Supreme Court rejects McCrary case, others

Posted: 7:32 pm Mon, November 29, 2010
By Daily Record Staff

The Supreme Court turned aside a host of petitioners Monday, including some of the defendants in retired Baltimore Raven Michael McCrary’s long-running insurance fraud case.

Tamara J. “TJ” Fisher and two of her companies claimed the Baltimore City Circuit Court lacked jurisdiction over them in his suit over a New Orleans development involving her husband, Stuart C. “Neil” Fisher, and developer Edward V. Giannasca II. Due to numerous discovery violations, the defendants were unable to present evidence at their first trial, which resulted in a verdict of more than $33 million.

An appeals court affirmed the liability ruling but remanded the case for a new trial on damages, which concluded in July. Judge W. Michel Pierson has yet to issue his decision.

Among other certiorari petitions denied Monday, the Supreme Court:

- Left in place a ban on alcohol advertising in Virginia’s college newspapers. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a regulation by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission that prohibits advertising of beer, wine and mixed drinks in college student publications (unless in advertisements for dining establishments) and bans the phrase “happy hour.”

- Let stand a ruling that says eBay isn’t violating Tiffany Inc.’s trademarks by selling items on its website that might be counterfeit. A lower court said eBay cannot be held responsible for counterfeits being sold on its site if the website doesn’t know the items are fake.

- Turned down an appeal from a Texas teenager who got in trouble for downloading music without paying. Whitney Harper acknowledged she used file-sharing networks to download and share three dozen songs. But she said the money she owes music companies should be reduced because as a 16-year-old she didn’t know that what she did amounted to copyright infringement. Harper wanted the money owed for each song cut to $200 from $750. The justices rejected her appeal over a dissent from Justice Samuel Alito.

- Refused to hear from the Friends of the Everglades, the Florida Wildlife Federation and other groups that want to force Florida water managers to get permits to pump contaminated water from farmland into Lake Okeechobee. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Environmental Protection Agency that transferring polluted water from one navigable body to another is not a “discharge of a pollutant” under the Clean Water Act and does not require a permit.