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Posted On: February 29, 2012

Students File Suit Against University and Police Over Pepper Spray Incident

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WTO protests in Seattle November 30 1999Nineteen students and alumni from the University of California at Davis have filed a lawsuit in federal court against various university administrators and police officials, including Chancellor Linda Katehi and Police Lieutenant John Pike. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is assisting them with the suit, which includes claims of federal civil rights violations and California constitutional and statutory violations. Their claims arise from the now-infamous incident, captured on video and posted across the internet, in which Lieutenant Pike shot pepper spray at point-blank range at people involved in the Occupy protests last November. Although the lawsuit primarily addresses alleged violations of the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, injuries sustained in the incident are highly relevant to their case.

The incident occurred on November 18, 2011. Although the specific course of events is still a matter of debate, video footage shows Lieutenant Pike and other police officers spraying pepper spray at a group of seated protesters from a distance of only a few feet. The protesters were seated in a close group on the ground and were not armed. Lieutenant Pike and Police Chief Annette Spicuzza were suspended with pay shortly after the incident and reportedly remain on suspension.

The university administration appointed a task force to investigate the matter. We reported in this Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog last month that the task force had decided not to release its findings until at least February. Now the task force has reportedly announced that it will continue to withhold its findings into March.

The plaintiffs, all of whom were participants in the protest on November 18, filed suit on February 22, 2012. The lawsuit seeks various declarations from the court regarding the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights and the defendants’ violations thereof, as well as compensatory and punitive damages from the police officers involved. Plaintiffs also demand changes to unviersity policies related to responding to protests. They claim injuries related to the pepper spray and arrests, including “burning eyes, faces and skin,” and injuries related to the zip ties used to cuff their hands.

Plaintiffs allege that university police were using “military grade” pepper spray. Manufacturer’s instructions for the type of pepper spray used indicates a minimum safe distance of six feet to avoid serious injury. Plaintiffs allege that the police were standing much closer to the protesters on November 18 when they sprayed them. This amounted to a violation of plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, plaintiffs say in their complaint, but it also caused significant injury and damage.

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Posted In: Police Brutality

Posted On: February 24, 2012

Elementary School Student Dies from Peanut Allergy

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745136_75916575_02202012.jpgA seven year-old student died at her Richmond, Virginia elementary school in January after she ate a peanut that a classmate gave to her. The girl, Amarria Denise Johnson, had a severe peanut allergy. She had an immediate allergic reaction and was taken to the school clinic. She then went into cardiac arrest and died.

Although the school was reportedly aware of the child’s allergy, the classmate was not. An investigation by police concluded that the actions of the classmate did not rise to the level of criminal negligence, nor did the actions of the school and the child’s mother. A determination by law enforcement that no crime occurred does not preclude a civil case for wrongful death, although it raises the question of who has a duty to guard against injury from a food allergy.

A Chicago lawsuit deals with a similar situation. On the last day of the fall semester in December 2010, a 13 year-old girl, Katelyn Carson, died after going into anaphylactic shock when she ate some Chinese food at school. The girl had a severe allergy to peanut oil. Her teacher was aware of the allergy, so when he ordered Chinese food for an end-of-semester party, he reportedly requested that the food be prepared without any peanut products. Lab testing on samples of the meal found trace amounts of peanut products.

The girl’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the restaurant, Chinese Inn, in March 2011, claiming $100,000 in damages. The board of Chicago Public Schools, partly in response to Katelyn’s case, voted unanimously in January 2012 to spend nearly $200,000 to stock schools with Epi-pens, which can stop people with certain allergies from going into anaphylaxis.

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors , Wrongful Death

Posted On: February 17, 2012

Maryland Trucking Company Shut Down by Safety Regulators, but It Is No Relief to Accident Victims

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232051_7893_02152012.jpgA trucking accident on September 20, 1994 on the Capital Beltway in Prince George’s County, Maryland killed one person and left construction worker Brian Buber paralyzed. The subsequent fight over payment of damages shows how difficult it can be to enforce judgments against corporations and other business entities.

