Things I would write about if I had more time:
Joel Rosenberg, blogger, author, and Jew With A Gun, has died;
So has Jack Kervorkian;
San Francisco’s anti-cicumscision legislation, and over-the-top anti-semitism;
John Edwards has been indicted;
Did you know that a parking lot is a highway? New York’s Court of Appeals says so;
A 17-year-old sells a kidney. Buys an iPad. I wonder who bought the kidney?
60 Minutes gets nastygram from Lance Armstrong legal eagle over drug doping story. Chance of defamation suit? About zero. Discovery can be brutal;
A new trailer for Hot Coffee (which I discussed last year when it went to the Sundance Film Festival);
Most clients aren’t like this, but some can be pretty dumb;
Taco Bell and the art of self-defense;
And TortsProf has the Personal Injury Law Round-Up.
The Court screwed up in its terminology (as defined under New York Law, not common usage) but came out with the correct result in that case. A “parking lot” as defined by New York’s VTL must be privately owned.
But a “highway” under the definition in the VTL § 118 is defined as follows: “The entire width between the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel.
VTL § 129-b defines “parking lot” as follows:
§ 129-b. Parking lot. Any area or areas of private property near or contiguous to and provided in connection with premises having one or more stores or business establishments, and used by the public as a
means of access to and egress from such stores and business establishments and for the parking of motor vehicles of customers and patrons of such stores and business establishments.
Therefore the area used to park cars owned by the Village of Mamaroneck was really a “highway” under New York’s VTL and not a parking lot. Nonetheless the Court wrongly said:
“Plaintiff commenced this personal injury action against the Village of Mamaroneck after she slipped and fell on ice in a parking lot owned and maintained by the Village.”
Since the area where the slip and fall occurred was a highway, a proper Notice of Claim was required.
I meant since the area where the slip and fall occurred was a highway,proper notice of the hazardous condition was required.
That Taco Bell ad makes me even more determined to avoid their food.