Renzulli Law Firm

On May 24, 2010, the United States Supreme Court denied plaintiff Lilian S. Ileto’s petition for a writ of certiorari, bringing this decade-long case to a close.

The Ileto case arose from Bufford Furrow’s shooting of several children at the North Valley Jewish Community Center and subsequent murder of U.S. postal worker Joseph S. Ileto in Los Angeles on August 10, 1999. Mr. Furrow was later arrested and is serving life in prison. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act ("PLCAA"), which required the immediate dismissal of lawsuits against firearms manufacturers and sellers based on the criminal or unlawful misuse of a firearm by the plaintiff or a third party, was signed into law on October 26, 2005. Renzulli Law Firm, LLP filed a motion to dismiss the complaint against defendants Glock, Inc., RSR Management Corporation and RSR Group Nevada, Inc. pursuant to the PLCAA, which the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted on March 6, 2006. On May 11, 2009, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the complaint against Glock, Inc., RSR Management Corporation and RSR Group Nevada, Inc.

On April 13, 2010, the Appellate Division, First Department, vacated an earlier decision it had issued in Ferriolo v. City of New York, and upon reconsideration, found that the Fireman’s Rule bars a negligence action brought by a police officer who was shot by a fellow officer while he was changing into his uniform in the police station locker room. Ferriolo is the first Appellate Division to interpret and apply the recent New York Court of Appeals decision in Walder v. City of New York.  The Court in Walder had indicated a shift away from the requirement that the Fireman’s Rule applied only where the injured plaintiff was performing “some action taken in furtherance of a specific police or firefighter function” which exposed the plaintiff to “a heightened risk of sustaining the particular injury.” The Court of Appeals in Walder found that the Fireman’s Rule barred a negligence action brought by a police officer who was injured when his automobile was lifted four feet off the ground by a movable security barrier as he was driving into the police parking lot to begin his shift.

Attachments:

Walder v. City of New York	25 Kb
Ferriolo v. City of New York	17 Kb

The New York Court of Appeals recently extended the scope of New York labor law in an interesting decision titled Runner v. New York Stock Exchange.

This action was commenced in Federal Court by an electrician, Victor Runner, to recover damages for injuries he sustained while engaged in a major rehabilitation project at the New York Stock Exchange. The accident occurred as plaintiff and his co-workers were attempting to move a large reel of cable, weighing in excess of 800 pounds, from one part of the building complex to another. The cable reel needed to be moved down a short flight of stairs, but no hoisting device was provided for the workers’ use. Accordingly, plaintiff’s supervisor directed his crew to use a rope to restrain the reel as it was rolled down the steps.

At the foreman’s direction, the rope was affixed to the reel and wound several times around a pipe, which was placed behind a door jamb in order to serve as a brake. Plaintiff and two co-workers stood behind the pipe, holding the free end of the rope. After two other co-workers moved the reel to the stairway, the reel descended quickly. Plaintiff was dragged forward toward the pipe and his right hand was crushed between the pipe and rope. As a result of the accident, four fingers of plaintiff’s right hand were severed, and plaintiff fractured his right thumb and two fingers on his left hand.

On January 21, 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This decision struck down the prohibition contained in the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (also known as the McCain-Feingold Act) that barred corporations from using general treasury funds to engage in an “electioneering communication,” which was broadly defined as any broadcast cable or satellite communication that refers to a clearly identified candidate for federal office that is made within thirty days before a primary or sixty days before a general election on the basis that it violated the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech. 

Attachments:

Decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

944 Kb