On that day in 1994, a tractor-trailer owned by Gunther’s Leasing Transport crashed into a small rental truck. The two vehicles then hit an asphalt-rolling machine in the construction area where Buber was working. The tractor-trailer jackknifed and caught fire. The truck’s passenger, Keith Briscoe, Jr., died in the crash, while the driver was injured. Buber was thrown through the air and suffered head injuries. He reportedly spent hours in surgery as doctors tried to remove fragments of skull from his brain.

Buber still suffers from brain damage, remains confined to a wheelchair and spends twenty hours a day in bed at a nursing home in Harford County. According to the Baltimore Sun, he cannot speak. He communicates by pointing to letters on a laminated card to spell out words. He relies on Social Security and workers’ compensation for support. His mother took care of him until her death in 2009, and now his sister looks after him when she can. Buber’s medical costs exceeded $1 million, and Gunther’s Leasing Transport reportedly had at least $1 million in liability coverage. Buber never saw any money from Gunther, though.

Buber , the family of Keith Brsicoe, Jr., and others brought a lawsuit against Gunther’s Leasing Transport. A jury rendered a verdict for the plaintiffs in 1997, awarding almost $16 million to the plaintiffs. Of that amount, the jury earmarked $13 million for Buber’s medical expenses and ongoing care. The company’s insurance paid the $1 million policy limits amount, but that was divided between the six plaintiffs and did not offer much help towards Buber’s mounting expenses.

Within weeks, Gunther’s Leasing Transport filed for bankruptcy reorganization. It reportedly listed $9 million in assets and $17.5 million in liabilities, most of which was the court judgment. At the time, it also faced an FBI investigation. Mark David Gunther, owner of Gunther’s Leasing Transport, was sentenced to thirty months in prison by a Baltimore federal jury for forging drivers’ logs. A bankruptcy judge approved a reorganization plan for the company that included payments to Buber and the other plaintiffs, but by 2001 the company was so far behind on payments that the IRS had the case converted to a liquidation.

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Posted In: Truck Accidents

Posted On: February 10, 2012

Families of Blackwater Contractors Killed in Fallujah Settle Lawsuit

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1124515_69176736_02092012.jpgFour American civilians employed by security contractor Blackwater were killed in Fallujah, Iraq in March 2004 after gunmen opened fire on their vehicles. When the vehicles stopped, a crowd of people converged, throwing rocks and setting the vehicles on fire. The four men were shot and killed and, in a scene that would haunt American headlines, their bodies were pulled from the burned vehicles and dragged through the city. Pictures shown on television depicted people mutilating the bodies and hanging two of them from a bridge over the Euphrates River. Media around the world showed these images. The U.S. launched an assault on the city in response to the incident, which occurred at the beginning of the second year of American involvement in Iraq.

The four men worked as guards for Blackwater, now known as Academi. Blackwater was contracted by the U.S. military to provide various security services for American forces. One of the men was a former Navy SEAL, and the other three were former Army Rangers. At the time of the attack, they were traveling in two Mitsubishi SUV’s escorting a convoy of trucks to an American base to pick up some kitchen equipment. They had reportedly bypassed a Marine checkpoint when they entered Fallujah.

In January 2005, about eight months after the attack, the families of the four men filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court against Blackwater. The lawsuit accused Blackwater of violating its contractual obligations to the men by putting them in harm’s way without adequate armor or weapons. The SUV’s were not armored, and they did not have sufficient personnel to operate rear guns that might have offered protection from gunmen in the city.

Blackwater argued that it should have immunity from lawsuits under the principle of sovereign immunity. This principle typically applies to government entities and officials. Blackwater, being a private business, argued that the military’s widespread use of private contractors gave them the benefit of sovereign immunity. The company took this argument as far as the U.S. Supreme Court, who declined to hear the case. Then Blackwater invoked a mandatory arbitration clause in the men’s employment contracts.

A federal judge ordered the parties to arbitration in 2007, and they spent more than three years fighting over payment of arbitrators’ fees. The families filed an appeal of the judge’s order with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the parties entered into a settlement agreement before the appeal could be heard. The terms of the settlement remain confidential.

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Posted In: Inadequate Security , Personal Injury , Violent Crimes

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