Nota Bene

Fox News reports:

A Detroit city employee who says she can’t work because a co-worker’s perfume is too strong is suing the city.

Susan McBride’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, says the work environment is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

McBride wants a ban on such scents at work — and unspecified damages.

City spokesman Matt Allen declined to comment, telling The Detroit News the city does not normally comment on litigation or personnel issues.

McBride, who joined the planning department in 2000, says problems started a year ago when the co-worker, who isn’t identified in the lawsuit, transferred into her department.

“This employee not only wore a strong scent, but also plugged in a scented room deodorizer,” the lawsuit states. “Ms. McBride was overcome by the smell almost instantly, causing her to go home sick.”

Think this is frivolous? A Detroit jury awarded $10.6 million dollars in a similar case.

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. (more…)

In the news and around the web:

• The Washington Post reports that Jesse Davis’ body has most likely been found and her boyfriend has been arrested for double murder.
• The Sacramento Bee reports another failure by the Delgadillo family to obey the law. This time, the wife of LA’s City Attorney, Michelle Delgadillo, failed to obtain a business license and file tax returns.
• AP News reports that a California Court of Appeal has ruled on the legality of a West Hollywood ordinance banning cat declawing. You can read the court opinion here. You might guess the outcome based on how the opinion starts off: “Echoing Gandhi’s teaching that a society’s moral progress is best judged by its treatment of animals, the City of West Hollywood has banned as cruel and inhumane the practice of animal declawing unless necessary for a therapeutic purpose.”
• Overlawyered.com reports on a Dutch woman’s lawsuit for emotional distress over not winning a lottery that she never entered.
• The Sacramento Bee reports that the California Court of Appeal has stayed the contempt sentence for Phil Spector’s former lawyer who has refused to testify at his criminal trial regarding the allegation that Henry Lee mishandled evidence at the crime scene.

Forbes.com reports:

Wes Craven sued his neighbor Pauly Shore, alleging that water from the comedian’s home seeped down a slope and damaged the director’s property.

Craven claimed that a landslide occurred on his property in December after Shore upgraded his home with a pool, spa, landscaping and other improvements, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

I have been outed before my Grand Opening.  Thanks Ken.

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Jeff Lewis and I am an appellate and litigation attorney in Southern California. I used to publish the political and legal commentary blog known as The Southern California Law Blog. This blog will feature stories and articles of a more narrow focus: appellate and litigation. Feel free to look around and leave a comment or two.