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22 Oct, 2015

Sues Christie

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Hickox files suit against Governor Christie and members of his administration, saying they violated her constitutional rights by holding her against her will without due process. She is seeking $250,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, $2,000 for each hour of her 80-hour detention, after  arriving back from Sierra Leone, plus extra for punitive damages.

I felt completely alone and vulnerable…It was really hard. I had a lot of tough moments.We are filing this claim to hold those who made this decision accountable and also to highlight and fight against the lack of due process in the quarantine policy in New Jersey. It was clear to me that politicians and in particular Governor Christie were really reacting out of fear. When you choose to detain someone out of fear that’s discrimination.

Christie does not comment.

18 Oct, 2015

Sues false reviewers

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Amazon files suit against 1,114 people it claims used Fiverr offered to write glowing reviews of titles, for as little as $5, to help boost sales on behalf of unscrupulous authors or sellers. The company posed as would-be customers on Fiverr and purchased fake customer reviews from those promising  five-star ratings and offered to let the purchaser write the review themselves. The users then use fake identities and IP addresses to post the reviews. Amazon is not targetting Fiverr itself, and says both companies are working to resolve the issue.

Amazon is bringing this action to protect its customers from this misconduct, by stopping defendants and uprooting the ecosystem in which they participate.

28 Sep, 2015

Wrongful death suit

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Meadow Walker files a wrongful death suit against Porsche allege that the Porsche Carrera GT lacked safety features that could have prevented the accident or, would have allowed her father to survive the crash. She also alleges that Porsche knew that the specific car in Paul’s case had a history of instability and control issues.

[The company] failed to install its electronic stability control system, which is specifically designed to protect against the swerving actions inherent in hyper-sensitive vehicles of this type.

Lawyer:

The bottom line is that the Porsche Carrera GT is a dangerous car. It doesn’t belong on the street. And we shouldn’t be without Paul Walker or his friend, Roger Rodas.

25 Sep, 2015

Drivers sue

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Drivers begin to sue VW for misleading them about their car’s emissions. Customer:

I felt ill. It’s really made us feel very bad about what we ourselves are now doing to the environment.

Lawyers representing around three dozen VW customers:

Volkswagen has committed a bait and switch. Everyone we’ve spoken with feels that they’ve been lied to by Volkswagen. They were sold clean diesel cars when in fact they got dirty diesel cars.

22 Sep, 2015

Sues Daniels for defamation

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Penn sues Daniels for $10 million for defamation, based on comments Daniels made in a Hollywood Reporter interview:

[Terrence] ain’t done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn, and all of a sudden he’s some f*ckin’ demon.That’s a sign of the time, of race, of where we are right now in America.

Suit:

This action arises from reckless, false, and defamatory statements made by Defendant Lee Daniels (“Daniels”) about one of this generation’s most highly-acclaimed and greatest artists and humanitarians, Sean Penn. As a result of Penn’s status as a public figure, he has for years been the subject of scandalous, scurrilous, and baseless attacks. But Penn, like any citizen, has a right to defend himself and will no longer tolerate the reckless and malicious behavior of others, who seek to aggrandize themselves or their projects at his expense. Accordingly, and because of Daniels’ defamatory statements, Penn brings this action for monetary relief, and to deter Daniels and others from their defamatory actions…Daniels falsely equates Penn with Howard, even though, while he has certainly had several brushes with the law, Penn (unlike Howard) has never been arrested, much less convicted, for domestic violence, as his ex-wives (including Madonna) would confirm and attest.

15 Sep, 2015

Direct Message class action suit

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims that Twitter surreptitiously eavesdrops on its users’ private Direct Message communications. For example, if a user privately tells a follower through the service to check out a story on nytimes.com, providing a full URL, Twitter will modify this into a custom link such as “http:/t.co/CL2SKBxr1s” (while still displaying the text “www.nytimes.com” to its users). The lawsuit says that by sending users to Twitter’s analytics servers before passing them on to the linked-to website, Twitter is benefiting by demonstrating to The New York Times and others where the source of the traffic is.

