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Subscription Bill for $11.83 Brings $5 Million Award
Legal World News |
2008/06/13 07:33
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A bill for $11.83 led a customer to file a federal class action accusing XM Satellite Radio of illegally renewing subscribers' contracts without proper notice. Damages are estimated at more than $5 million.
On behalf of all XM subscribers in New York, Richard Vacariello claims XM violates New York General Obligations Law §50903 by failing to notify subscribers 15 to 30 days before automatically renewing their subscriptions.
Vacariello took a 3-year subscription and used it in a leased automobile, then turned in the car and let the XM subscription expire - he thought. After he turned in the car, he says, XM sent him a bill for $359.64. (It is not clear from the complaint whether this was a bill for another year or for another three years.) Vacariello says he objected, and that XM told him it had automatically renewed the contract.
So Vacariello says he canceled the contract immediately, only to have XM send him another bill - for $11.83 - for the period after the 3-year contract expired, and before he canceled the automatic renewal.
Vacariello says XM refused to cancel the $11.83 bill, so he paid it under protest, for fear of harming his credit. Then he filed this class action. He estimates class damages at more than $5 million. He demands compensatory damages and an injunction. |
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Class Claims 'QuickPick' Bets Didn't List Last Horse
Legal World News |
2008/06/03 07:54
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Scientific Games' machines excluded the last horse from every race in its QuickPick program for more than 6 months, a class action claims in Superior Court.
The complaint states in Paragraph 11 that the QuickPick program excluded the last horse in every race from the betting slips.
Two paragraphs later, it states, The glitch was finally admitted when a Bay Meadows bettor played 1,300 quick picks and noticed that not one included the number 20 horse.
The complaint does not elucidate specifically whether the last horse was excluded in races with fewer than 20 horses, though Paragraph 11 indicates that was the case.
The named plaintiff claims that Although Defendants were aware of the problem as of Nov. 1, 2007, the Defendants failed to notify the betting public. Instead, the Defendants kept the problem to itself [sic] and attempted to correct 'for' the problem with 'new software.' The glitch was finally admitted when a Bay Meadows bettor played 1,300 quick picks and noticed that not one included the number 20 horse. The public was not alerted to the problem until after May 19, 2008 - months after the Defendants knew of the problem and week after the Bay Meadows better complained to the State Board. As a result of the 'glitch,' thousands of Class members paid for 'QuickPick' bets without any chance of a 'QuickPick' payment.
Named plaintiff Angel Romero says he bought QuickPick tickets for races at Fairplex Race Track, Santa Anita, Hollywood park and Pacific Coast Quarter Horse, all in Southern California.
He is represented by William Audet of San Francisco and Thomas Ferlauto with King amp; Ferlauto of Los Angeles. |
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Louisville Slugger Crippled Little Leaguer
Legal World News |
2008/05/30 14:03
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Higher bat speed, and the resulting ball speed off an aluminum bat gave a Little Leaguer insufficient time to react, and the boy suffered cardiac arrest when hit by a batted ball during a game, the boy's family claims in lawsuits against Hillerich amp; Bradsby dba Louisville Slugger, and the Little League.
Aluminum bats have been controversial for precisely this reason, and because some baseball purists say the lighter bats give batters an unfair edge. In this case, the Domalewski family claims Steven, 12, was injured and hospitalized during a June 6, 2006 game in Wayne, N.J., from a ball bit by a Louisville Slugger TPX Platinum bat. The 31-inch bat weighs 19 ozs., the complaint states. Traditional wooden bats generally weight 30 ozs. or more.
As a result of the blow to his chest, Steven went into cardiac arrest ... was resuscitated and transported to St. Joseph's Medical Center in Paterson, according to the claim in Passaic County Court. It claims Steven suffered from anoxic encephalopathy secondary to comotio cordis and is multiple handicapped.
The Domalewskis accuse the defendants, among other things, with consumer fraud: minimizing the dangers of aluminum bats, though knowing of them. They demand punitive damages. |
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Democrats Sue Georgia Over Photo Voter Law
Legal World News |
2008/05/27 13:53
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The Georgia Democratic Party claims enforcement of the state's photo ID requirement violates the Georgia Constitution by discriminating against hundreds of thousands of registered voters, black voters particularly, who do not have driver's licenses, passports or other state-issued ID.
Unlike the civil rights claims of the 1960s, which appealed to the federal government to override racist Southern laws, this complaint asserts no claims that arise under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States.
Plaintiffs claim the state's 2006 Photo ID Act - SB 84 - violates the Georgia Constitution because it imposes an unauthorized additional condition on the fundamental right to vote.
They claim the bill discriminates against African-American voters in particular.
And they claim that it is an illegal retroactive law because it applies to citizens of Georgia who were lawfully registered to vote before the effective date of the law. |
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