Amazon, UPenn contest liability for student suicide

By Max Mitchell, From The Legal Intelligencer

Amazon and the University of Pennsylvania have argued in court papers that they cannot be held liable for a student’s death by suicide using chemicals she allegedly bought through the online retailing giant because the death was not reasonably foreseeable.

Both parties, which are defendants in Singh v. Amazon.com, filed preliminary objections with the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on Sept. 10, contending the claims against them are not actionable under Pennsylvania law.

The mother of Arya Singh, who used soluble cyanide salts to kill herself in February 2013, sued Amazon, the university and a Thai website that allegedly sold the cyanide through Amazon. Singh’s mother, Sujata Singh, further alleged her daughter, who was a nursing student at the time, killed herself two years after she had been sexually assaulted on campus.

In its brief, Amazon argued it cannot be held liable because “intentional suicide is a textbook example of an unforeseeable superseding cause,” and the retailer did not have a duty to prevent the unforeseeable death.

“This makes sense given that the mere sale of a product generally cannot impose a legal duty to prevent the misuse of that product,” said the brief, which was filed by Conrad O’Brien attorney Howard Klein. “Otherwise, any retailer could be liable for any product that could be intentionally used to commit suicide; under such a regime, a department store could be held liable for a decedent customer’s intentional use of a kitchen knife to commit suicide.”

The University of Pennsylvania contended in its brief that Pennsylvania does not generally recognize liability claims from suicides unless there is a “special relationship,” which Arya Singh and the school did not share.

“Pennsylvania law is clear that a duty to protect an individual from suicide can be found only where a ‘special relationship’ was formed,” said the memorandum supporting the school’s preliminary objections. “Here, there is no allegation or suggestion that Arya’s relationship with Penn was custodial or that Penn or any other person was aware of Arya’s planned suicide, or any suicidal thoughts, threats, or acts.”

According to court papers, Singh was sexually assaulted while a freshman nursing student, and after the incident was investigated, no charges were brought against the assaulter, who continued to live on campus.

The complaint linked the alleged assault to behavioral problems Singh began to experience, including being arrested for drinking and missing classes.

Eventually, Singh was investigated for alleged academic misconduct, and placed on a mandatory leave. According to the complaint, within hours of being told that she had to leave university housing, Singh committed suicide.

The complaint said that, in early December 2012, Singh had used a website “created, owned, operated and maintained” by Amazon to buy the cyanide tablets, and Amazon processed the payment.

The complaint noted Amazon changed its policies to block all sales of cyanide in the United States in February 2013, but contended Amazon should have known cyanide was being sold on its site dating back at least to May 2012.

The lawsuit alleges negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent hiring against the university, as well as negligence against Amazon for failing to stop the Thai website from selling banned substances.

The complaint was filed in July, as was a motion for declaratory judgment, which asked the court to find the wrongful death and survival act claims should be heard in state court. Last month, the parties stipulated that the case will not be arbitrated.

In its preliminary objections memo, the university argued the relationship between a university and student generally does not create a duty to control that student’s conduct for liability purposes, and the only state court decision to address a school’s liability regarding suicide rejected the claim.

The memo cited the 2005 court of common pleas decision in Mahoney v. Allegheny College, and said that case held there was no duty to prevent a suicide when a student had previously been treated at the school’s counseling center and had been considered a high risk.

Singh “was not, and had never been, confined or otherwise restricted in her activities; nothing of the sort has been alleged,” the school’s memo said.

According to Amazon, the unforeseeability of Singh’s suicide broke the chain of causation that could support a claim against the retailer.

“Under the circumstances alleged in the complaint, suicide and attempted suicide are not actionable under Pennsylvania law. The reason is straightforward: in order to sustain a tort claim, plaintiff is required to show proximate causation, which must be uninterrupted by an unforeseeable superseding cause,” the brief said. “The causal link is not broken only upon death, but also when a person intentionally takes a step to attempt suicide.”

The University of Pennsylvania’s attorney, Jeremy D. Mishkin of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads; Sujata Singh’s attorney, Stewart L. Cohen of Cohen, Placitella & Roth; and a spokeswoman for Conrad O’Brien all declined to comment.

Photo by Robert Scoble, via Flickr

For more on this story go to: http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/id=1202736978473/Amazon-UPenn-Contest-Liability-for-Student-Suicide#ixzz3ligyR8Go

 

Persad-Bissessar and Warner fall hard from a political wall; Gypsy jumped ship

By Hudson Gorge From Caribbean news Now

In Trinidad and Tobago a political tragedy took place. A few months ago, Jack Warner fell down the political wall and on September, 7, 2015, his former political tag team partner, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, lost her balance on the same political wall and fell on top of him. But before Ms Persad-Bissessar lost her balance, she sent one of her comrades to sink the political ship. Winston “Gypsy” Peters was commanding for her, but Gypsy had already jumped the ship.

