Missouri Lawyers Weekly articles from September 2006

Missouri Lawyers Weekly archives from September 2006

Commentary: How bad is bad? Courts remain split on key punitive damages issue.
September 4, 2006... Byline: David T. Biderman and Gabriel Liao The application of the reprehensibility guidepost first set forth by the Supreme Court in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559 (1996), and further discussed in State Farm Mutual...

Missouri to award law license to missing civil rights figure.(Lloyd Gaines)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Alan Scherzagier, Associated Press writer First came an honorary law degree from the university that had denied him admission because of his skin color. Now missing civil rights pioneer Lloyd Gaines is slated to receive a license to...

K.C. law professor's essay wins American Bar Association contest.(Kansas City)(Sean O'Brien)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Sean O'Brien The American Bar Association chose Professor Sean O'Brien's essay as the winner of the 2006 Ross Essay Contest. O'Brien is a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law where he serves as director...

Missouri Lawyers in the News: September 1, 2006.(Iris G. Ferguson joins Lincoln University Board of Curators)(Andrew W. Manuel joins Meritas)(Jenny S. Huang joins Brown and James )(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Gov. Matt Blunt last week named Judge Iris G. Ferguson, 61, of St. Louis, to the Lincoln University Board of Curators. Ferguson is a retired associate circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit. She...

Does the Missouri Bar's survey of judges have any pull?
September 4, 2006... Byline: Scott Lauck In most years, the Missouri Bar's survey of judges is pretty straightforward: the majority of lawyers say every judge up for retention that year should stay in office. And in most years, the public agrees, voting to put...

Missouri State Public Defender caseload 'crisis'.(Missouri State Public Defender's Office )
September 4, 2006... Byline: Scott Lauck The battle to pull the Missouri State Public Defender's Office out of what some have called a "crisis mode" is being fought in both the committee hearing room and the courtroom. An interim Senate committee and a...

Fox News commentator/Republican adviser Charles E. Polk Jr. asks for second chance.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Geri L. Dreiling What had originally been billed as a two-day criminal sentence hearing for former lawyer, Fox News commentator and Republican adviser Charles E. Polk Jr., was done in less than two hours. When it was over, Polk...

Verdicts & Settlements September 4, 2006: Little Tikes wins $29M over fire-ravaged plant.(Newell Rubbermaid, Inc., v. Efficient Solutions, Inc)(negligence and breach of contract case)(Case overview)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Anne C. Vitale After losing half of its plant to fire, a Farmington playground equipment manufacturer has recovered $29 million in damages in its St. Francois County breach of contract and negligence case against a company that...

St. Charles jury sides with husband, awards no damages in herpes suit.(marital tort case)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole A St. Charles jury found a husband in a divorce case did not intentionally infect his wife with herpes. The Aug. 8 verdict turning down damages for the wife in Ray v. Wisdom followed an Eastern District Court of...

Employees can be liable in sex harassment cases, rules MO Court of Appeals, Eastern District.(Missouri)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole Individual employees can be held liable in sexual harassment cases, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District held in a ruling that attorneys said could aid plaintiffs by making it harder to move such cases to...

Southern U.S.-based Ogletree Deakins recruits six Stinson Morrison attorneys to Phoenix office.(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole Southern U.S.-based labor and employment firm Ogletree, Nash, Smoak & Stewart is for a second time growing in Arizona at the expense of a Missouri firm. Ogletree added six former Stinson, Morrison & Hecker...

Insurance policy interpretation, attorney dismissal cases transferred to MO Supreme Court.(Missouri)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Joy Simmons Determining whether a fired city attorney is entitled to equitable relief, and resolving ambiguities in an auto insurance policy are issues in two cases to be decided by the Missouri Supreme Court. One case focused...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: September 4, 2006.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Jurisdiction - Equitable Relief - Amended Petition Where a trial court granted equitable relief to a city attorney who claimed he was wrongfully removed from his job, the...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: September 4, 2006.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Jurisdiction - Uncontested Case - Terminated Employee Where a county employee who was terminated for concealing a drug conviction sought judicial review of the decision as an...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: September 4, 2006.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Sentencing - Minimum Term - Section 558.019 Where a criminal defendant received consecutive sentences for dangerous felonies that included a life sentence and added up to more...

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit Case Summaries: September 4, 2006.
September 4, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Telecommunications Act - Nebraska PSC Where competing telephone service carriers disputed their duties under the Telecommunications Act, a judgment affirming in part and...

Verdicts & Settlements September 4, 2006: Jury finds Pick's Fireplaces Plus liable for house fire.(Donald Sesso and Mary Sesso v. Pick's Fireplaces Plus Inc.)(negligence case)(Case overview)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon $514,935 verdict After a two-day trial and two hours of deliberation, a unanimous jury found that an improperly installed fireplace fluepipe ignited the fire that caused more than $500,000 in damage to a Lake of the...

