Law.com – Judge Declines to Grant Mistrial After Juror Threatens Harm

This one pegs the weird-o-meter at a 9.8. My favorite part is this:

In denying the motion, Judge Patterson said the jury “will let us know if they feel that the atmosphere is such that there’s not communication in a rational manner.”

And this is after one juror threatens to cut off the finger of another juror and also saying: “I’ll have my husband take care of you.”

Maybe up in New York that is considered rational communication, but down here my State Court Judges would send you to the “blue-top inn” to consider alternate means of discourse.

For the non-locals, here is why we call it the “blue-top inn.”

Motion to Compel Defense Counsel to Wear Appropriate Shoes at Trial

Back in the day, Montgomery defense lawyer James Anderson (a great lawyer and a great guy) used to wear old button down collars to achieve that “simple poor lawyer” look.  While he beat your brains out.  Now I read (by way of Above the Law) about a Motion to Compel a defense lawyer from wearing shoes with holes in them to achieve a “frugal” or “simple lawyer” look.

Read the story here.

But shouldn’t the motion be a Motion in Limine?  (You know, “Sustaining objection to such XYZ would not cure the effect of such prejudice.  Instead it would reinforce the impact of such prejudicial matter to the jury.”)

Apparently the Judge rejected the Motion, allowing the guy to keep his old brogans.  So If James wants to get those old buttondowns out of the closet he probably can do so as well.  (But he should be Attorney General of Alabama, another story for another day.)

Michael Jackson, the good, the bad and the ugly

All I would ever say has been said by these folks.  Thank goodness I have been away from a TV the last week.  I hate a lazy media.

New Lawsuit in Sherrie Phillips Saga

From the Andalusia Star News, a story about former Covington County Probate Judge Sherrie Phillips being sued along with Evergreen lawyer John Brock and Birmingham accountant John Boohaker.

The fun part is to scroll down and read the comments section.

For the lawsuit itself, read it here:  Sullivan v. Brock, et al. (click on the “document 125″ icon for the lawsuit file to open)

Oldie but a Goodie

For those of you doing trucking accident cases in Alabama, from the New York Times in 2006:

The practice of falsifying driver hours is an open secret in the industry; truckers routinely refer to their logs as “comic books.” Fines are small. The federal motor carrier agency does not have the staff to monitor closely 700,000 businesses and almost eight million trucks.

Timothy L. Unrine, a 41-year-old driver from Virginia, said in a recent interview that he was taught to conceal excessive driving hours during training last January by his former employer, Boyd Brothers Transportation of Birmingham, Ala. Mr. Unrine said his orientation instructor told his class that government inspectors were allowed to examine a monthly logbook if it was bound. But if the staples were removed, the log was considered “loose leaf” and inspectors could require an examination of only those pages from the most recent seven days, Mr. Unrine said the drivers were told.

Company officials advised drivers to use fuel credit cards that recorded only the date, not the time, of the fuel stop, he said.

Mr. Unrine added that the company pushed him to work longer hours than permitted, and that his logbooks were “adjusted” many times to make it appear he was within the limits. Several times, when he told a dispatcher he was too tired to make another trip, he said, he was ordered to do so after just a few hours’ sleep.

“I never felt safe driving under these conditions,” said Mr. Unrine, who left Boyd last June because of a legal dispute over medical bills from a fall. “I talked to many drivers on the fuel islands, truck stops and rest areas. Logbooks are so fake; it scares me that there aren’t more accidents on the road.”

Richard Bailey, the chief operating officer at Boyd Brothers, and Wayne Fiquett, the company’s vice president for safety, disputed Mr. Unrine’s claims. They said that drivers might have been instructed to keep only seven days of log entries, but denied that they were encouraged to violate the rules.

“Nobody here will tell someone to do something unsafe,” Mr. Fiquett said. “If a driver is tired or over his hours, the system will not allow that driver to continue driving.”

We have run into a fair bit of this in our practice; I was amazed at the allegations about Boyd Brothers.  Here’s hoping they are not having these problems today.

Weird Funeral Home Story Three

From MSNBC:

Funeral home misplaces grandma

Wrong body in casket clothed with grandmother’s dress, family says
The Associated Press
updated 10:04 a.m. CT, Wed., July 16, 2008

STICKNEY, Ill. – A family from suburban Chicago said they arrived at a funeral home Monday to view their 91-year-old grandmother’s body, but instead found another woman in the casket.

Even worse, the family of Lillian Grogan said the stranger had on the grandmother’s dress and favorite bracelet. They claim the mix-up happened because the funeral home incorrectly tagged Grogan and another woman.

By the time it was noticed, Grogan had already been buried. Her family got a court order to have the body exhumed yesterday, and she’ll be reburied.

A spokeswoman for the company that owns the funeral home declined to discuss the incident.

Rich Get Richer, Poor Get (you know). . .

