Results tagged “lawsuit”

The hugely delayed Washington Convention Center Hotel deal, which in July appeared to be back on track thanks to a city-brokered public financing deal with developers, is once again in trouble. Developer JBG Cos. is suing to stall the start of construction, claiming that the contracting process that gave a 99-year lease to Marriott was not up to snuff, the Washington Business Journal is reporting. The lawsuit could very well mean that the sale of bonds for the project could be delayed, which would in turn push back ground breaking on the project. The city's only hope to keep things on track will be if a judge agrees to toss out the case in short order, as construction has been slated to begin this fall.

Oh boy! If this actually succeeds, how can we not get a seat in the House? The New York Times reports today on a lawsuit that just might increase the size of the House of Representatives, and dramatically so. The lawsuit claims that the current system of apportioning seats in the House leaves some voters with more representation than others. For example, while one district in Nevada has 960,000 voters, Wyoming's single district only has 523,000. The solution? Increase the size of the House to as few as 932 or as many as 1,761 seats so that voting districts are smaller and voting power distributed more equitably. Jesus. The prospect of 1,761 members of the House and their respective staffs gives us a headache just thinking about it. On the other hand, we'd have to get at least one of those seats, right? Just out of pity? Please? But seriously, while we feel for the poor residents of Nevada's 3rd District, we'd like to point out that no one is less represented in the U.S. than District residents. Sure, there's almost a million of you out there, but at least you have a representative.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that last summer's controversial "Neighborhood Safety Zone" checkpoints in the Trinidad neighborhood were likely unconstitutional, sending the case back to the U.S. District Court for trial.

That didn't take long. Bill Myers reports in the Examiner that Ivey Epps and her mother, Bernea Bell, filed a $100 million lawsuit against Metro on Monday. The two women are seeking damages based on "severe and painful injuries" resulting from last week's deadly Red Line crash, and claim Metro officials are at fault for not inspecting the system's brakes and not replacing the 1000 Series cars. Note the description included of their attorney: "The suit was brought by Florida attorney Willie Gary, whom the Wall Street Journal once dubbed "flamboyant" for his private jet, posh offices and luxury cars. He won a $240 million verdict in an infringement case against Walt Disney Corp. In litigation against communications company Motorola, Gary once asked for $93 million in fees -- about $11,000 an hour. "This is a very sad and unfortunate occurrence," Gary said in a news release." UPDATE: A reader points out in comments that this is not the first lawsuit to be filed.

The AP is reporting a that a group of students have filed a class action lawsuit against Vienna, Va.-based Envision EMI, after they claim the company failed to deliver on promises of special access to President Obama's inauguration in January. The students each paid thousands of dollars for a trip to the inauguration, only to be disappointed: "...the lawsuit says once the students got to Washington, they had no tickets for the inauguration or parade. And the balls they attended were not official events connected to the inauguration." I have a lot sympathy for these kids believing they could buy their way in to a special inaugural experience, and it certainly sounds like this company got greedy and promised way more than they could deliver. But the complaint that the ball they went to wasn't "official" seems pretty naive. There were hundreds of inauguration-themed parties over the course of the four-day long celebration, and only ten of them were "official."

Remember Brooke Oberwetter, the D.C. woman who was arrested for dancing while listening to an iPod at the Jefferson Memorial? Oberwetter was one of a larger group of libertarian-leaning Washingtonians who gathered at the memorial to celebrate Jefferson's birthday by quietly dancing, and she ended up being the only one handcuffed and arrested after U.S. Park Police officers tried to break up the party. The whole episode was captured on videotape.

In case you missed yesterday's late-breaking news, the D.C. Court of Appeals unanimously denied Roy Pearson's petition hear his appeal for a second time.

You knew something like this was only a matter of time. The Post reports that a D.C. man who is the father of developmentally disabled twin boys has filed a class action lawsuit against D.C. WASA.