Gypsy got the news before the ship was torpedoed and jumped overboard. While he was swimming desperately to reach the political shore, he was rescued by his main opponent political ship captained by Keith Rowley and taken to safety. Presently, Gypsy joined the Rowley crew and he is safe hands, enjoying a new political life with his former political rivals.

Basically, as a Grenadian myself, when I heard Mr Warner fall from the political wall, I was not surprised. It was expected that he would fall at any time because the wall was shaking with a corrupted political foundation. However, when I read the news on ‘The New Today’ 06/07/2015, which is a Grenadian newspaper, that his wife is a Grenadian from my parish, St Patrick, I was shocked and one of his sons has dual citizenship of both Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, I was shocked. It took some time to really believe.

The reason why I was shocked to know that Mr Warner wife was Grenadian, I can remember fully well that the People’s Partnership (PP) led by Ms Persad-Bissessar and Mr Warner campaigned and won the 2010 general election in Trinidad and Tobago, by creating anti Grenadian sentiment among Trinbagonians. They were instigating xenophobia against Grenadians, by telling the people that the People’s National Movement (PNM) led by Patrick Manning during that time was planning to integrate Grenada with Trinidad and Tobago.

Knowing full well that politicians are the masters of deceptions and lies, Ms Persad-Bissessar’s and Mr Warner’s political strategy of lies was accepted by the majority of voters. They were able to fool the people because Ms Persad-Bissessar is the leader of the most powerful East Indian based political party and Mr Warner had influence on black voters who do not like Grenadians. So the People’s Partnership was able to defeat Mr Manning’s PNM government.

However, from a racial point of view, I can understand why Ms Persad-Bissessar promoted the anti Grenadian sentiment to attract voters. She is an East Indian woman leading a political party that has its roots within the East Indian community that makes up large percentage of the population in Trinidad. On the other hand, Grenada is a predominantly African populated country and due to the fact that African and East Indian Trinbagonians vote by race, plus some elements of insularity, her tragedy was a success.

Now that the PNM is back in power with Dr Keith Rowley as the political leader, it is expected that Ms Persad-Bissessar will try to incite anti Grenadian sentiment again to gain political support. Therefore, it will be very important for Mr Rowley to be cautious in dealing with Grenadians and the Grenadian government, even though more than half of the population in Trinidad and Tobago is connected to Grenada though ancestry bloodline.

In addition, it is very important for us Grenadians to avoid getting mixed up in Trinbagonian politics. If we put our mouths in their politics, it will be disastrous for Dr Rowley and his PNM government. It is no hidden fact that the Indo Trinbagonians will be looking for scapegoats for political mileage to attack the new movement.

I personally have strong family ties in Tobago that go back from the 1800 and 1900s and up to this present time our family is still united, even though we are living in two different countries. Both of my parents have strong family ties in Tobago.

Historically, before the British tied Tobago with Trinidad, Tobago and Grenada were under the same colonial rule. However, due to the fact that Trinidad is the most prosperous CARICOM country and Grenada does not have the wealth as Trinidad, some Trinidadians tend to look down on us Grenadians as inferior to them, even though they know we are closely related.

However, I am begging Grenadians who are not residing in Trinidad and Tobago to stay away from politics in the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. If we get involved in their politics, it will affect the PNM government because of race and the strong family bloodline. We have to remember, even though Africans and East Indians came to the Caribbean islands by boat, we the Africans came in shackles as slaves, while East Indians came from South East Asia as indentured workers. They were not dehumanised as us.

As Grenadians, the best thing for us to do is to have normal relationship with Trinidad and Tobago in terms of trade and culture; and do not beg them for anything. Our Grenadian government should avoid begging them for financial assistance. Only if we have a national disaster, should we accept assistance from them. Sometimes it is very good to be poor and proud. We need to hold on to our national pride to build a strong nation.

In conclusion, I hope that Mr Warner and Ms Persad-Bissessar will gain back their political health and ask themselves why did they spread anti Grenadian sentiment to win the 2010 general election, even though they know that many of the citizens in Trinidad and Tobago have Grenadian blood flowing in their veins.

IMAGE: hudson_george.jpg
Hudson George has a BA in Social Science from York University, Toronto, Canada. He has been writing since his early teenage years and now contributes letters and articles to a number of Caribbean newspapers

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Commentary%3A-Persad-Bissessar-and-Warner-fall-hard-from-a-political-wall%3B-Gypsy-jumped-ship-27577.html