President Obama signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act last month but the Bill left out a key provision that would have allowed federal bankruptcy courts to modify the terms of nontraditional and subprime mortgages made on homeowners’ primary residences.  In other words, a Bankruptcy Judge could have modified a ripoff mortgage.  Unfortunately, the measure failed and there will be no “cramdown” provision in the law.  An explanation of why this measure failed was given in the New York Times.  Key Quotes:

The defeat of the bankruptcy proposal is a testament to the enduring influence of banks, even as the industry struggles financially and suffers from its role in the economic crisis.

The [banking] industry also steadfastly refused offers to negotiate over a weaker version. And it poured millions of dollars into lobbying: four of the industry’s top trade groups spent nearly as much on lobbying in the first three months of this year as they did in all of 2001.

Now here is the part in the article that gives me the gripes:

Throughout it all, the banks took advantage of the Obama administration’s seeming ambivalence. Despite its occasional populist rhetoric, the White House was conspicuously absent from weeks of pivotal negotiations this spring.

“This would have been a much different deal if Obama had pressed it,” said Camden R. Fine, head of the Independent Community Bankers of America and one of the chief lobbyists opposing the bankruptcy change. “The fact that Obama effectively sat it out helped us a great deal.”

* * *

While Mr. Obama reaffirmed his support for the proposal shortly after becoming president, administration officials barely participated in the negotiations, a factor that lobbyists said significantly strengthened their hand. Lawmakers who have discussed the issue with the administration said that the president’s senior aides had concluded that a searing fight with the industry was simply not worth the cost.

And here is the money quote, true everywhere laws are made:

There was no counterweight to that legislative muscle. Bankrupt homeowners do not have a political action committee or lobbyists.

I can understand the Obama administration wanting to fight fights it can win, but to give trillions out in bailouts to some of the financial organizations responsible for our current economic travails and then refuse to help Americans victimized by ripoff loans is unconscionable.

“Improve your departments productivity and increase revenue”

Does this bother anyone else or is it just me?  From Officer.com, an “Online event,”  eCitations: Your Ticket to Increased Revenues and Productivity.

Your Ticket to Increased Revenues and Productivity
This presentation will be available to audience members until June 10, 2010 at 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.
The high cost of manual citation procedures is well documented — every year, agencies lose millions of dollars to errors and lost productivity due to the time consuming and awkward manual process. Join Officer.com editor Frank Borelli as he examines the advantages of eCitations and learn how to improve your departments productivity and increase revenue through this mobile ticketing solution.

Obvious point, but I didn’t know it was the job of the police to increase revenue.

Now I am Scared (Seriously)

Hat tip to The Big Picture; This map of job loss by regional area underlines one of the big economic issues as we try to get out of this recession: job loss.  Watch the animation (from tipstrategies) and see if you are as scared as I.

Another Weird Funeral Home Story and Alabama Law on Outrage

From Fox:

License Revoked for Funeral Home Accused of Cutting Tall Corpse to Fit Inside Coffin

Tuesday , June 02, 2009

ALLENDALE, S.C. —

The South Carolina funeral board has revoked the licenses of a funeral home and its director for cutting the legs of a 6-foot-7 man so his corpse would fit in a casket.

State licensing spokesman Jim Knight says the Board of Funeral Service voted Monday to revoke the funeral director license of Michael Cave and the license of Cave Funeral Services of Allendale.

Knight says the board also fined Cave the maximum $500 and ordered him to pay $1,500 for the investigation.

Cave did not immediately return messages left at his home and business Tuesday.

The body of James Hines was exhumed earlier this year because of rumors that circulated after he died in 2004.

His widow said investigators told her his legs had been cut off between the ankle and calf to fit the coffin.

That is a heck of a case in Alabama.  Messing with the departed is a huge no-no in Alabama and is one of the areas where a claim for “outrage” (intentional infliction of emotional distress) will stick.

The most recent reported case in Alabama (meaning, in the law books) is Akins Funeral Home, Inc. v. Miller, 878 So.2d 267 (Ala. 2003) where the funeral home cremated the wrong body.  Terrible set of facts and the outrage claim prevailed.

On the other side of the fence is Pate v. Sunset Funeral Home, 465 So.2d 347 (Ala. 1984) where there was bad identification of the badly burned bodies by the State Troopers or by the forensic people or whoever and the jury found the funeral home not responsible.

I miss Justice Red Jones and wish we had someone like him on the Alabama Supreme Court today.  Here is his explanation from Ridout’s-Brown Service v. Holloway, 397 So.2d 125 (Ala. 1981) as to why these cases are so important:

I do not quarrel with the proposition that, within the context of our religious heritage and cultural values, the “Funeral Home” occupies one of the most exalted positions of trust among our institutions.
It matters not the station in life of the departed; however wretched his earthly existence; and whatever may be the fate of his soul; we tend to share the common belief that death is the ultimate victory, and that “Rest in Peace” is as much a solace to the next of kin as an eternal hope for the dead. Surely, one who merchandises the wares and services of these last rites must be held to the highest awareness of his customer’s sensibilities, and must discharge his duties with tenderness and forthright-ness.

I have sued funeral homes and cemetaries and have also defended the same on occassion.  Justice Jones’ view is still correct today.  Trust is everything.