Charlotte Injury Lawyers Blog

Dr. Michael Land is having his day in court after his neighbors became fed up with the constant barrage of machine gun fire coming from his shooting range. According to a recent report by WCNC.com, 41 of Land’s neighbors have come together and filed a civil suit against him. The lawsuit alleges that machine gun fire has occurred on Land’s property, use of which is against state and federal laws. The neighbors also allege that the constant spraying of bullets amounts to negligence, private nuisance, intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault.

On Monday, the plaintiffs and the defendant argued before the judge and now the parties are waiting on a ruling. The ruling will determine whether the case will move forward to trial or whether the case will be dismissed. The defendant filed a motion to dismiss the suit. His attorney said, “Their [the plaintiffs’] fatal flaw is they haven’t shown a single person with any damages above and beyond anyone else in the group… The complaint does not allege that any bullets or debris ever left Dr. Land’s property. It does not allege anyone was ever injured by an explosion, bullet or firearm, or that Dr. Land has ever threatened anyone with his firearms.”

The plaintiffs’ attorney said that Dr. Land claimed that the reason for the machine gun fire was protection of his business, but, when questioned in court about his use of the machine guns, he invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The plaintiffs’ attorney says that should be seen as a strong indication that Land believes he has broken the law.

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A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools principal was found dead while in the midst of an investigation surrounding his involvement with a gun incident according to a report by WCNC.com. Barry Bowe was principal of Northwest School of the Arts. On the day Bowe was scheduled to meet with administrators regarding an incident involving a gun, he failed to show up. When he failed to show up, his colleagues tried to reach him at his home. He did not answer so they sent someone to his house and that is where they discovered his body.

The incident, which precipitated the investigation, began at a school dance. An individual brought a gun to the dance, pulled the gun out on another student and attempted to fire it. Thankfully the gun jammed, though the student ended up being punched in the face. The school district was concerned about the amount of security at the event and that was the subject of the meeting with administrators.

Rumors swirled that Bowe was in some way negligent, but everyone who knew him did not believe he had done anything wrong. His supporters say that he was not in trouble over the incident, but the administrators were concerned and wanted to know how he planned to handle the situation. The president of an association that supports the school, Friends of Northwest School of the Arts, said “To say that he’s negligent in the area of school safety is absurd. There have been much more egregious safety violations at other schools.” They also say that the school’s response to the incident was too harsh and should have been viewed as an incident that was beyond Bowe’s control.

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According to a recent report in the Charlotte Observer, the federal government has responded to a lawsuit filed by the victims of a STD experiment by not responding. Federal researchers performed experimental research in the 1940s on Guatemalans to test the effects of penicillin. The experiment allowed prostitutes, prisoners, and patients in mental institutions to be exposed to sexually transmitted diseases and then be treated with the antibiotic penicillin to determine its effects. However, the subjects of the experiment did not consent to being exposed to these dangerous diseases.

The survivors have filed a federal lawsuit, but the Justice Department said that the researchers were federal employees and thus invoked the doctrine of sovereign immunity, meaning that the government cannot be named as a defendant unless it consents to being sued. The government has the benefit of being protected by the Federal Tort Claims Act. That law prevents the United States from being sued for acts that took place in a foreign nation. The President, Secretary of State, and the Health and Human Services Secretary have all issued an apology on behalf of the actions of the government during that time and have all acknowledged that the experiments are “a deeply troubling chapter in our nation’s history.”

Even though the government acknowledges how terrible the researcher’s actions were, the government believes that a lawsuit is not the proper avenue for the victims to receive a remedy. The attorney for the plaintiffs is of course in opposition to the federal government’s position. “We will continue to vigorously fight for the rights of the Guatemalans wronged in this matter to obtain a remedy for the harms done by U.S. officials,” plaintiffs’ attorney Terrence Collingsworth said in response to the filing. “But we remain open to the United States deciding to do the right thing, consistent with long-established human rights law and basic morality.”

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The Charlotte Observer recently reported that the U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a new decision regarding an inmate’s ability to file personal injury claims. On Tuesday, January 10, 2012, the Court ruled in an 8-1 decision that inmates held in federal custody in privately owned prisons can only file personal injury claims in state court. They cannot file claims in federal court. Writing for the majority, Justice Beyer said that the state law claims are enough to protect the inmate’s constitutional rights.

