Tag Archive for ‘News You Can Use’ at Fight The Hypo

Tag Archive for 'News You Can Use'

Is Your Scratch-off Ticket Stale?

Published

on 06/19/08

. 2 Comments

“It’s for the kids.” Ah, yes. The great justification for just about any government program. Of course, it’s the central justification in most states for the Lottery. Revenues are directed into the education department’s coffers for use in schools. That’s all fine and good, but the agreement the ticket purchaser enters into with the state is: I give you a dollar and you promise to give me a chance to win a prize.

Then there’s this:

After a business finance professor tried a Virginia Lottery scratch game for the first time, he became suspicious about how the game was being run. It seemed to him that the rate at which Beginner’s Luck paid out its $75,000 prizes defied the laws of statistics.

His concerns ultimately led him to conclude that the Virginia Lottery continues to sell tickets to its scratch games statewide even after all the top prizes for the game have been claimed.

Monday, a Roanoke law firm announced its intention to sue the lottery on behalf of Scott Hoover, an associate professor at Washington and Lee University who teaches applied business statistics. The letter that lawyer John Fishwick sent to the state claims the lottery has violated its contract with scratch ticket buyers by purposefully selling tickets that have no chance at all of winning a top prize.

“We estimate that since 2003, the state has sold over 26.5 million losing tickets in this way, pocketing an estimated $84.7 million in purchase prices from the shell game,” Fishwick said. “The state cannot continue to boost revenues by knowingly selling its citizens defective tickets based on hollow promises of an opportunity that does not exist.”

Basically, the state gave away all the prizes, but kept selling tickets. Talking with WAMU today, Mr. Hoover said this gives rise to multiple claims against the state, the most serious of which is fraudulent inducement to purchase the tickets.

He’s filed a claim with the state (basically a notice stage required before filing a lawsuit) alleging that the state has misled citizens and that it must rectify the situation. His lawyer told WAMU that they aren’t necessarily looking for damages, but are primarily looking for the state to acknowledge it’s doing something wrong and change the process.

Diversion From Outlining

Published

Casebook Sherpa

on 04/19/08

in All In Good Fun

. 0 Comments

Need a break from outlining?

Head on over to PrawfsBlog and vote on the Most Screwed Victim in Caselaw History.

I voted for Peevyhouse. Who did you vote for?

Posner on Bell Atlantic v. Twombly

Published

Casebook Sherpa

on 04/02/08

in News You Can Use

. 1 Comment

In a RICO case, Judge Posner opined on the post-Twombly standard on motions to dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6).

(H/T How Appealing)

The case involved an allegation that a municipal government had pre-empted their efforts at building a marina on their land by conspiring in a “continuing violation” of the RICO statute. The trial judge dismissed for failure to state a claim and Posner agreed (the claim was “threadbare”). But, on Twombly, added:

Bell Atlantic must not be overread. The Court denied requir[ing] heightened fact pleading of specifics,” 127 S. Ct. at 1974; “a complaint . . . does not need detailed actual allegations.” Id. at 1964. Within weeks after deciding Bell Atlantic, the Court reversed a Tenth Circuit decision for requiring fact pleading. Erickson v. Pardus, 127 S. Ct. 2197 (2007) (per curiam). A prisoner, proceeding pro se, had complained that he had Hepatitis C, that he was on a one-year treatment program for it, that shortly after the program began the prison officials withheld treatment, and that his life was in danger as a result. That was the ontext in which the Court said that “specific facts” need not be pleaded. Id. at 2200. A complaint must always, however, allege “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face,” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, supra, 127 S. Ct. at 1974, and how many facts are enough will depend on the type of case. In a complex antitrust or RICO case a fuller set of factual allegations than found in the sample complaints in the civil rules’ Appendix of Forms may be necessary to show that the plaintiff’s claim is not “largely groundless.” Phillips v. County of Allegheny, 515 F.3d 224, 231-32 (3d Cir. 2008). If discovery is likely to be more than usually costly, the complaint must include as much factual detail and argument as may be required to show that the plaintiff has a plausible claim. See also Iqbal v. Hasty, 490 F.3d 143, 157-58 (2d Cir. 2007).

A Music Tax? The Extortionary Ways of the Music Industry

Published

Casebook Sherpa

on 03/29/08

in Law and News You Can Use

. 0 Comments

Mike Arrington at TechCrunch has several good stories on a proposed “music tax” which the recording industry is seeking to impose on listeners. As per usual the industry is talking out of both sides of its mouth by suggesting that the tax would not be mandatory but would instead be a voluntary scheme that ISPs can choose to participate. In reality, Arrington writes:

…the plan essentially comes down to telling ISPs that they can avoid any copyright infringement liability if they pay the fee on behalf of customers. And while the government wouldn’t be directly involved, the willingness of law enforcement agencies and the judicial system to enforce civil and criminal copyright infringement laws is the stick by which Griffin will convince ISPs to jump on board. It’s government endorsed extortion, nothing more and nothing less.

Or, in other words, “pay us not to sue you.” Interestingly, Arrington notes that the tax could bring in as much as $20 billion (twice the current revenue of the entire industry).

Continue reading ‘A Music Tax? The Extortionary Ways of the Music Industry’

US News Rankings Preview

Published

Casebook Sherpa

on 03/27/08

in Law School Rankings and News You Can Use

. 0 Comments

Even though we’re building a case against the US News Rankings here at Fight The Hypo (stay tuned), we were pretty excited to see this leaked Top 100 of the rankings listing Catholic U at #86 (up 11 spots from last year)!! No matter how much we read about how bogus these rankings are or how much lower than American U we are ranked, we readily admit to being excited when they show our school moving up the ranks.

(h/t PrawfsBlog)

Also, Concurring Opinions is soliciting thoughts on how to change the US News methodology. Interesting discussion.

From The “Please Tell Me This Is A Dream” File

Published

Casebook Sherpa

on 03/13/08

in News You Can Use

. 1 Comment

This is from our Torts reading for tonight. Make sure you test the floor of the Port-O-John next time…

The case for the plaintiffs was that they were tenants of the defendant, which controlled the house wherein they lived and also the adjoining house, and provided a detached privy for the use of both houses; that Mrs. Rush having occasion to use this privy, went into it and fell through the floor, or through some sort of trap door therein, descended about nine feet into the accumulation at the bottom, and had to be extricated by use of a ladder. The defendant denied that there was any pit at all, and claimed the floor was only about nine inches above solid ground.

Rush v. Commercial Realty Co., 145 A. 476 (1929 (emphasis added).

Update: to quote Dr. Bombay who was asked last night to brief this case, “This might possibly be the most disturbing line in a case I’ve read.”

Attack of the Wiener Dogs.

Published

Dr. Bombay

on 02/27/08

in Law and News You Can Use

. 5 Comments

A close friend of mine was recently bitten by her beloved dachshund. (Mercifully, she’s alright.) I’m also told that her husband was able to stay his murderous wrath and not punt the dog, which makes him a better man than me. Like everything these days, it got me wondering what the legal ramifications of being bitten by a dog were, for the owner and the victim. Especially if it was by a wiener dog, which I’ve never thought of being deadly to anything but badgers. Continue reading ‘Attack of the Wiener Dogs.’

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