Michigan Lawyers Weekly articles from January 2002

Michigan Lawyers Weekly archives from January 2002

Kalamazoo's 'healing & law' program gaining admirers.
January 7, 2002... Byline: C. Jesse Green Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Maura D. Corrigan is one big name in local legal circles who is "very supportive" of a movement that might strike some as unusual -- an effort to blend "healing" with the law. ...

Michigan Court of Appeals rules driver can't use hearsay to show city had notice.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Lynn Patrick Ingram A driver who was injured in an accident caused by a malfunctioning traffic light could not offer the testimony of police officers regarding what they were told by other drivers involved in previous accidents at...

Michigan Court of Appeals, Western District: Bank perfected its security interest in mobile home.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Karen M. Poole Even though a bank did not comply with the Michigan Mobile Home Commission Act (MHCA), it perfected its security interest in a mobile home by properly recording its mortgage on the real property to which the mobile...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Appointments Ada Snyder Kerwin has been appointed as a board member of Planned Parenthood of Southeast Michigan for a term to expire in July 2003. Kerwin, a member of Clark Hill PLC's...

Michigan Attorney Discipline Board Case Summaries: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Notice Of Automatic Interim Suspension Case No. 01-175-AI Notice Issued: December 20, 2001 Thomas H. Randolph, Jr., P-44624, Detroit, Michigan. Effective November 27, 2001. On...

Michigan Attorney General Opinions: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Municipal Law Noncharter County - Noise Control Ordinance A county board of commissioners in a noncharter county lacks authority to adopt a countywide noise control ordinance. Opinion No....

Michigan Appellate Court Case Summaries: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure No - Progress Dismissal - Improper Entry Where the trial court dismissed plaintiff's case for lack of progress, this was error because the court was partially responsible for...

Michigan Appellate Unpublished Civil Case Summaries: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Arbitration Common - Law Arbitration - No Judicial Review Where the parties had a common-law arbitration agreement, defendants' argument that the arbitrator misapplied the law and erroneously...

Michigan Appellate Unpublished Criminal Case Summaries: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Affirmed Convictions Criminal Sexual Conduct, First Degree. Prior Bad Acts. The evidence of prior bad acts was properly admitted to show that defendant had a common scheme for committing the acts...

Michigan Superior Court Case Summaries: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Judges Judicial Discipline - Suspension Modified Where a judge assigned criminal cases to an attorney who was also her lover without disclosing the relationship, and where she also initially...

U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit Case Summaries: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Jurisdiction - Indispensable Party Where plaintiff-securities firm filed a federal suit to stay defendant-estate's state-court action and to compel arbitration of the estate's...

U.S. District Court Michigan Eastern Case Summaries: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Statute Of Repose - Contractor Where plaintiff-hospital seeks indemnification and contribution from defendant-contractor after a television unit defendant installed fell and...

U.S. District Court Western District Case Summaries: January 7, 2002.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Security Interest - Fixture Where appellant-bank had a mortgage on the property to which the "fixture," (the debtor's mobile home), was attached, the bankruptcy court erred by...

Verdicts & Settlements January 7, 2002: Mild TBI nets $325K settlement.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff On Feb. 21, 1997, plaintiff Kellean Baldwin was driving on Temperance Road in Monroe County. As she approached the intersection of Temperance and Douglas roads, the defendant pulled out in front of the...

Verdicts & Settlements January 7, 2002: Landlord - tenant suit results in $27M settlement.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff 'Win-Win' Settlement For City Of Pontiac, Detroit Lions In December 2000, Pontiac filed suit after the Lions announced their intention to breach their lease of the Pontiac Silverdome by...

Verdicts & Settlements January 7, 2002: Wayne Co. jury awards $55M in med - mal suit.
January 7, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Thought To Be Largest In State History Minor plaintiff Zakyra Hall was admitted to St. Johns Hospital with complaints of fever and wheezing on March 27, 1997. While there, a chest X-ray was read by...

