Lost Fingers Lawsuit, for Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions

Richard Houpert seeks $1 million in damages after being injured building sets for the comedy "That's My Boy."

A Boston carpenter has sued Sony Pictures, subsidiary Columbia, and Sandler's Happy Madison Productions after suffering an injury building sets for That's My Boy in May 2011. Richard Houpert had several fingers partially cut off and sustained fractures on his right hand, and he seeks $1 million in damages.

In his complaint, filed last week at the District Court in Boston, Houpert claims he was working with a table saw when his hand was "drawn into the saw." The saw was not properly fitted with safety components such as saw stops and safety guards, he claims, and the injuries to his right dominant hand have caused him loss of income.

 “The cost to provide saws with saw stops, guards, or other safety equipment was minimal compared to the enormity of the risk of injury to the users of the saws,” the complaint argues.

Houpert has also targeted Sony and Columbia. The plaintiff claims the film production companies did not ensure safety on set despite having set aside a monetary fund for that purpose.

The studios are not the only ones Houpert blames—he has also taken aim at Black & Decker, the manufacturer of the saw. The Black & Decker 3-horsepower Delta unisaw was "dangerous and defective," "not of merchantable quality and unfit for its intended and forseeable uses," the complaint holds, and Houpert claims negligence and breach of implied and express warranties.

Read More.... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/adam-sandlers-happy-madison-productions-580521

Law Offices of Jonathan Franklin
Open Evenings and Weekends this Summer
Call Us Now (310) 273-9600   
 http://www.jonathanfranklinlaw.com

James Terry Watson, DEA Agent, Killed In Colombia Robbery Attempt

                                                        Columbia - FARC Peace Talks

 A DEA agent has died in an apparent robbery attempt in Colombia, U.S. Ambassador Michael McKinley said Friday. Colombian authorities said the American agent was stabbed four times.

McKinley told local Radio Caracol that the robbery attempt occurred after the anti-drug agent left a meeting with friends at a Bogota restaurant and got into a taxi.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement from Washington that Special Agent James "Terry" Watson was assigned to the DEA office in Cartagena, Colombia, but was on temporary assignment in Bogota.

Gen. Jose Roberto Leon, director of Colombia's National Police, said Watson was 43. He had worked in the country for about a year and a half.

Colombian authorities did not say where Watson was from in the United States.

Col. Camilo Cabana of the National Police said that the taxi Watson was riding in was intercepted by another cab about three blocks from the restaurant. Two men got out and tried to pull the American out of the vehicle, stabbing him three times in the chest and once in the leg, Cabana said.

The assailants abandoned the agent in the street, where he was found shortly afterward by a police patrol. Watson was taken to a clinic several blocks away, but had already died.

 The police department has offered a reward of 50 million pesos ($25,800) for information leading to the arrest of those responsible.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/21/james-terry-watson-killed-colombia-dea-agent_n_3479280.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Law Offices of Jonathan Franklin
Open Evenings and Weekends this Summer
Call Us Now (310) 273-9600    
 http://www.jonathanfranklinlaw.com