Day on TortsHouston trial lawyer John O’Quinn died in a motor vehicle wreck earlier today. This article provides a lot of information about this very interesting man.
Articles Posted in Miscellaneous
Thinking About the Lack of a Duty to Rescue
I participated in a panel discussion at a local high school a week or so ago. The attendees were high school students and their parents. The other participants on the panel included a local juvenile court judge, a police officer, and an assistant district attorney.
Some of the questions included the potential liability of parents for furnishing alcohol to minors and various, easy-to-imagine spin-off questions. One question was the liability of an adult who comes upon a drunken minor but did not nothing to furnish alcohol to the minor, did not own or occupy the site where the alcohol was given to the minor, and had no relationship with the minor. If the adult simply ignores the minor and watches him get into a car and drive away, does the adult have any liability if the minor dies in a one-car wreck a block down the road?
This is a moral and a legal question – and I informed the group that I would leave the moral question to" pillow test." Legally, there is no liability on the adult because there is no duty on the adult to rescue another from the potential for harm or to otherwise come to the aid of a stranger. We had a nice discussion about it, and also about the consequences of deciding to lend aid under such circumstances.
Will Rush Apologize? Will Al Sharpton Sue if Rush Does Not?
Rush Limbaugh is a gifted entertainer who has a propensity to say some pretty ridiculous things. That being said, it is pretty hard to be on the radio for three hours per day and not say some ridiculous things, especially when you have to appease an audience that feeds off of ridiculous things.
On Saturday Rush stepped in it again. I am an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal, and the Saturday edition included an op-ed piece under Rush’s by-line complaining that he was kicked out of the group that was attempting to buy the St. Louis Rams. What caused his expulsion? You guessed it – the liberal media and its normal sources, including Al Sharpton. Here is what Rush said about Sharpton:
In 1998 Mr. Sharpton was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay $65,000 for falsely accusing a New York prosecutor of rape in the 1987 Tawana Brawley case. He also played a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot (he called neighborhood Jews "diamond merchants") and 1995 Freddie’s Fashion Mart riot.
October 2009 Tennessee Trial Law Report
The October 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report is in the mail.
This edition includes a summary of 17 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate courts between August 15 and September 15, 2009. The newsletter totals 35 pages, including 17 pages containing the full-text (in addition to our summary) of the most important opinions issued last month.
The newsletter also includes (a) my continuing series on The Law of Trial (this month’s article concerns the "Rule;” and (b) a summary of the status of 11 cases of interest to tort lawyers that are pending before the Supreme Court of Tennessee.
New Attorney General Opinion on Railroad Crossings
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office has issued an Opinion that provides that "Tenn. Code Ann. § 65-12-108 does not require a train engine operator to blow a train’s whistle or horn before crossing a private drive. Tenn. Code Ann. § 65-12-108 only requires that a train engine operator blow a whistle or horn at public railway crossings."
The Opinion references a recent decision from the federal court in East Tennessee:
In Artrip v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company, No. 2:08-CV-200, 2009 WL 152482
(E.D. Tenn. Jan. 22, 2009), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee relied on Tennessee state law in holding that there is no requirement for a train engineer to sound a whistle when approaching a private railroad crossing. In Artrip, the plaintiff brought a claim against Norfolk Southern Railway Company after the decedent was struck and killed at a private railroad crossing in Sullivan County, Tennessee. Id. at *1. The plaintiff alleged that the train operator’s failure to sound a whistle warning before crossing the private drive was an act of negligence. Id. at *3. However, the District Court found no merit in plaintiff’s allegations of negligence, concluding that “although the locomotive did not blow its whistle, there was no requirement that it do so at a private crossing.” Id. at *13 (citing 49 C.F.R. § 222.25 and Tenn. Code Ann. § 65-12-108(1)). Summary judgment was granted in favor of the train operator, and the plaintiff’s claims were dismissed. Id. at *15.
Letter to the Tennessee Supreme Court
The Tennessee Supreme Court has published a proposed re-draft of Rule 27, the rule which addresses the process of judical evaluation. Set forth below is my letter to the Court that addresses one phrase in the proposed rule. NOTE: this letter was written in my individual capacity and not as Chair of the Tennessee Judical Performance Evaluation Commission.
I have read the draft of revised Supreme Court Rule 27 and offer one comment for consideration by the Court. I respectfully request that the Court remove the phrase “In the face of society’s increasing litigiousness…” from the beginning of Section 1.03. This statement is in essence of finding of fact that is unwarranted given what we know about our civil justice system in Tennessee.
Court filings in civil court of almost every type have decreased in Tennessee over the last three years. According to the 2007-08 Annual Statistics Report, total Circuit Court filings in 2005-2006 were 65,039; in 2007-08 they were 62,204. Total Chancery Court filings in 2005-06 were 64,808; in 2007-08 they were 63,256. The number of civil appeals and applications to the Court of Appeals in 2005-06 were 880; in 2007-08 they were 867. Rule 9, 10, and 11 applications to the Supreme Court were 936 in number in 2005-06. In 2007-08 there were a total of 843 of those applications. The data for 2008-09 is not yet publically available.
Bologna Sandwich Case – More Than Meats the Eye
For decades people have spread false or half-true stories about lawsuits. Here is the latest one I heard the other day on a talk radio show:
A prisoner filed a $3M lawsuit alleging that a prison guard forced him to rub his bologna sandwich on his (the prisoner’s) penis and then forced the prisoner to eat it. This is offered as yet another example of a litigation system run amok.
True? In part. Yes, a prisoner has filed a $3M civil rights lawsuit, seeking $1M in compensatory damages and the balance in punitive damages. It is true that it is alleged that two deputies made a prisoner rub a bologna sandwich against his penis.
Justice Programs Seminar 2009
Penny White, Joe Riley and I are on the road again this Fall for the 2009 Justice Programs seminars. This two-day, 15-hour is designed for Tennessee lawyers who do civil litigation and who are looking for substantive continuing legal education that will help them better serve their clients.
We will be in Nashville November 19 and 20, Chattanooga on December 3 and 4, Memphis on December 10 and 11, and Knoxville on December 17 and 18.
Here are the topics we are offering this year:
Death of a Giant of the Tennessee Trial Bar
Nashville trial lawyer John T. Conners, Jr. died yesterday in his home in West Meade. He would have turned 90 in March 2010. He was a name-partner at Boult Cummings Conners & Berry in Nashville and practiced law over 50 years..
To say that John Conners was an excellent lawyer is an understatement. He was a living legend in the Bar at the time I was admitted in 1981 and joined his firm. He remains a legend to this day.
I believe the key to Mr. Conners’ success in the courtroom was his preparation. He left no stone unturned. He did not sit in his office and practice law – he investigated his own cases and was unafraid to get his shoes dirty. He prepared hours and hours for every deposition. He would write out his opening statements and closing arguments three, four, or five times, revising and improving it each time. And then he would deliver it – from memory – flawlessly. His directs and crosses were done the same way – revision after revision after revision – and then conducted from memory. He dominated the courtroom.
Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission Members Announced
Last week I filed a post on the new members of the Judicial Selection Commission. Today, the appointees to the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission were announced.
The Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, which replaces the Judicial Evaluation Commission, evaluates the performance of the appellate level judges who are up for re-election. Prior to the election, the commission will complete a thorough review of each judge’s performance and make a recommendation to either retain or replace each judge. These recommendations are placed in newspapers throughout the state to inform voters prior to the election.
The appointees: