COMMENTARY

• Commentary: Many lessons to learn from fantasy football 

  BALTIMORE — With 2011 now over, a lot of us are looking at our holdings and assessing what worked well and what didn’t. There were blue chips that did phenomenally well — way better than we expected — and boosted our profitability. But some of our holdings that had breakout years in 2010 pretty much crashed [...]

• “F” – as in felony – is the new Scarlet Letter 
• If laws go online-only, costly problems are sure to follow 
• This property is condemned … some day 
• To see what really matters in people, develop double vision 

Most Important Opinions

1. Tort/Negligence – STCA – Damages – Companion Dog – Veterinary Expenses & Replacement Cost 

   Shera v. N.C. State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Plaintiffs brought their Jack Russell terrier to defendant for treatment, and defendant’s negligence led to the dog’s death. Following the law of this state, the Industrial Commission correctly limited plaintiffs’ damages to the cost of the ill-fated veterinary treatment and the cost to buy another Jack Russell.

2. Tort/Negligence – Labor & Employment – REDA – Wrongful Discharge Claim – Defamation – Libel 

   Pierce v. Atlantic Group, Inc. Plaintiff claims he was fired for complaining to his superiors about their failure to implement his plan to get defendants’ crane operators certified as required by new regulations. However, plaintiff’s complaints to his superiors did not constitute filing a claim or complaint, initiating an inquiry, investigation, inspection, proceeding or other action, or testifying or providing information within the meaning of the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act.

3. Tort/Negligence – Defamation – Performer’s DVD – Edited Arrest Recording – Appropriation – Unfair Trade Practices – Civil Practice – Discovery – Admissions – Damages  

   Nguyen v. Taylor By failing to respond to plaintiffs’ request for admissions, defendant Taylor admitted (1) that he defamed plaintiffs by placing on a DVD a doctored recording that made it appear - falsely - that Taylor was wrongfully arrested and (2) he made more than $10 million from sales of the DVD.