News from May 2021
Google sued for alleged invasion of privacy in COVID contact tracing system
Google faces a class action lawsuit in federal court for allegedly invading people's privacy in its COVID-19 exposure notification system.
Washington officials brought to court over attempt to close immigration center
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett were accused of trying to undermine the U.S. Constitution in federal court.
Family members of deceased can't connect medical testing company to body parts scandal
PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) – A company sort-of associated with a former body parts dealer now serving a nine-year prison sentence has won a key court victory against family members who tried to pin blame on it.
Judge told to do more than shrug after Miami jury returns $20M verdict over hand injury
MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – Royal Caribbean Cruises might yet shrink a $20 million verdict against it in a lawsuit brought by an employee whose hand was crushed in a door and subsequently complained of chronic pain but has since been filmed using it to perform everyday activities.
Lawyers fail to hold U-Haul liable for funeral director storing dead bodies in its trucks
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – U-Haul can’t be blamed for a funeral home using its vehicles to store dead bodies, some of which were left to decompose in unrefrigerated trucks.
During testimony, official says Cabell Co. has data linking painkillers to illegal drug use
Meanwhile, the drug distributors -- McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health -- sought to put the focus on the role of prescribers, as well as health officials' decision not to go after distributors earlier.
Strip club not liable after booting drunk customer who was later killed by drunk driver
DES MOINES, Iowa (Legal Newsline) - An Iowa strip club that ejected a drunken patron isn’t liable for his death at the hands of a drunk driver half a mile away, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled, rejecting arguments the club had a duty to make sure the customer caught a cab or was arrested by the police.
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Kansas protects docs from lawsuits by parents who say they would've preferred abortion than having disabled child
TOPEKA, Kan. (Legal Newsline) - A law prohibiting “wrongful birth” lawsuits by parents who claim they would have aborted a disabled fetus had they known of its condition doesn’t violate the Kansas Constitution, the state’s high court ruled, because the cause of action was created by the Kansas Supreme Court in 1990.
Third trial's the $6 million charm for dismissed Rite Aid worker
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A Rite Aid worker who sued her former employer for wrongful dismissal and emotional distress won nearly $6 million in a third trial after an appeals court sent two previous verdicts back for reconsideration.
Lawsuit accuses NYPD of racially profiling and falsely prosecuting man for DWI
The New York Police Department was sued by a man who says he was falsely arrested and prosecuted for a driving while intoxicated (DWI) charge.
Paralyzed man files suit after allegedly defective tree-trimming harness drops him 50 feet
Hi Tech Tree Trimming and owner Homer Smith were sued in the Washington County Circuit Court of Arkansas after a harness failed and dropped an employee 50 feet out of a tree.
Distributors object to Gupta's testimony on transition from prescription to street drugs
CHARLESTON – A historian of opioid use and drug policy testified, in a federal trial against three major opioid distributors Wednesday, about three principal opioid epidemics that preceded the ongoing crisis.
Woman hit by car must take responsibility for jaywalking across five-lane road, California court says
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A California condominium complex that failed to provide enough parking spaces for visitors isn’t liable for the injuries of a woman who was hit by a car after she parked offsite and attempted to cross a busy five-lane thoroughfare, an appeals court ruled.
Judge told to get moving on case that would tell St. Louis police how to handle protests
ST. LOUIS (Legal Newsline) - Citing an influential appellate judge’s declaration that “the era of micromanagement of government functions by the federal courts is over,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has dissolved a proposed class action on behalf of future protestors against the City of St. Louis and put a strict time limit on a temporary injunction limiting how police can enforce unlawful-assembly ordinances.
New York illegally attempting to regulate broadband rates, lawsuit says
Six telecommunications industry associations want New York Attorney General Letittia James to answer in federal court for allowing state lawmakers to regulate broadband rates.
Fight over a sandwich lands NYC market in lawsuit
Westside Market was sued for assault and battery damages after four of its employees allegedly jumped a man they believed to have stolen a sandwich.
Expert says brains have similar changes with prescription and illicit opioids
CHARLESTON -- While opioid distributors have argued there is no proof of connection between prescription painkiller use and illicit drug use, an expert in the neurobiology of addiction said, during the second day of a landmark federal trial against those distributors, that people who take prescription painkillers and illicit opioids see the same changes in their brain chemistry.
Minnesota GOP lawmakers want insight into origins of AG Ellison's Big Oil lawsuit
ST. PAUL, Minn. (Legal Newsline) - Republican lawmakers are considering launching an investigation to review the origins of Minnesota Attorney General Ellison's climate change lawsuit against Big Oil.
Uninstalled cameras fail to deter rape, court notes in green-lighting woman's suit against NYC restaurant
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – An appeals court has reversed judgment for the owner of a New York City building at which a woman was raped while trying to use a restaurant’s bathroom.
Woman who caused fatal wreck held her alcohol well, court says in win for owner of a Buffalo Wild Wings
LANSING, Mich. (Legal Newsline) – The owner of a Michigan Buffalo Wild Wings got good news from a state appeals court in a lawsuit blaming it for a fatal car accident caused by a customer in 2015.