The end result is that Twitter can negotiate better advertising rates.

The claimed damages are as high as $100 per day for each Twitter user whose privacy was violated

1 Sep, 2015

Parents file claims

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Steinle’s parents, Jim Steinle and Liz Sullivan, file three claims seeking unspecified damages against San Francisco’s Sheriff Mirkarimi, the Bureau of Land Management and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to hold them accountable for her death. If the claims are denied, the family could file wrongful death suits. Lawyer:

Both statistics and this gentleman’s history would tell you that what happened out on Pier 14 was not only forseeable, it was predictable.

The Steinle family say they were prompted to act after witnessing weeks of finger-pointing over the killing and no change in the sanctuary city policies. Brother:

We’re here to make sure that a change is made so no one has to endure the pain my mom and dad and I go through on a daily basis. Because the system failed our sister. And at this point, no one has taken responsibility, accountability, and nothing has changed.

30 Aug, 2015

Illegal business practices suit

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New York state’s attorney general Schneiderman files a $40 million lawsuit against Trump and his for-profit investment school, accusing them of engaging in illegal business practices. The suit alleges the Trump Entrepreneur Institute – called Trump University until 2010 – operated without an educational license while misleading consumers into paying for courses promising to teach Trump’s real estate investment techniques. More than 5,000 people nationally took the courses, paying $40 million. The lawsuit seeks restitution of at least $40 million, as well as a disgorgement of profits, penalties and an injunction. Schneiderman:

No one, no matter how rich or popular they are, has a right to scam hard-working New Yorkers.

27 Aug, 2015

Rape, drugging suit filed

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A woman sues Rose, accusing him of criminal activities including rape and drugging. The woman, identified only as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit, claims that she dated Rose from 2011 to 2013. During that time, Rose allegedly tried to pressure her to masturbate in front of him, allow him to have sex with her friends and engage in group sex with strangers, all of which she says she refused. She says the two continued to date until August 2013, when Rose and two friends, Ryan Allen and Randall Hampton (who is Rose’s personal manager), invited her to Rose’s Beverly Hills house, where, she says, they slipped a drug into her drink with the aim of raping her. She escaped the house with a friend, but later that night, Rose and his friends broke into her apartment and gang raped her while she was incapacitated. She says she remembers only “flashes” of the incident, but can remember the defendants forcibly raping her. Rose’s spokesperson:

The plaintiff’s allegations are completely false and without any factual basis. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to shake down a highly respected and successful athlete. Mr. Rose was in a non-exclusive, consensual sexual relationship with the plaintiff for over two years. The plaintiff expressed no complaints about Mr. Rose until various lawyers began to surface and demand that the plaintiff be paid millions of dollars

21 Aug, 2015

Canadian members sue

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Canadian users launch a US$578 million class action lawsuit against Ashley Madison alleging ALM failed to protect the privacy of “many thousands of Canadians” whose names, emails, home addresses and message history were posted online by hackers for public viewing. The lead plaintiff in the suit is a disabled Ottawa widower. His lawyers said he joined the website “for a short time in search of companionship” after losing his wife of 30 years to breast cancer, but that he “never met anybody in person from the site.” Lawyers:

In many cases, the users paid an additional fee for the website to remove all of their user data, only to discover that the information was left intact and exposed.

8 Aug, 2015

Wrongful death suit

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Brown’s estate files a $10 million suit against Gordon, alleging wrongful death. The lawsuit alleges Gordon, who shared a townhome with Brown in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, beat her after an argument on the morning of January 31, then gave her a “toxic cocktail” to knock her out, and then placed her face-down in a bathtub of cold water, causing her to suffer brain damage. The suit also claims Gordon controlled Brown’s interactions, installed cameras in the home to watch her, manipulated her bank accounts, and physically abused her.