Verdicts & Settlements September 4, 2006: SSM doctors win in lawsuit over bile duct surgery injury.(Helen Crockett v. SSM St. Charles Clinic Medical Group Inc)(medical malpractice case)(Case overview)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon Defense verdict A St. Charles County jury deliberated less than an hour before finding SSM St. Charles Clinic Medical Group Inc. not liable for a surgical injury to a bile duct. Plaintiff's attorney Theodore...

Verdicts & Settlements September 4, 2006: DaimlerChrysler settles wrongful death case.(Dally v. DaimlerChrysler)(product liability case)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon Confidential settlement DaimlerChrysler settled a products liability case before it was even filed by the family of a Kansas woman who died from injuries suffered when the seat in her Dodge Caravan collapsed during a...

Verdicts & Settlements September 4, 2006: Jury finds for cab driver and company in crash case.(Pamela Thomas v. Gang Gang, William Hudson and Metro Transport LLC)(personal injury and traffic accident case)
September 4, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon Confidential settlement A Jackson County jury found in favor of a Kansas City cab company following a crash in which the plaintiff claimed she suffered multiple spinal injuries as well as damage to her vocal cords,...

Commentary: Mediation joint sessions: Are they really needed?(Column)
September 18, 2006... Byline: James W. Reeves Lawyers often view the opening joint session in mediation as a ritual to sit through while the mediator makes a presentation about the mediation process and turns the session over to the lawyers, who give their...

Courthouse could bear late Rush Limbaugh's name.(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Associated Press A new federal courthouse would bear one of the most famous names in southeast Missouri - and the nation - under legislation offered by Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent. Decades before his namesake grandson...

Two partners from St. Louis office of Bryan Cave to start their own practice.(James Bennett and Edward L. Dowd, Jr.)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Two partners in the St. Louis office of Bryan Cave are leaving the silk stocking firm to start their own practice. On Monday, Sept. 18, Dowd Bennett LLP makes it debut. The lawyers are Edward L. Dowd,...

Nominees chosen for 16th Circuit judgeship.(Robert Schieber, Tobin, James and Wimes, Brian)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Gov. Matt Blunt will choose from nominees Robert Schieber, James Tobin and Brian Wimes to fill the position of 16th Circuit Court judge. The Sixteenth Circuit Judicial Commission interviewed the...

Public meeting set on property tax assessment.(Joe Passanise)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Joe Passanise, Republican candidate for St. Louis County Executive, is hosting a public meeting on real estate property tax assessment Sept. 20. The meeting will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the St....

MU law school honors its graduates at annual ceremony.(University of Missouri)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Law held its annual Law Day, a homecoming for alumni, Sept. 9. The law school honored six graduates for using their degree to make a difference in their...

Missouri Lawyers in the News: September 18, 2006.(Thomas J. Grever, Tiajuana Henderson, Terry J. Satterlee, Therese Rolufs Trelz)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Therese "Tessa" Rolufs Trelz, partner at Armstrong Teasdale LLP, was recently appointed to serve as the firm's Program Director for the Professional Advancement of Women. Over the past nine years,...

Federal compensation fund available to help nuclear workers who developed cancer.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Sylvia Hsieh Thousands of Missouri workers like Christopher Davis helped build - often in secret - the country's nuclear arsenal during the Cold War. But unknown to Davis and other workers, an even darker secret was kept from them...

Title problem seen as key to winning sex business case.(Case overview)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Scott Lauck Lawyers fighting a state law that restricts sexually oriented businesses say the case has a strong First Amendment argument in its favor. But ultimately they see the case being won on a more mundane issue - whether the...

Plaintiff lawyers cry foul over Premcor Refining Group, Equilon Enterprises settlement.(Case overview)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Geri L. Dreiling Over the past few years, class action practice in Madison County, Ill., has been criticized by business-backed groups and some legal commentators as an abusive tool in which settlements favor lawyers and fail to...

Daughter of nuclear employee leads fight for a generation of workers.(Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Sylvia Hsieh Denise Brock knew cancer. She grew up tending her bed-ridden father, staying up until midnight doing crossword puzzles with him, seeing him shuttled in and out of hospitals. She still remembers his black and...

Missouri Supreme Court orders man's release on probation.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Scott Lauck In a lightning-fast decision, the Missouri Supreme Court ordered a man released from prison after ruling that a circuit court judge had failed to release him on probation. The ruling, issued only two days after the...

Supreme Court hears child abuse registry challenge.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Scott Lauck Most people dread the thought of going through a trial. But attorney Timothy Belz said those who find themselves on the state's registry of accused child abusers and neglectors relish the idea. "Their best day is...

