Michael Riccardi

January 20, 1999 | Law.com

By Michael Riccardi

3 minute read

September 16, 1999 | Law.com

A pregnant Staten Island transit policewoman who requested restricted duty in a letter reminding her employer of potential "serious liability exposure" has a sex discrimination claim against the agency if it places her on unpaid medical leave, an Eastern District judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge David G. Trager said this week that while the transit agency's decision may have been provoked by the plaintiff's letter, there was enough evidence to have the discrimination claim tested in a trial.

By Michael Riccardi

3 minute read

January 25, 2000 | Law.com

Spitting on a person, if racially motivated, can be prosecuted criminally as a hate crime of aggravated harassment, a Manhattan Criminal Court judge ruled. Judge Suzanne M. Mondo wrote that spitting can constitute "offensive physical contact" within the meaning of the aggravated harassment statute. She turned aside a defense motion to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the accused did not touch the victim with any part of his body.

By Michael Riccardi

3 minute read

June 14, 1999 | Law.com

Aviation lawyer Arthur A. Wolk and the owners of WTXF Channel 29, a Philadelphia television station that is part of the Fox Network, settled the attorney's libel lawsuit against the broadcaster, avoiding a trial that would have begun today, said Wolk's lawyer. In reporting the crash-landing of a former military jet airplane piloted by Wolk at a Michigan airport, WTXF allegedly said that Wolk was not properly licensed to fly the type of plane he was piloting.

By Michael Riccardi

4 minute read

May 24, 1999 | Law.com

A Philadelphia jury last week handed down a $15.2 million verdict in a medical malpractice case where the body of a 13-month-old child undergoing heart surgery was cooled too fast, leading to neurological damage. The lawyer for plaintiff Alec Sears and his parents said that the team at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia took only nine minutes to take the boy's body temperature down from 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to about 63 degrees Fahrenheit. The standard of care called for a 20-minute cooling-off period.

By Michael Riccardi

5 minute read

July 26, 1999 | Law.com

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Edward Ramos said on Thursday that World Interactive Gaming Corp. was using cyberspace to circumvent New York's ban on gaming that is unauthorized by statute. Justice Ramos turned aside the gaming company's argument that there is no state or federal regulation of Internet gambling, and said that New York officials had the power to stop the company from accepting bets from New York residents.

By Michael Riccardi

4 minute read

June 29, 1999 | Law.com

Instead of simply maintaining a case file in the divorce case of Busch v. Busch, state courts may instead be tempted to publish an anthology. In an application to the Pennsylvania Superior Court that it schedule reargument in an equitable-distribution row addressed by Judge Mike Eakin in verse, a lawyer in the case used a series of 10 limericks to make his point.

By Michael Riccardi

3 minute read

June 10, 1999 | Law.com

A Philadelphia federal judge entered summary judgment in favor of Allstate Insurance Co. in a bad faith claim by an underinsured motorist policyholder, holding that delay alone in handling a claim does not mean that the carrier has acted in bad faith. The judge said that courts must look at the context of the impasse between a claimant and an insurance carrier before deciding that there has been a bad faith denial of coverage.

By Michael Riccardi

6 minute read

February 09, 2000 | Law.com

New York-based Chadbourne & Parke secured dismissal of causes of action for legal malpractice brought against it by a former partner, but a judge in New York allowed trial to open on allegations that the firm illegally fired the lawyer. The pretrial decision focuses the trial on charges leveled by former partner Stuart A. Rosenthal that he was wrongfully terminated by Chadbourne & Parke in violation of the partnership agreement. The law firm claims Rosenthal submitted his resignation voluntarily.

By Michael Riccardi

4 minute read

October 14, 1999 | Law.com

A British documentary filmmaker will get to air his copyright infringement claim against salvagers of the sunken ship R.M.S. Titanic and the Discovery Channel cable television network because a U.S. judge in Manhattan Wednesday dismissed most of the motions aimed at sinking the lawsuit. Plaintiff Alexander Lindsay said that he was not compensated for footage of the wrecked ocean liner which he helped shoot and were used in a Discovery Channel broadcast.

By Michael Riccardi

3 minute read