2012

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Crump v. NBTY, Inc. et al., 10-cv-632 (WFK) (ETB) (EDNY March 1, 2012) illustrates that even a single, facially neutral (but arguably racist) remark by a supervisor may be enough to proceed to a jury trial on a Title VII discrimination claim. Defendant contended that it fired plaintiff for theft and for improperly using a…

Read More Court Allows Race Discrimination Claim, Based on Single Racist Remark, to Proceed to Jury Trial
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A recent decision, Thiebault v.Chelsea 23rd St. Corp., 108001/2011 (N.Y. Sup. (N.Y. Cty.) Feb. 3, 2012), illustrates (yet again) the limited reach of New York’s general whistleblower statute.  Plaintiff alleged that he was terminated because he refused to sign an affidavit of service containing false statements, in violation of that law.  The court disagreed. “In…

Read More NY Whistleblower Law Does Not Protect Employee Fired For Refusing to Engage in Perjury
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Below is a copy of the complaint filed last week by the husband and child of Marion Hedges, who was injured on October 30, 2011 when struck by a shopping cart dropped from an elevated walkway of a Harlem shopping center (news regarding the recent sentencing of one of the teens involved in the incident here).…

Read More Shopping Cart Drop Lawsuit
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It’s an old story, really:  boy meets girl, boy cheats on girl, boy leaves second girl, girls post nasty comments about boy on www.liarscheatersrus.com, boy files lawsuit alleging defamation and tortious interference with prospective business relations… In Couloute v. Ryncarz et al., 11-cv-5986 (SDNY Feb. 15, 2012), the court found that plaintiff failed to state plausible claims…

Read More Court dismisses attorney’s lawsuit against ex-girlfriends for online rants
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Below is a copy of the complaint, captioned Sowers v. City of New York (SDNY 12-cv-1294), filed in the Southern District of New York by Chloe Sowers against the City of New York, NYPD officer Kevin McKeon, and New York Downtown Hospital. In it, Ms. Sowers alleges that while she was waiting for the Staten…

Read More Lawsuit Seeks Damages for False Arrest and Involuntary Hospitalization Arising From Non-Disruptive Public Intoxication
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In Sacco v. City of New York (App. Div. 1 Dept. Feb. 16, 2012), an Appellate Division, First Department panel held that the trial court erred in determining, as a matter of law, that the City was not provided with sufficient notice, per NYC Administrative Code § 7-201(c)(2), of the defective condition upon which plaintiff…

Read More Inspection Report Satisfied NYC’s “Pothole Law” Notice Requirement
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Yesterday SCOTUS granted certiorari in a case brought by a white plaintiff challenging the University of Texas at Austin’s use of race in its admission decisions.  The Question Presented, as set forth here, is:  “Whether this Court’s decisions interpreting the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, including Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003),…

Read More SCOTUS agrees to hear affirmative action case
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A recent decision by a New York trial court – Alicea v. JetBlue Airways Corp. – analyzes issues that commonly arise in a slip-and-fall case where the accident occurs in an area (here, JFK airport) where the rights, duties, and obligations of various parties intersect.  These issues include:  (1) the duties owed by an out-of-possession…

Read More Court allows JFK traveler’s slip/fall action to continue
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Below is a copy of the complaint filed on Wednesday, January 25th in New York State court against New York University and James Stuckey by Stephanie Bonadio, a director at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.  Plaintiff alleged that NYU advised her “that her job no longer existed and that there was no specific…

Read More NYU Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
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On January 23, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court held (in U.S. v. Jones; decision below) that the government’s “installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ‘search’” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Central to the Court’s analysis and conclusion…

Read More Supreme Court Holds That Affixing GPS Tracking Device to a Car Constitutes a Fourth Amendment “Search”
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