You have just got to be friggin' kidding me. The Associated Press is reporting that former administrative law judge Roy Pearson has filed a petition with the D.C. Court of Appeals requesting that his $54 million pants lawsuit case be reheard again, this time by a nine-judge panel. Three appellate judges ruled last month that Pearson's lawsuit had no merit. Pearson is now arguing that those judges failed to address all the issues in his appeal, and so is asking the full court to rehear the case. We just don't know if we can take another round of Pearson-related court proceedings. Surely the court can just reject his request at this point and refuse to rehear the case again, right? Pretty please?

Say farewell to former administrative law judge Roy Pearson. Again.

When our pals at Chicagoist forwarded us a link to their post about how the U.S. Supreme Court is actually going to consider whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-Elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, we thought it had to be a joke. But no, this is sort of really happening tomorrow, and although it's almost assured of going no further than merely appearing on Friday's court meeting schedule, it will bring with it a small army of weirdos who are still pushing this sad little conspiracy theory. There's a vigil planned for the steps of the Supreme Court tomorrow, so if you're looking to get an extra helping of crazy before the start of your weekend, stroll on by!

D.C. Wire is reporting that MPD Chief Cathy Lanier's controversial "Neighborhood Safety Zone" checkpoint tactic has passed its first test in federal court. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon today denied a request for a preliminary injunction against the checkpoints filed by a group of District residents. In the ruling, Leon found that the checkpoints are not unconstitutional and are a reasonable crime prevention tactic to use against a specific kind of vehicle-related violent crime. This is from Leon's conclusion:

Simply put, to take this arrow out of MPD's quiver on such a weak showing as to is unconstitutionality would be injurious not only to MPD's ability to protect our citizens, but to the public's overwhelming need to be protected from these mobile merchants of violence.

Marc Fisher has the best summary of today's arguments at the D.C. Court of Appeals. The good news for former administrative law judge Roy Pearson's epic, seemingly unending $54 million pants lawsuit, writes Fisher, is that the three judges hearing the appeal were "not buying Pearson's notion that a shop sign that promises 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' means that a merchant must honor any cockamamie demand that an unhappy customer might make." We probably won't have a ruling from the appeals court for at least a month, but it sounds like Pearson doesn't have a chance in hell.

Remember when we told you that Roy Pearson, he of the $54 million missing pants lawsuit, was refusing to fade away quietly and heading back to court to press his appeal? Well today's the big day! Looks like the AP has a reporter at the D.C. Court of Appeals, so we'll be waiting patiently to find out whether the three-judge appellate court panel could possibly agree to overturn the lower court ruling and order a new trial for Pearson.

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) thinks that "ex-gay" is its own sexual orientation. To make their point, they are suing D.C.'s Office of Human Rights.

That's right, kiddos. International superstar and former administrative law judge Roy Pearson is back! Last night WJLA reported that the infamous $54 million missing pants lawsuit has actually been granted an appeals hearing by a three-judge appellate court panel. Faithful readers must realize what a thrill it was for DCist to once again set our Google image search function to "pants" upon hearing the news.

The Post caught Dick Heller, original plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court court case that eventually made it legal for D.C. residents to own handguns for personal security, picking up his handgun registration certificate this morning.

Credit City Desk for the best news of the morning -- the lawsuit between the District's two main kickball leagues has finally come to an end.

Today Eater reported on a rumor about a possible lawsuit brought against Spike Mendelsohn-owned Good Stuff Eatery in Capitol Hill by D.C. area-based burger chain Five Guys, as discussed on the blog Amuse-Biatch. Here's what they wrote:

Spike’s dad stands at the door and loves to make conversation... He likes to talk to everyone and told me and my friends that the restaurant is being sued by DC chain Five Guys since the burger “Spike’s Five Napkin Burger” sounds too much like something they have. Spike’s dad didn’t go into details, but he said that he was delighted to be sued and hoped it would bring in publicity.

