Con-Ed Suit for loss of WTC Facility Barred

Con-Ed's facilities at 7 World Trade Center were destroyed when two 6,000 gallon diesel fuel tanks ignited. Federal District Alvin Hellerstein, who manages the WTC litigation at the Southern District of New York has dismissed Con-Ed's action agaanst the developers, finding the events too remote to support the utility's liability claim. In Re WTC Litigation.

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SNL: Ron Paul on No Duty to Rescue Puppies

Starting at about 11:00 of the "SNL 7th or 8th Republican Presidential Debate"  Ron Paul affirms there is no duty to rescue puppies.

OTHERWISE: NY Court of Appeals: Port Authority Immune in 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Verdicts

OTHERWISE: NY Court of Appeals: Port Authority Immune in 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Verdicts:

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OTHERWISE: Law Grads - the chances of getting a job / Brian Tamanaha/Balkinization

OTHERWISE: Law Grads - the chances of getting a job / Brian Tamanaha/Balkinization:

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Court Filing Details Shortcomings of 9/11 Airport Screeners - NYTimes.com

Court Filing Details Shortcomings of 9/11 Airport Screeners - NYTimes.com: "The five terrorists who boarded United Airlines Flight 175 in Boston on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, passed through a security checkpoint that was staffed by some screeners who could not speak or understand English, did not know who Osama bin Laden or Al Qaeda were, and, in one case, could not identify what Mace was, according to new court documents."

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BP Shortcuts Led to Gulf Oil Spill, Report Says - NYTimes.com

BP Shortcuts Led to Gulf Oil Spill, Report Says - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — BP, running weeks behind schedule and tens of millions of dollars over budget trying to complete its troubled Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, took numerous shortcuts that contributed to the disastrous blowout and oil spill last year, federal investigators concluded in a report released on Wednesday."

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U.S. Probe Lays Gulf Spill Blame On BP, Contractors | TPM News Pages

U.S. Probe Lays Gulf Spill Blame On BP, Contractors | TPM News Pages:

"WASHINGTON/HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government heaped the lion's share of blame for the country's biggest ever oil spill on BP on Wednesday as investigators issued their final report on the massive Gulf disaster last year.

In a report that may be pivotal in the multibillion-dollar legal battles to come and could set the stage for criminal charges, the Coast Guard and the offshore oil regulator wrote that BP was solely to blame for 21 of 35 contributing causes to the Macondo well blow-out that led to the leak, and shared blame for 8 more.

After the most definitive look yet at the disaster, investigators said BP made a series of decisions that complicated cementing operations and may have contributed to the ultimate failure of the cementing of the well."

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Tort Reform at the Tea Party Presidential Debate

Denunciation of (plaintiffs) trial lawyers is standard red meat for the lions at Republican Party gatherings. Tonight tort reform in medical malpractice cases was declared by Gov. Perry to be  powerful job creation engine.

Just for the record, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in a 2009 letter to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) doesn't think there is much gain there:

CBO estimates that the direct costs that providers will incur in 2009 for medical malpractice liability—which consist of malpractice insurance premiums together with settlements, awards, and administrative costs not covered by insurance—will total approximately $35 billion, or about 2 percent of total health care expenditures. Therefore, lowering premiums for medical liability insurance by 10 percent would reduce total national health care expenditures by about 0.2 percent.

The savings would be achieved by a package of reforms:
 A cap of $250,000 on awards for noneconomic damages;
 A cap on awards for punitive damages of $500,000 or two times the award for economic damages, whichever is greater;
 Modification of the “collateral source” rule to allow evidence of income from such sources as health and life insurance, workers’ compensation, and automobile insurance to be introduced at trials or to require that such income be subtracted from awards decided by juries;
 A statute of limitations—one year for adults and three years for children—from the date of discovery of an injury; and
 Replacement of joint-and-several liability with a fair-share rule, under which a defendant in a lawsuit would be liable only for the percentage of the final award that was equal to his or her share of responsibility for the injury.

Early assessment of cancer outcomes in New York City firefighters after the 9/11 attacks: an observational cohort study : The Lancet

Early assessment of cancer outcomes in New York City firefighters after the 9/11 attacks: an observational cohort study : The Lancet: "We reported a modest excess of cancer cases in the WTC-exposed cohort. We remain cautious in our interpretation of this finding because the time since 9/11 is short for cancer outcomes, and the reported excess of cancers is not limited to specific organ types. As in any observational study, we cannot rule out the possibility that effects in the exposed group might be due to unidentified confounders. Continued follow-up will be important and should include cancer screening and prevention strategies.
Funding
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health."

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China: Oil spill aftermath tests the legal waters

Changdao oil spill

from China Daily, USA

Oil spill aftermath tests the legal waters: "Victims of marine pollution look to the courts for justice, reports Li Jing from Beijing.

When some of his sea cucumbers showed signs of distress in late June, Xun Shaobin did not expect that the majority of them would soon perish.

The 58-year-old sea farmer from Laoting county, Hebei province, cultivates 4.2 hectares of the marine animals.

"Some sea cucumbers began to turn a yellowish green from their normal black. So I went to other villagers to seek help, only to find out that they were facing the same problems," Xun said.

"We didn't know the cause at that time, nor did we know anything about the oil spills. In less than a month, about 60 percent of my sea cucumbers had died.""

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