"Is it too late now to say sorry?" singer Justin Bieber is being sued by a man for allegedly destroying his cellphone after he videotaped Bieber unsuccessfully gulping from a beer bong in a Houston night club.

Robert Earl Morgan is suing Bieber for $100,000 claiming that he never got his SIM card back after the phone was smashed. Morgan asserts that the SIM card was full of irreplaceable images, including some from his grandmother's 100th birthday party, as well as business contacts that were lost and cost him financially.

According to the lawsuit, Bieber was "clearly a novice" using a funnel-like beer bong and spilled beer all over himself.

—Source:  dailymail.co.uk

Two dog trainers are seeking more than $3 million in damages after they claim a Texarkana truck driver ran over two of their prized hog dogs.

Jonathan Jones of Arkansas and Christopher Maxwell of Louisiana allege in their lawsuit filed in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas that a Duane Livingston Trucking, Inc. driver plowed through the animals at a high rate of speed. According to the trainers' attorney, the men had formed a team to compete in a hog catching competition by the Arkansas Dog Hunter's Association and were gathering up their dogs when the driver "negligently failed to heed advance warnings of the dogs' and plaintiffs' presence, drove at a high rate of speed through them, striking and killing the dogs."
 
The complaint asks for $750,000 for both Jones and Maxwell for negligently causing mental anguish. Each canine was allegedly worth $7,500 and the suit seeks compensation for loss of property. The suit accuses the Duane Livingston driver of conduct so outrageous an additional award of $750,000 is being sought for each trainer. The suit seeks punitive damages of $750,000 for each man. Compensatory damages requested total $1,515,000 while punitive damages total $1,500,000.
 
Coincidentally, it has been reported that the truck was either picking up or delivering freight from the River Valley Animal Foods factory nearby when the alleged accident occurred.

—Source:  txktoday.com

A Craigslist sale of an allegedly malfunctioning printer has been winding its way through the courts for nearly seven years, and there appears to be no end in sight for the paper filings.

According to news reports, Doug Costello sold a used Brother laser printer/fax/scanner machine to Gersh Zavodnik for $40 in 2009. Unbeknownst to Costello, Zavodnik had been described by the Indiana Supreme Court as a "prolific, abusive litigant" in light of the dozens of high-priced lawsuits he has filed over online transactions. Costello now seems to have had a duplicate experience.

Over the last six-and-a-half years, Costello has spent nearly $12,000 in lawyers' fees defending the case filed by Zavodnik who claimed the printer did not work when he received it. Zavodnik's original suit, which was filed in small claims court, was dismissed because Zavodnik had thrown away the printer. A year later, Zavodnik filed again, this time seeking more than $30,000 in damages for breach of contract and fraud. After that case was dismissed, Zavodnik made several more attempts, seeking between $300,000 and $600,000.

After more than 5 years, a judge ruled in favor of Zavodnik, awarding him $30,044 in a breach of contract judgment. Costello appealed the case, and it was swiftly dismissed. But Zavodnik isn't giving up the fight. Later this year a panel of judges will decide whether the case should have been dismissed.

“Gersh [Zavodnik] is not normal,” Costello told The New York Daily News. “It's been a practice in zen mindfulness and non-attachment.”

—Source:  nydailynews.com

A Dallas pet-sitting company that sued its former clients in small claims court over an unfavorable Yelp review has upped the ante.

Prestigious Pets is now suing in district court and asking for up to $1 million in damages because it claims to have suffered a "dramatic decrease" in business.

In response to the venue change, Michelle and Robert Duchouquette have submitted a 143-page motion asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, asserting their right to free speech.

“It’s interesting. The only real reason to do that is so they could up their damages award request, which they have,” said the couple’s attorney, Nicole Williams. “They’ve gone from [asking for] $6,700 to up to $1 million.”

The legal skirmish stems from a negative review that Michelle Duchouquette posted to Yelp in which she accused Prestigious Pets of overfeeding and nearly killing her fish.

—Source:  dallasnews.com