We first learned about it via Twitter this morning: "Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice," one friend updated, and then another, and another, each expressing escalating amounts of dread. Now, The New York Times tech blog Bits confirms it: Facebook has had to shut down Scrabulous, the Scrabble-like game that's become wildly popular over the last couple of years. Scrabble maker Hasbro filed suit against the makers of Scrabulous in January, and indeed there is now a licensed beta version of Scrabble available on the social networking site. Still, we know how much you love wasting time on the internet, so we imagine more than a few of you are in a panic over the death of Scrabulous. Feel free to use the comments as group therapy.

Dick Heller's quick to the draw with his legal filings.

Does Roy Pearson not have anyone in his life, say a family member or a friend, to smack him upside the head and tell him to stop being so crazy? The Examiner and the Associated Press are both reporting this morning that Pearson, the man who sued the owners of Custom Cleaners for $54 million over a misplaced pair of pants and then subsequently lost his job as an administrative law judge, has filed suit to get his job back and for $1 million in damages.

Those of you who've had April 6 circled on your calendars as the first day you can expect all D.C. cabs will be outfitted with time and distance meters, time to make a little adjustment: the deadline has been pushed back to May 1.

Here's a type of lawsuit-related news you certainly don't see every day: The Post reports that the family of slain retired New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum has said they will drop their $20 million civil suit against the District over the negligent care two emergency medical technicians provided after Rosenbaum was hit on the head during a mugging near his home in D.C. in 2006.

Good morning, Washington. Supporters of Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Barack Obama are riding high off their caucus victories in Iowa last night, but locally, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty continues to suffer some bumps in the road after one year in office. Just weeks after the resignation of Attorney General Linda Singer, Fenty's former deputy chief of staff, Neil Richardson, has also resigned. Richardson, who was a key Fenty aide during his mayoral campaign, had been moved out of Fenty's "bullpen" in October and placed in an office called Serve DC, where he was tasked with creating a volunteer program to help the school system. Yesterday Richardson decided that the demotion, which came, according to the Post, after Richardson complained to the mayor that he was not listening enough to the public on key decisions, wasn't worth sticking around for, and tendered his resignation. WTOP has excerpts from Richardson's resignation letter, which reiterates complaints heard from others about Fenty's dictatorial governing style.

Commenter Lionel M. Hutz linked to a video yesterday in our post about the 1-year jail sentence handed down to the former Metrobus driver who struck and killed two women in February. Rusty over at why.i.hate.dc also linked to it this morning, and since then, the DCist Staff email list has been filled with a lot of phrases like "Wow", "Holy crap!" and "That's the single most horrific piece of video I've seen in a...

WJLA brings word that Victor Kolako, the former Metrobus driver who was convicted of striking and killing two pedestrians on February 14, has been sentenced to one year in jail. Kolako was found guilty on two felony counts of negligent homicide in the Pennsylvania Ave. accident. The widower of one of the victims, Greg Schoenborn, has also filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Metro in U.S. District Court. The sentencing decision is potentially...

Earlier this season, the Caps ranked first in the entire NHL - for about an hour, before the Ottawa Senators reclaimed the lead. Yesterday the Caps were tied for last place overall, and had spent two whole days in sole possession of last place in the Eastern Conference. The Senators, meanwhile, remained on top of the league with thirteen wins and one loss. Last night, with three of their top five wingers out injured, the...

Good morning, Washington. Can you feel the excitement in the air? That's right: it's Taxi Decision Day. Will District residents get a shiny new meter system, or have to make our peace with zones for the foreseeable future? Or will we be treated to a metered zone hybrid/abomination? It'll be just a few hours until we find out. Immigration Measures Elicit Passion, Lawsuits: The Post reports on the scene in Prince William County, where...

>> "Monument Realty filed a federal lawsuit today against Metro to stop the sale of the transit agency's land near the Washington Nationals' new baseball stadium, escalating a dispute that threatens to disrupt the opening of the ballpark next spring." [WaPo] >> Check your old Mega Millions tickets. [WJLA] >> "Well, then you can't have the apples." [why.i.hate.dc] >> Carroll Co. school lockdown lifted, two males being questioned after student threatened to 'shoot up'...