The largest jury verdicts of 2001: #1.(Michigan)
January 14, 2002... Byline: Kelly A. McCauley The baby had made five visits to the emergency rooms of two different hospitals in the span of one week. $55.6 MILLION ZAKYRA HALL, BY HER NEXT FRIEND KEISHA WADE V. HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM, ET AL. ...

The Largest Settlements Of 2001.
January 14, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff A $27 million settlement in the hotly-contested landlord dispute between the Detroit Lions football team and the City of Pontiac, and a $7.15 million class-action recovery against beleaguered Northwest...

The largest jury verdicts of 2001: #4 (tie).(dram shop acts)(Michigan)
January 14, 2002... Byline: Kelly A. McCauley $3 MILLION HAROLD BOWEN, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF MATTHEW BOWEN V. SUPERMART, INC., ET AL. Genesee County Circuit Court, #98-62998-NI Date of verdict: May 16, 2001. It started...

Insured pleads Fifth, Michigan Court of Appeals says she can't recover on fire policy.
January 14, 2002... Byline: Karen M. Poole Where an insured exercised her Fifth Amendment rights in refusing to cooperate with her insurance company's investigation of a fire in her home, her conduct constituted a breach of the insurance contract and she...

Michigan Supreme Court: estate can't sue road commission for death.
January 14, 2002... Byline: Lynn Patrick Ingram The estate of a driver killed in a head-on collision near the crest of a hill on an unpaved road could not sue the road commission under a theory of defective design, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled. ...

6th Circuit says bankruptcy lawyer was not entitled to collect legal fee.
January 14, 2002... Byline: J.P. Finet An attorney who represented debtors in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding could not sue his clients for $3,200 in unpaid legal fees where he failed to disclose his total fee of $15,000 to the bankruptcy court, the 6th...

Michigan Court of Appeals says jury instruction on adverse inference was not improper.
January 21, 2002... Byline: Karen M. Poole Where a store failed to offer evidence of the grapes that caused a woman to slip and fall, or a photograph of the scene at the time of the accident, the jury was properly instructed that it could draw an inference...

Michigan Court of Appeals finds city liable for death caused by streetlight.
January 21, 2002... Byline: Lynn Patrick Ingram Where a bus struck a city streetlight causing the streetlight to fall on a man and kill him, the city was liable for wrongful death, the Michigan Court of Appeals has reluctantly ruled. The city argued that...

Verdicts & Settlements January 21, 2002: Claim for PIP benefits settles for $20K.
January 21, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiffs filed suit against defendant State Farm for failure to pay first-party no-fault benefits. David Holland, who was plaintiff Johanna Holland's brother-in-law and plaintiff Willow Rain...

Verdicts & Settlements January 21, 2002: Premises case results in directed verdict for night club.
January 21, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff, Diane Prokopp, slipped and fell on an unknown substance while dancing at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor on Jan. 1, 2000. She alleged that the defendant was negligent for failing to maintain...

Verdicts & Settlements January 21, 2002: $50K Settlement For Dog Bite.
January 21, 2002... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was a postal carrier delivering mail. He was bitten by a stray dog and received a puncture wound in his upper thigh. He had injured his back two weeks prior performing work activities. ...

Pontiac gets $27M when Lions leave Silverdome.(Michigan)
January 28, 2002... Byline: Kelly A. McCauley The Detroit Lions football team may not have had a stellar season in 2001 -- finishing with a dismal 2-14 record -- but that did not mean the loss of the franchise wouldn't have a negative effect on the City of...

Michigan Court of Appeals says live-in caregiver can't sue for fall on snowy walkway.
January 28, 2002... Byline: Karen M. Poole A live-in caregiver who slipped and fell on a snowy walkway while she was moving out of her employer's home could not sue her employer for her injuries, the Michigan Court of Appeals has determined. The caregiver...

Michigan Court of Appeals says expert can testify in med-mal lawsuit.
January 28, 2002... Byline: Lynn Patrick Ingram Even though a plaintiff's medical expert did not have exactly the same board certifications as the physician who treated the plaintiff's decedent, the expert was still qualified to testify against the physician...