According to the suit, at about 6 a.m. on January 31, Gordon returned from an all-night “cocaine and drinking binge”. He reviewed surveillance camera footage and listened to Brown’s conversations, which led to a 30-minute argument that ended upstairs in the master bedroom.

Upon information and belief, Defendant gave Bobbi Kristina a toxic cocktail rendering her unconscious and then put her face down in a tub of cold water causing her to suffer brain damage

The suit says Gordon then got in bed with a female guest. About 15 minutes later, someone in the townhome went to check on Brown and found her face down in the bathtub, unresponsive and unconscious, her mouth swollen and a tooth hanging loosely from her mouth.

When the Defendant came into the master bedroom, the very first thing Defendant did was let the cold water out of the bathtub and later shouted, ‘Clean up, clean up.’ Others began mouth to mouth resuscitation to no avail. Defendant then began to slap her saying, ‘wake up,’ and also started performing CPR between slaps.

Gordon’s attorneys:

Nick has been heartbroken and destroyed over the loss of his love and it’s shameful that such baseless allegations have been presented publicly. Nick has engaged civil counsel and intends to defend the lawsuit vigorously and expose it for what it is: a fictitious assault against the person who loved Krissy most.

4 Aug, 2015

Family files suit against Encinia

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Bland’s mother seeks a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages in a wrongful death suit against Encinia; Waller County jail screening officers Elsa Magnus and Oscar Prudente; Waller County; and the DPS. The suit says Encina was previously was reprimanded for “unprofessional conduct” and faulted Texas DPS for improper training, saying the agency should have known he “exhibited a pattern of escalating encounters with the public”, and that he:

demonstrated a deliberate indifference to and conscious disregard for the constitutional rights and safety of Sandra Bland.

In addition, the lawsuit accuses Magnus and Prudente, screening officers at the Waller County Jail, for inadequately monitoring Bland and failing to provide proper medical care when she was found injured in her cell. County lawyer:

We look forward to presenting all the evidence to the Court, in the context of the applicable standards for civil liability, and intend to vigorously defend the case.

Aug 2015

Sue for video

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Police officers sue to erase videos of their raid of Sky High Collective. Lawyer for Sky High:

It’s pretty pathetic for police to say if we don’t like something that it can’t be used as evidence.

Attorney for Santa Ana Police Officers:

The video was taken without the officers’ knowledge and was handled by Pappas, among others, prior to being made public.

23 Jul, 2015

EU sues Hollywood studios

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After an 18-month investigation, the European Union issues anti-trust lawsuit against Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros, as well as Britain and Ireland’s Sky TV. The suit specifically calls into question copyright laws which allow Hollywood studios to sell their content individually to national markets, creating a divided European market in defiance of EU rules, according to the commission. Specifically, subscribers to the Sky TV’s network of channels are blocked from accessing its offerings of films and TV series outside Britain and Ireland. Competition Commissioner Vestager:

European consumers want to watch the pay-TV channels of their choice regardless of where they live or travel in the EU. Our EU economy Internet antitrust investigation shows that they cannot do this today. We believe that this may be in breach of EU competition rules. The studios and Sky UK now have the chance to respond to our concerns.

NBC and Warner said they were in talks with the Commission. Fox declined to comment.

 

22 Jul, 2015

Nungesser amends complaint

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Nungesser amends his complaint against Columbia (document) with extra details, including that he repeatedly contacted the university to find out if Sulkowicz would be allowed to carry the mattress to his graduation:

In the weeks and months before graduation, Paul reached out repeatedly to Columbia administrators, requesting detailed information regarding whether Defendant Columbia would allow Emma to carry the mattress at the graduation ceremony. Despite repeated requests, Defendant Columbia refused to provide him with any information…

The complaint says that Sulkowicz asked twice to take the mattress to the graduation, and was denied, but that she took it anyway and the university did not stop her. The complaint also mentions threats against Nungesser by Sulkowicz (“it’s not safe for him to be on this campus”) and her friends, and says that the male student that Nungesser was cleared of touching is going to produce an interpretative dance about his claim.

