moving away from the officers. Officer John Tony Galtelli also fired two shots at the vehicle.
As the officers were shooting, Rickard lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a building.
Police have said they opened fire on the car after Rickard tried to run over them as he fled down the street after being cornered. Relatives of Rickard and Allen, both 44, have alleged excessive force. |
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Lawyer for NY man suing Facebook wants out of case
Lawyer News |
2012/11/06 10:30
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The latest lawyer to represent a New York man in what authorities now say is a fraudulent lawsuit against Facebook is seeking to withdraw from the case.
Dean Boland, in a motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, did not publicly say why he wants off Paul Ceglia's case, instead providing the reason in a private document to the judge.
The Lakewood, Ohio, lawyer did say, however, it has nothing to do with any belief that Ceglia engaged in fraud.
Given media coverage of the case, Boland wrote, "it is important to emphasize in the strongest terms possible, that the reasons underlying this request, provided to the court for its review, have nothing to do with any belief by the undersigned that plaintiff is engaged in now or has been engaged in during the past, fraud regarding this case."
Boland is among more than a half dozen lawyers and law firms to have signed on and then withdrawn from Ceglia's 2010 lawsuit. Ceglia claims in the suit that he's entitled to half-ownership of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook based on a 2003 contract with founder Mark Zuckerberg when he was still at Harvard. |
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