Western District gives guidance on class-action appeals.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Scott Lauck A new rule in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, may give attorneys a better sense of how to appeal class-action lawsuits. Special Rule XL went into effect in the court starting last Friday, outlining...

Bryan Cave loses Phoenix lawyers to start-up offices.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole Phoenix managing partner Luke Narducci remembers it was a Friday before Memorial Day weekend in 2005 at 3 p.m. when he got the news. Joseph Clees, the head of Bryan Cave's labor and employment practice, was leaving...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: September 18, 2006.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Appellate Practice Jurisdiction - Judgment - Rule 74.01(a) Where an order granting a motion to dismiss was not denominated a judgment by the trial court, the judgment did not comply with Rule...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: September 18, 2006.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Municipal Incorporation - Population - Authority Where an unincorporated area composed of fewer than 10 people sought to become an incorporated village, the area does not meet the definition...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: September 18, 2006.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Appellate Practice Judgment Of Default - Interlocutory - Unresolved Damages Where a trial court in a wrongful death case entered an interlocutory judgment of default against several defendants...

Missouri Supreme Court Case Summaries: September 18, 2006.(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Sentencing - Section 559.115 - Hearing Where a criminal defendant successfully completed a 120-day treatment program under Section 559.115, the trial court failed to hold a...

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit Case Summaries: September 18, 2006.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Sexual Offender - Isolation - Due process Where a man committed as a sex offender sued agency officials and employees claiming civil rights violations from being placed in...

Verdicts & Settlements September 18, 2006: Daughter awarded verdict in heat-related death of mother.(Valerie Jackson v. Leland Health Care Center LLC)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon $275,000 verdict The daughter of one of four women whose heat-related deaths at a University City nursing home made headlines five years ago netted a $275,000 verdict in a wrongful death case. The verdict was...

Verdicts & Settlements September 18, 2006: Employees reach agreement after Havens Steel bankruptcy.
September 18, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon $2 million settlement About 575 employees of the bankrupt Havens Steel Co. reached a $2 million settlement with former company officials and officers of their employee stock option plan after they lost between $30...

Verdicts & Settlements Sept. 18, 2006: Medical professionals off the hook in lawsuit.(Jimmie L. Sharbutt v. Freeman Health System, Paul D. Robison, M.D., Raymond Kent Griffith, D.O., Richard Dove, P.A.-C., and Joseph L. Thomas, R.N.)
September 18, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon Defense verdict Paying attention to records and comparing them to a plaintiff's claims worked in favor of the defense in a Jasper County medical malpractice lawsuit over kidney failure. Plaintiff Jimmie Sharbutt...

Commentary: Tired truckers: The new hours-of-service rules.(Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration)(Column)
September 25, 2006... Byline: R. Denise Henning & Stephen R. Bough "Safety is the Bush Administration's top transportation priority. Over the last several years, FMCSA has made great progress in reducing commercial vehicle crash fatalities, and this rule should...

Missouri Bar's annual meeting starts this week.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Donna Walter This week hundreds of Missouri lawyers converge in downtown St. Louis for The Missouri Bar's annual meeting. The Renaissance Grand Hotel will be the site of the meeting, which begins Wednesday afternoon with the...

California franchise team joins Bryan Cave's Santa Monica office.(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole A team of seven franchise partners and counsel are joining Bryan Cave's Santa Monica office. The firm recruited the majority of the franchise and distribution practice group of Texas-based Jenkens & Gilchrist,...

Armstrong Teasdale attorneys and staff attend firm's annual picnic at Dave & Buster's.(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole Armstrong Teasdale attorneys and staff unbuttoned collars and swapped pumps for tennis shoes Sept. 17 to try their hand at Daytona USA, virtual golf, dance simulators and other Dave & Buster's attractions. About...

Former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Covington retires from Bryan Cave.(Ann Kettering Covington )
September 25, 2006... Byline: Scott Lauck Former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Kettering Covington has retired from Bryan Cave LLP, where she was in private practice since leaving the court in 2001. Covington retired on July 31. In an interview...

Missouri Supreme Court disbars Charles E. Polk Jr.(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... Byline: Geri Dreiling The saga of Charles E. Polk Jr., a modern day Greek tragedy, is winding ever closer to an end. On Sept. 19, the Missouri Supreme Court disbarred Polk. In June, Polk's license was suspended after he entered a...

Missouri Lawyers In The News: September 25, 2006.(Derrick Good)(Michael Gunn)(Carol Chazen Friedman )(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff The National Republican Congressional Committee's Business Advisory Council announced that Derrick Good of Hillsboro is the 2006 Republican of the year from Missouri. The award is given to business and...

2004 decision in Crawford v. Washington influences Missouri Supreme Court hearing.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Scott Lauck In its landmark 2004 decision in Crawford v. Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court offered a new standard for admitting "testimonial hearsay" into criminal proceedings but didn't define exactly what types of hearsay it...

