CHICAGO — An aviation company could not toss negligence claims brought in Illinois federal court by the families of passengers who died in a 2018 plane crash. The families say the aviation firm failed to adequately train the downed flight’s crew, and despite its arguments to the contrary, the court finds the families’ claim to be adequately alleged.
SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon appeals court upheld the trial court’s decision to award a landlord possession of a rented space where a tenant parked her RV, and its dismissal of the tenant’s counterclaims for injunctive relief and damages. The landlord may have violated his duty to provide sewage disposal, but the tenant discharged her sewage into nearby bushes, near a well, which was not excused by the landlord’s failure. She could have capped the RV’s septic port instead.
ABILENE, Texas — A Texas mental health facility and its staff members prevail over a former patient’s civil rights lawsuit alleging a staff member sexually abused him while he was at the facility. The patient could only show that an assistant administrator was aware of the alleged abuse before he left the facility, and at the time, the Fifth Circuit had not established failure to protect from sexual abuse as a violation of one’s constitutional rights outside of school contexts, so the assistant administrator did not have “fair notice that her actions violated clearly established law.”
SCRANTON, Penn. — A family that won a default judgment against Amazon, who they sued for the wrongful death of their child in a deficient playpen purchased from the online retailer, saw that judgment vacated in a Pennsylvania federal court for failure to serve. They are granted an extension of time to properly serve the corporation, which received a request for waiver of service form but neither the original complaint nor a copy of the summons.
Aaron Coderre had been threatened — and later murdered — by another inmate who also drank his blood.
NEW ORLEANS — A federal court in Louisiana denied six Orleans Parish prison deputies’ effort to dismiss excessive force claims brought against them on the argument that the detainee is only alleging his handcuffs were too tight. The magistrate found their characterization is “inconsistent” with the detainee’s alleged injuries and his claim that the deputies used a shield to “slam him to the floor” and choke him.
LAS VEGAS — A federal court in Nevada granted summary judgment to an apartment tenant who sued the complex and its security company for negligence after she was sexually assaulted on the premises. The security firm sought indemnity and defense in state court from Lloyd’s, which declined to defend, citing a sexual misconduct exclusion. The state court entered a default judgment totaling over $20 million against the security firm after it depleted its legal funds, then assigned the company’s rights to the victim, who sued Lloyd’s here for breach of duty to defend. Because the coverage exclusion is not so obvious as to apply in this case, the issue of damages remains for trial.
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal court ruled in favor of the federal government after motorists who were hit by a car, which had first struck a cow while driving through North Kaibab National Forest, sued over the government’s decision not to keep grazing cattle penned in by fences. The Forest Service determined that “car-cow collisions were not a significant public concern,” but put flashing signs anyway to alert drivers of livestock and said it would consider a fence if the signs did not decrease the rate of car-cow collisions. The government made a “policy-based decision,” so the court “may not second-guess” the agency’s judgment.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose officials could not dodge a federal lawsuit brought by a Vietnamese massage business owner who says she was sexually assaulted by a enforcement inspector during an inspection. City officials should have known about the inherent risks of allowing an “unsupervised solo male” to inspect a massage business, and none of the officials are shielded by immunity from her claims.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit referred the lawsuit filed by a former tennis star, who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her private instructor when she was a young teenager, against the United States Tennis Association to mediation. A status report is due in 60 days.
DALLAS — A federal court in Texas will allow an apartment tenant to add two security companies as defendants to his suit against his apartment complex, where an intruder broke into his room while he was asleep and held a gun to his head. The court allows his suit against the trio of firms, for failure to provide adequate security, to proceed but remands it to state court because one of the security companies is non-diverse.
