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Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon Can't Block Movie
Areas of Focus |
2008/06/03 16:14
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A federal judge has denied Yoko Ono's and Sean Lennon's request that producers of the movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" be prohibited from distributing it because it contains 15 seconds of the John Lennon tune, "Imagine."
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein found that "defendants are likely to prevail on their affirmative defense of fair use. ...(T)he fair use of a copyrighted work for purposes of criticism and commentary is not an infringement of copyright." |
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Fire Paramedics In Philly Win Overtime Pay Appeal
Areas of Focus |
2008/06/02 16:35
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More than 300 paramedics for the Philadelphia Fire Department won the right to receive overtime pay in a 3rd Circuit ruling. The court voted 2-1 to reject the city's argument that fire service paramedics fall under an exemption from Fair Labor Standards Act overtime requirements that applies to workers who "engage in fire protection activities."
Judge Dolores Sloviter said fire service paramedics do not qualify as exempted fire protection employees, because they "are not hired to fight fires, not even in a small part."
"Every substantive aspect of the job description is medical in nature," Sloviter added, citing the statistic that plaintiffs' dispatches to actual fires account for 0.1 percent of their total annual dispatches. That's about five to 10 times a year, compared to 6,000 to 8,000 total dispatches for emergency medical services. Even when fire paramedics are called to a fire, it's for the purposes of providing medical care, not for putting out a fire, the ruling states.
For these reasons, the court concluded that fire paramedics do not fall within the overtime exemption and should receive time-and-a-half for working more than 40 hours a week. |
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FTC Shuts Down Pretexters
Legal Topics |
2008/05/29 17:35
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The Federal Trade Commission has obtained court orders shutting down a ring that used "pretexting" to get people's confidential telephone records and sell them to third parties. The FTC also fined the defendants $600,000, their profits from the operation that got the information on false pretenses. Pretexting made national news when Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Patricia Dunn allegedly used it against reporters and her own board members to track down the source of leaks from board meetings. A bill in the California Legislature to make the practice illegal under state law was heading for passage in 2006 when the Motion Picture Association of America killed it, telling lawmakers its investigators needed to pose as someone other than who they are to bust up illegal downloading rings. The MPAA got the bill killed just days before Hewlett-Packard's use of pretexting made headlines. |
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Lawyer Says Cook County Clerk Defamed Him
Areas of Focus |
2008/05/28 16:46
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An attorney claims the Cook County Clerk defamed him to TV news to retaliate for his informing another news station that the clerk had allegedly "confessed to using court funds to acquire three luxury SUVs to chauffeur her to the office and home again each day and to carry her 10-man 'security detail.'"
David Novoselsky claims County Clerk Dorothy Brown has it in for him because he has publicly criticized her, and sued her, for her part in raising the filing fee from $5 to $15. Novoselsky claims Brown did this as a political tool to seek re-election, claiming that by hiking the fee she was saving taxpayers money.
Novoselsky says he sued Brown on May 22 on behalf of a client who paid, but challenged, the fee increase. In response, he says, Brown released a statement to WBBM, Channel 2, accusing him of filing "frivolous and baseless lawsuits" against her office that are nothing more than "unscrupulous harassment, unbecoming an attorney at law."
Novoselsky claims that this alleged defamation was in retaliation for his tipping Fox News, Channel 32, to Brown's alleged misuse of public money for her private chauffeur service and security detail.
His complaint states: "Brown became agitated in the [Fox News] interview when the reporter pointed out that her chauffeur was being paid more than $60,000 per year as a 'systems analyst' and that there was no authority in her budget for a 'security detail.' Brown referred to these lawful restrictions as a mere 'budget title' and said that she needed to use court funds for her gas and parking expenses since she 'only made $105,000 per year.'"
Represented by Joseph Curcio in Cook County Court, Novoselsky demands $1 million in punitive damages. |
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Chicago Isn't Liable For Club Tragedy, Court Says
Legal Topics |
2008/05/27 22:13
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The city of Chicago is not liable for the deaths and injuries of E2 Nightclub patrons trampled in a stairwell trying to flee the club after security guards used pepper spray to quell a disturbance, an Illinois appellate court ruled.
The estates of 20 decedents and more than 30 injured patrons filed suit against the club owners and the city, claiming Chicago failed to enforce court orders barring the use of the club's second floor. They also alleged that police failed to protect or help victims at the scene, and that one officer even closed and locked an exit door, contributing to the fatal pileup on Feb. 17, 2003.
Chicago moved to dismiss the complaint, citing unqualified immunity under the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, which shields public entities from liability for injuries "caused by adopting or failing to adopt an enactment or by failing to enforce any law."
Plaintiffs countered that the city's actions fell under an exception to the immunity law for "willful and wanton conduct."
However, the appellate court ruled that the exemption does not apply, because the city was not in control of the situation. It added that the plain language of the exception refers to public employees, not public entities. |
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Shareholder Class Action
Areas of Focus |
2008/05/23 16:04
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Shareholders sued Calpine Corp. and its directors, claiming they are selling Calpine too cheaply to NRG Energy, for $23 a share, or $9.6 billion, a 6.7% premium over market price, in Harris County Court, Houston.
Shareholders claim directors of Wendy's International withheld information and engaged in self-dealing, in a class action in Franklin County Court, Columbus, Ohio.
TRM Corp. and its directors inflated share price through false and misleading statements, shareholders claim in Portland, Ore., Federal Court.
Shareholders claim American International Group inflated the value of its securities through false and misleading statements from May 11, 2007 through May 9, 2008, in Manhattan Federal Court. |
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Court Says Cop's Criticism Isn't Protected Speech
Areas of Focus |
2008/05/22 15:55
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An Illinois State Police officer was not wrongfully transferred for accusing his superiors of sabotaging his investigation of a cold-case murder, the 7th Circuit ruled.
Plaintiff Michale Callahan filed a First Amendment retaliation claim against his superiors, Steven Fermon and Diane Carper.
Judge Ripple ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos determined that the First Amendment did not protect the free speech of a public employee acting in his official capacity.
Callahan's investigation indicated that the two men serving life sentences for the murders could not have committed the crime. Callahan then came to believe that the real killer was a man who had made significant contributions to the campaigns of the attorney general and the governor.
Callahan alleged that when he told Fermon and Carper about the results of his investigation, he was asked to pursue lesser charges against the contributor and to stop investigating the murder because of the case's political sensitivity.
After tension became too high in the police department, Callahan was transferred to another precinct.
The trial court had ruled in favor of Callahan, and the Garcetti decision came down during the defendants' appeal. |
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