Keisling.com

“I’d argue that breaking the leg of a pet isn’t the same as breaking the leg of a table.” — Jeffrey Delott

FOR pigeons in New York City, Bobby, Bertha and Sparky had it pretty good. After being injured in Central Park each was rescued by Gela Kline and Al Streit — founders of a group called Pigeon People — and given a home in the couple’s rent-stabilized apartment on the Upper West Side, where for years the birds passed the time cooing and making music by pecking the keys of a toy piano.

A few years ago, however, the building went co-op, and the new landlords wanted the couple — and their birds — out. They sued to evict, citing an old city ordinance that outlawed chickens, ducks, cows “or any pigeon except Antwerp or homing pigeons” in a New York apartment. Ms. Kline and Mr. Streit thought they were doomed.

Then they called Maddy Tarnofsky, pet lawyer, who quickly spotted a weakness in the landlord’s case: How exactly, she wondered, could the landlord prove that Bobby, Bertha and Sparky weren’t Antwerp or homing pigeons after all?

Read the entire story by Warren St. John in The New York Times

I love this judge… 

Acrimonious attorneys told to settle dispute by playing a round of ‘rock, paper, scissors.’

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - Faced with the inability of two bickering attorneys to resolve even the most innocuous scheduling questions without his intervention, a Florida federal judge yesterday ordered the two to meet on the steps of the federal courthouse and resolve their latest quarrel by playing “one (1) game of ‘rock, paper, scissors.’ ”

Judge Gregory A. Presnell of Orlando ordered the unusual measure, which he characterized as “a new form of alternative dispute resolution,” after the two Tampa attorneys had proven unable to agree upon where to hold a deposition, even though both of their offices are just four floors away in the very same building in Tampa.

Read the full story by By Roger Parloff, FORTUNE senior writer.

Read the Judge’s Order here, including parameters for the game and method of appeal.

The U.S. Supreme Court has definitely changed under Chief Justice Roberts.  In some ways, for the better.

WASHINGTON, May 2 — This is the week that the Supreme Court, done with its regular argument sessions, enters the stretch run.

While it is too soon for substantive appraisals of the first year of the Roberts court, it is not too soon for stylistic observations about what is clearly, in the view of lawyers who have appeared there this term, a different court.

“The tone has changed,” Prof. Richard J. Lazarus of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he runs the Supreme Court Institute and teaches a course on Supreme Court advocacy, said on Tuesday.

Read the entire story by Linda Greenhouse in the New York Times.

There’s probably a message in here somewhere … 

Raleigh, CA (AHN) — A defense lawyer was in the midst of his argument for a drunk driving case when he collapsed on the courtroom floor and died of a heart attack on Thursday, officials and friends said.

A police officer and bailiffs immediately attempted CPR after Tom Farris, 57, fell in the Wake County courthouse. Emergency personnel arrived within six minuets.

A friend of Farris and a fellow lawyer, Duncan McMillan, says Harris had previously experienced heart problems.

McMillan says that the courthouse had no defibrillators and the rescue workers didn’t have any when they arrived on the scene.

Defibrillators deliver shocks to the heart which can sometimes revive patients. Last year the county allocated money to buy them, but they have been studying where they are needed.

County spokeswoman Sharon Brown said the courthouse should have a minimum of four defibrillators by June.

Mary K. Brunskill - All Headline News Contributor

America’s new favorite pastime? Frivolous lawsuits! 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A player hit by a pitch during a college baseball game in California has struck out in his effort to win damages over the incident.

California’s top court ruled 6-1 against a lawsuit by Jose Avila, a student at Rio Honda Community College, who was struck by a pitch in a 2001 game against Citrus Community College. Both schools are in Southern California.

“For better or worse, being intentionally thrown at is a fundamental part and inherent risk of the sport of baseball,” the court wrote. “It is not the function of tort law to police such conduct.”

“Being intentionally hit is likewise an inherent risk of the sport, so accepted by custom that a pitch intentionally thrown at a batter has its own terminology: ‘brushback,’ ‘beanball,’ ‘chin music.’”

Read the full story here.

A: Not once they reproduce.  The old days were simpler:  if you play, you pay. 

In a recent, controversial lawsuit, Matt Dubay, a 25-year-old computer programmer, challenges a court order directing him to pay $500 per month in child support.

Dubay alleges that when he engaged in sexual relations with his girlfriend, he was relying on her assurances that, due to a medical condition, she was unable to get pregnant, and that, in any case, she was using some form of contraception to be absolutely safe. He also alleged that he clearly informed her that he was not interested in becoming a parent at that point in time.

However, just three months into their relationship, she conceived a daughter - to whom she ultimately gave birth. Dubay now would like to disclaim any paternal responsibility toward the child - and asks the court to strike down the child support order as unconstitutional.

 Read the full story here

It took a very long time, but the family of a composer you never heard of, but whose song many can’t get out of their heads, is finally paid royalties by those who made millions off his work

JOHANNESBURG — As Solomon Linda first recorded it in 1939, it was a tender melody, almost childish in its simplicity — three chords, a couple of words and some baritones chanting in the background.

But the saga of the song now known worldwide as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is anything but a lullaby. It is fraught with racism and exploitation and, in the end, 40-plus years after his death, brings a measure of justice. Were he still alive, Solomon Linda might turn it into one heck of a ballad. By SHARON LaFRANIERE, Published: March 22, 2006

Read the full story in The New York Times.

On the down side, of course, he’s dead. But still, at least the money is good.

The Supreme Court refused yesterday to consider tossing out an award of $50 million in damages to the family of a two-pack-a-day smoker who died of cancer.

See the full story in the Washington Post.

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Stay tuned….