Missouri's second-largest firm has had a hard time growing its corporate group of attorneys.(Shook, Hardy and Bacon L.L.P.)
September 25, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole Defense litigation powerhouse Shook Hardy & Bacon has numerous business clients who could provide a good base for corporate attorneys to grow their practices. That's the theory, at least, but Missouri's...

Lawyer lender names now public in Municipal Court Judge Deborah Neal's case.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Bridget Heos (This story was reported by the Kansas City Daily Record, another Dolan Media publication.) Following the release of their names, 10 lawyers who lent money to former Municipal Court Judge Deborah Neal are beginning...

Shook Hardy chair starts second term preaching passion to spur growth.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Heather Cole John Murphy wants everybody at Shook, Hardy & Bacon to be a Fred. Fred is the mailman-hero profiled in Mark Sanborn's 2004 book "The Fred Factor: How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into...

No coverage for dog bite, rules Missouri Court of Appeals Western District.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Geri L. Dreiling A girl bitten by a trailer park employee's dog cannot look to the park's insurance policy to pay for the damages she suffered, the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District has ruled. That's because a...

8th Circuit rules airline did not discriminate in firing Muslim pilot after 9/11.(World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks, 2001)(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, v. Trans States Airlines)(Trans States Airlines Inc.)
September 25, 2006... Byline: Joy Simmons An airline that fired a Muslim pilot seven days after Sept. 11, 2001 did not violate anti-discrimination laws, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled. A three-judge appellate panel held that Trans...

'Special needs' grows as niche in elder-law.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Dick Dahl (This article originally appeared in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media publication.) In the view of many trusts and estates lawyers, "special needs" law has developed into an important niche practice area. Three...

Accessibility, decor are key in elder-law offices.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Nora Lockwood Tooher (This article originally appeared in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media publication.) It took elder-law attorney Stuart Zimring four months to find what he calls the "Goldilocks chairs" for his conference...

Contaminated rice crops spur twin class actions in Missouri.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Allison Retka (This article originally ran in The Daily Record, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication.) Fearing up to three years of diminished sales, hundreds of the farmers have joined two class-action lawsuits filed...

Malpractice filed against Spencer Fane attorneys by St. Louis family.(Spencer Fane Britt and Browne L.L.P.)
September 25, 2006... Byline: Allison Retka (This article originally ran in The Daily Record, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication.) In a hefty 200-page lawsuit filed earlier this month, a St. Louis family sued three attorneys from Spencer Fane...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Case Summaries: September 25, 2006.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Appellate Practice Judgments - Finality Where plaintiffs appealed a judgment entered in favor of three defendants in a civil case, claims remained pending against additional defendants and the...

Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District Case Summaries: September 25, 2006.(State v. Johnson )(Brief article)
September 25, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Evidence - Admission - Intent Where a condom was admitted as evidence in defendant's trial for forcible sodomy of his stepdaughter, the probative value outweighed the prejudicial...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Case Summaries: September 25, 2006.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Attorney's Fees - Prevailing Party - 'Substantially Justified' Where an agency supervisor was reinstated after being demoted for making inappropriate comments, the personnel...

U.S. Bank. Ct. - App. Panel Case Summaries: September 25, 2006.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Security Interest - Lease - Termination Where a trustee appealed a bankruptcy court's order determining that a creditor held a perfected security interest in debtor's claim against...

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit Case Summaries: September 25, 2006.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Missouri Lawyers Weekly Staff ERISA Severance Benefits - Additional Pay - Summary Plan Description - Even though a department store employer promised additional severance benefits to employees in the event of a take over...

Verdicts & Settlements September 25, 2006: Medical malpractice verdict places fault mostly on staff.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon $156,200 verdict; $29,678 with 19 percent allocation of fault A Lake of the Ozarks woman won a jury decision, but lawyers for the doctor she sued said the verdict showed the physician is not always totally at...

Verdicts & Settlements September 25, 2006: Injured driver wins after defendant admits liability.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon $142,186 verdict Plaintiff's attorney Randall Cain credited the positive attitude of a plaintiff and acceptance of responsibility by the defendant in helping a Jackson County jury award $142,186 to an injured...

Verdicts & Settlements September 25, 2006: Family of disabled boy secures compensation for care.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon $2 million settlement A settlement reached four weeks prior to trial meant a disabled Missouri boy and his family will have $2 million for his care needs. James "Caleb" Bruns, diagnosed with cerebral palsy after...

Verdicts & Settlements September 25, 2006: Jury supports doctors in malpractice lawsuit.
September 25, 2006... Byline: Mike Nixon Defense verdict A Greene County jury deliberated an hour and a half before returning a defense verdict in a medical malpractice lawsuit that originated 11 years earlier. "This case has a lot of age on it," said...