The Clarion Hotel in Scranton refused to rent rooms to a black family though it had 52 vacant rooms, and its desk clerk admitted that she would not rent to them because they are black, the family claims in Federal Court.

Eric Davis and his family also sued Choice Hotels International, the world's second-largest hotel franchisor, which owns the Clarion, and also owns Comfort Suites, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inns, Quality and other inns and hotels.

Davis claims the Clarion Hotel's front desk clerk, Lisa Pierce, told him there were no rooms available when he asked for one on the night of July 12, 2006. He says Pierce sent him to the Comfort Suites in Moosic.

There, Davis says, the clerk told him that hotel was full, but there were rooms available at the Clarion. Davis says the clerk called the Clarion and confirmed that there were 52 rooms available.

Davis says he drove back to the Clarion, where a different clerk told him there were rooms available. He says he saw the Clarion rent a room to three white men. He says Lisa Pierce then appeared from a back room, and he asked her, "Why did you tell me there was no room?"

Pierce told him, "There was a cancellation," according to the complaint.

The complaint continues: "Mr. Davis replied, 'You had 52 cancellations?' to which Lisa Pierce replied, 'I don't have to explain anything to you. Get out of my hotel.' Mr. Davis then asked, 'Did you say there were suddenly no rooms available because I was black?' to which Lisa Pierce replied, 'Yes.'"

Davis says two witnesses outside his family saw this. He names them in the complaint. He demands punitive damages. He is represented by Craig Kalinoski.

The second quarter of this year saw the pace of law firm mergers rise sharply in the U.S., according to a new report from legal consultancy Altman Weil Inc.

There were 26 new law firm mergers and acquisitions reported in April, May and June, compared to 18 during the first quarter of the year, according to Newtown Square, Pa.-based Altman Weil.

The largest of the latest law firm combinations was between K&L Gates, a 1,500-attorney firm, and Kennedy Convington Lobdell & Hickman, a 175-lawyer firm.

In Memphis there were no significant mergers reported for the quarter. However, in the previous quarter St. Louis-based Husch & Eppenberger LLC and Kansas City, Mo.,-based Blackwell Sanders LLP finalized their merger, which was first announced last September. Of the two, only Husch & Eppenberger had an office in Memphis.

In July 2007, Memphis-based Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC merged Atlanta-based Gambrell & Stolz LLP into the firm, adding 36 attorneys.

"Even in a deteriorating economy, law firms continue to pursue a growth strategy via merger and acquisition," said Altman Weil principal Tom Clay in a statement. "And based on our conversations with law firm leaders, we think the pace is unlikely to slow."

New York’s highest court has set the bar prohibitively high for proving certain civil cases against predatory clergy by ruling that a woman cannot sue a rabbi who had an affair with her because she was not “uniquely vulnerable and incapable of self-protection."

Some state and federal courts have upheld breach of fiduciary duty claims arising from sexual misconduct by clergy with adult parishioners whom they are counseling. A fiduciary duty exists, those courts said, if the clergy member “held himself out as possessing the education and experience” of a professional counselor.

Only last month, an intermediate New York appeals court recognized a fiduciary duty claim for the first time in the case of a woman who sued a Catholic priest for damages arising out of her adulterous relationship with him. Doe v. Roman Catholic Diocese.

But the New York Court of Appeals pretty much slammed the door on such cases in finding last week that Adina Marmelstein had “insufficiently demonstrate[d] that she developed a fiduciary relationship” with Rabbi Mordecai Tendler.

“Allegations that give rise to only a general clergy-congregant relationship that includes aspects of counseling do not generally impose a fiduciary obligation upon a cleric,” the opinion said.

“To establish that a course of formal counseling resulted in a cleric assuming 'de facto control and dominance' over the congregant,” it continued, “a congregant must set forth facts and circumstances in the complaint demonstrating that the congregant became uniquely vulnerable and incapable of self-protection regarding the matter at issue.”

Tendler, who officiated at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in New Hempstead, N.Y., counseled Marmelstein for emotional problems. They allegedly began their affair after he told her that “a course of sexual therapy” would make her more attractive to men and help her find a husband.

Marmelstein's allegations were insufficient, Judge Victoria A. Graffeo wrote for the appeals court, because she “has shown only that she was deceived by Tendler, not that she was so vulnerable as to surrender her will and capacity to determine her own best interests.”

In a footnote, Graffeo said she was not suggesting that “a cleric who is also a licensed professional, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist or attorney, could not assume fiduciary obligations under existing laws and the secular standards that govern the practice of those professions.”

But her decision means clerics who are not licensed professionals cannot be sued for sexual misconduct unless the plaintiff somehow meets a “vulnerability” standard which completely disregards the inherent “control and dominance” that clergy assume over congregants.

As a more enlightened New York appellate judge put it, “The hallmark of fiduciary duty -- an imbalance of power between the parties -- is especially manifest in the relationship between a priest and parishioner.” Langford v. Roman Catholic Diocese, 271 A.D.2d 494 (2000).