The suit was sparked by federal inmate Richard Pollard who filed a federal suit in California claiming that his treatment in a California jail violated the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Pollard was injured while performing his job at the prison. He fractured his elbow and broke other small bones. He claimed that the prison guards exacerbated the injury by forcing him into a position that aggravated his injury further. He filed a complaint, but it was dismissed by a federal judge. After appealing the dismissal up to the Supreme Court, the Court held that he could have filed a negligence action in the state of California, but he did not.

The Court acknowledged that federal lawsuits may provide more of a remedy in these situations, but ultimately decided that because the inmate was housed in a privately-owned prison, state law was his only recourse. If Pollard had been an inmate at a federal or state-operated facility, he would have been able to sue in federal court. This new ruling severely limits inmates who may have legitimate federal claims against the prison from being able to pursue them in the proper venue.

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North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue’s Eugenics Compensation Task Force has finally come up with a settlement figure, according to recent report by the New York Times. The panel has found that each living victim of North Carolina’s forced sterilization program should be given $50,000.00. North Carolina is not the first state to have a eugenics program, but it is the first state to place a monetary value on the compensation owed to the victims.

The term “eugenics” indicates an attempt to create a particular type of gene pool by selective breeding. According to a popular medical website, eugenics first began in the United States in Indiana where the government required state officials to sterilize, incarcerate, and at times, euthanize people who were thought to be genetically inferior. It turned into a massive campaign to rid the country of ethnic minorities, as the majority of the population was convinced that being a minority and being genetically inferior was one in the same.

North Carolina’s sterilization program was part of that campaign. Between 1933 and 1977, the North Carolina Eugenics Board sterilized nearly 8,000 people, mostly minorities and those with mental illnesses. In December 2011, the New York Times reported about a man named Charles Holt, who was forcibly sterilized as a teenager after he was caught fighting at school and openly masturbating. After spending years in a facility for individuals with mental disabilities, Holt was required to have a vasectomy before he could be released.

The North Carolina program allowed social workers to determine which people should be sterilized, and the social workers usually relied on IQ scores, which, to those running the program, served as an indication of mental capacity. Those with low mental capacity were deemed to not be fit enough to reproduce and were thus sterilized.

Some of the victims of the sterilization program are happy about the potential payout while others are convinced that it is not enough for what the government took from them. One victim, Ms. Rita Thompson Swords, said, “I think that number sounds fantastic.” Another victim, Ms. Elaine Riddick said, “They took away something from me that was so valuable that I can never get back.”

While there appears to be support from both parties in the North Carolina legislature for the payout, lawmakers may not be so easily convinced, especially since the payout could come total some $100 million. The panel believes that only between 1,500 and 2000 victims are still living. If Governor Perdue can convince legislators to approve this compensation plan, those victims will each receive $50,000.00.

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The Washington Post reports that the security company formerly known as Blackwater, now known as Academi, has settled with the survivors and estates of victims of the 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad, Iraq. This was the last in a series of lawsuits brought by Iraqis for the deaths and injuries of other Iraqi citizens. The incident sparked a nationwide debate about the war in Iraq and the implications of armed American personnel in that country.

According to the suit, Blackwater guards were protecting several U.S. diplomats while they were in Iraq. The guards suddenly opened fire in a crowded square. The incident resulted in the death of 17 Iraqis, some of whom were women and children. Iraqi distaste for America and American involvement in their country only increased following the shooting. A North Carolina attorney, Jim Roberts, represented the families of three individuals killed in the shooting, one of them, a nine-year-old child.

The suit charged Blackwater and its contractors with wrongful death and negligence in the death of three individuals. Initially, Blackwater’s lawyers vigorously denied that their client was liable for the death of these people. They argued that because the Blackwater guards were protecting United States diplomats, they were agents of the federal government. Therefore, if anyone was liable it would be the federal government. They also argued that Blackwater could not be sued in the United States by foreign citizens for something that happened abroad.

Academi also settled a suit filed back in 2005 by the families of several Blackwater employees who were killed in an ambush back in 2004. That suit also alleged that Blackwater was liable for the wrongful death of the contractors.

It’s unclear what sparked the change in strategy at the company, why they decided to settle after so long a fight, but it is likely that the new company wants to move on without the stigma of these lawsuits hanging over its head.

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