Magic Springs & Lake County Fair Suits · May 25, 07:33 AM
I have a post at my TortsProf blog about a couple of amusement-related suits, one against Magic Springs and Zamperla for the fall suffered by a guest there, and one against the Ohio Department of Agriculture for the electrocution death of a young boy at the Lake County Fair.
Intamin Wins, Sort of, On Appeal · Apr 27, 06:30 AM
The Federal Circuit decision is here [PDF], and if you search for “Magnetar” over on the right of my site, you’ll find other posts about its patent fight. Basically, the Federal Circuit reversed a part of the trial court’s claim construction but remanded for consideration of another issue on which Magnetar might still win. The court also affirmed the trial court’s eventual decision not to impose sanctions on Intamin.
Another Sizzler Fatality · Apr 11, 10:06 AM
There’s been another tragic death of a young child on a Sizzler, this one in Hope, Arkansas (very near where my dad grew up, incidentally).
It appears from initial reports that the death may have come from a combination of several factors, including perhaps a language barrier (the decedent and his mother spoke Spanish), the boy moving out of the standard position (I think a story said to grab his toy), and, according to one report, possibly a restraint failure. Of course, as many Sizzler cases have shown, young children can quite easily be injured or killed without the restraint failing.
I’m traveling to Cincinnati tomorrow for a moot court competition, so I may not be able to follow it closely in the short term, but will try to get some thoughts about it soon.
Unreliable Conclusions Based on Useless Data · Apr 4, 09:53 AM
I hesitate to even point it out for fear of it seeming to have credibility, but the Amusement Safety website somehow got some press for their purely anecdotal, unverified, epidemiologically useless “ratings” of Six Flags Magic Mountain.
I’ve written about AmusementSafety.org before and what I said there remains true today:
In what could be a case study in how not to evaluate ride safety, or possibly how website operators can call visits to amusement parks (deductible?) “independent safety observations,” I point you to AmusementSafety.org.
The group’s ratings appear to be based solely on the numbers of reports, and – surprise! – a ginormous park in a huge market near the entity’s basement “headquarters” gets a lot of reports. Does that tell us anything useful? No, not even a signal. There’s no attempt to account for confounding factors, no attempt to confirm reports, and, quite simply, nothing resembling scientific rigor.
So I’m posting again in hopes that next time a reporter is tempted to consider them an authority, they’ll do some Googling and resist the temptation.
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Cedar Point Sued for ADA Violations by Alleged "Lawyer Mill" · Mar 17, 01:37 PM
The “Disabled Patriots of America” and an individual plaintiff, one Michael Miles, has sued Cedar Point alleging a laundry list of ADA violations. See the complaint here.
The “Disabled Patriots” is, according to at least one news report, an entity set up for the purpose of bringing ADA suits, often with minimal violations but still with the possibility of fee-shifting, where the defendant will have to pay the fees of the attorneys for the plaintiff. The Cedar Point suit was brought by one of the same two attorneys that press coverage indicates the claims are always brought by, Larry Fuller.
According to the same story, Fuller, Fuller and Associates (Danger! Annoying audio! but a funny picture of a judge to make up for it) was once sanctioned when their client, who was alleged to be quadriplegic, walked into his own deposition.
Of course, none of that necessarily means that Cedar Point is in compliance in all ways, minor or major, and there are no doubt things that could be improved. But it’s worth observing the context.
More coverage here.
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Patent Suit Against Just About Everybody · Mar 3, 02:03 PM
Three entities controlling various patents on magnetic braking systems have sued [PDF] a ton of park operators, including Six Flags, Disney, NBC, Busch, Paramount, Cedar Fair, and others.
I’ve written before about one of the plaintiff entities, Magnetar, which won a suit against it brought by Intamin; the appeal of that suit remains pending at the Federal Circuit.
Mission: Space Lawsuit Settles · Jan 30, 03:39 PM
Story is here, though, as is usual, it doesn’t disclose any details.
(This relates to the death of four-year-old Daudi Bamuwamye, who died on, or shortly after riding, Mission: Space.)
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Amended Complaint in Fellner v. PTC & HW · Jan 29, 09:54 AM
After the various choice-of-law decisions, the family of Tamar Fellner has filed a new complaint [PDF]. The main difference, of course, is the absence of a punitive damages claim against the park (though one remains against PTC under Pennsylvania law).
The park has filed an answer, but I didn’t download it yet.
Disney Case Settles · Jan 10, 10:07 AM
The Indiana Jones case has settled. I’ve written about both of the major issues addressed in it—subsequent remedial measures and amusement rides as common carriers—on my TortsProf blog.
Tort Reform in Texas and the Sizzler · Jan 9, 09:26 AM
I have written about the impact of Texas’s statute of repose for products cases and how it could play out in a carnival ride context at the TortsProf blog.