21 Jul, 2015

Seeks sanctions against Constand

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Cosby files legal documents seeking court sanctions against Andrea Constand for her alleged breach of their confidentiality agreement. The filing says Constand’s request to open the entire Cosby settlement is an “obvious attempt to smear” the performer and says she should be sanctioned for leaking the nearly 1,000-page deposition transcript to the New York Times. Cosby’s filing also says that the deposition excerpts so far unsealed by the judge contain no testimony that he engaged in any non-consensual sex or gave anyone Quaaludes without their knowledge or consent.

Reading the media accounts, one would conclude that Defendant has admitted to rape. And yet Defendant admitted to nothing more than being one of the many people who introduced Quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970s.

6 Jul, 2015

Accused of stealing water

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The Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura County sues Selleck, claiming a tanker truck filled up at a hydrant more than a dozen times and hauled water to a 60-acre ranch owned by the actor in Westlake Village. Selleck has not complied with cease-and-desist letters aimed at halting the unlawful water deliveries. The water district is seeking reimbursement for court costs, the $22,000 it paid a private investigator, as well as a preliminary and permanent injunction barring Selleck and his contractors or employees from taking water from the district.

Our policies have been on the books for decades. We just want any such activity to stop — that is the bottom line for us. It’s really about doing the right thing and preserving our water supply for our users.

3 Jul, 2015

NPA files papers

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The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) files its papers in the spy tapes case, after missing the previous deadline. In response to the DA’s questioning of the NPA’s decision to withdraw criminal charges against Zuma after his election as ANC leader, the NPA papers argue that Zuma was charged with corruption to stop then President Thabo Mbeki from being recalled.

30 Jun, 2015

Convent property dispute

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Katy Perry nun dispute imagePerry is in the middle of a legal dispute over the ownership of a former Catholic convent in the city’s Los Feliz neighborhood near downtown L.A. The hilltop property, with a swimming pool and a sweeping view of the San Gabriel Mountains, was once home to Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Archbishop Gomez says the property was entrusted to the diocese in 2005 and wants to sell the property to Perry for $14.5 million, but the nuns, who believe the property is theirs, have already entered into an agreement to sell it to real-estate developer Hollister for $15.5 million. Hollister plans to turn the property into a hotel, restaurant and bar, while Perry wants to use the building as her home. Archdiocese:

Unfortunately, the Archdiocese had to take civil action to protect against the unauthorized action by Ms. Hollister, which was undertaken after the preferred transaction had been accepted in consultation with the Sisters.

One of the sisters was not happy about Perry’s work:

Well, I found Katy Perry and I found her videos and … if it’s all right to say, I wasn’t happy with any of it.

They said, however, that when Perry visited the sisters, she performed a gospel song and dressed conservatively.

Sues Univision for $500 million

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Trump sues Univision for $500 million in New York State Supreme Court for breach of contract and defamation, over a $13.5 million contract for broadcast rights to Trump’s Miss Universe Organization pageants. The parties had reached an agreement in January that included the rights to broadcast the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and the Miss Universe competition from 2015 through 2019. Univision agreed to pay $2.5 million per year until 2017, and $3 million per year for 2018 and 2019, and to make “reasonable efforts” to broadcast it over two to three hours on a Sunday night. Trump says Univision’s’ decision not to broadcast the pageant is politically motivated and an attempt to suppress his freedom of speech:

Nothing that I stated was different from what I have been saying for many years. I want strong borders, and I do not support or condone illegal immigration.

He also says a high-ranking Univision executive called him, claiming that Univision had been “inundated with calls demanding that Univision immediately terminate its relationship” with Trump after his remarks and that they could “no longer sell” the pageant to its sponsors or viewers. Trump also claims the executive apologized to him for pulling the pageant, and that the network had decided to simply pay the Miss Universe Organization its $13.5 million in licensing fees. In a memo to staff Univision CEO Falco denies apologizing to Trump:

I can also assure you that we never apologized because we have nothing to apologize for.