A New York man is suing Westchester County Airport seeking $5 million in damages after he tripped over a luggage scale.

According to news reports, Ralph Faga was visiting the airport to purchase a plane ticket when, after being told the prices for the trip were higher than what he saw online, he was invited to the agent's side of the counter to view ticket prices on the computer screen. As Faga was coming around the corner, he allegedly tripped over a luggage scale he did not see, suffering a torn rotator cuff and bicep tendon, which reportedly is inoperable.

Faga charges that the airport staff was negligent and the scale was not properly marked for visibility. According to Faga’s attorney, his injuries are permanent and will change his lifestyle significantly, which is why Faga is now seeking such a high settlement.

—Source: travelandleisure.com

A New York man is suing a local animal shelter for $5 million, claiming the shelter wrongly adopted out his dog, Eto, a Belgian Malinois.

Clifton Benjamin, a TSA canine handler, claims he purchased Eto in the Netherlands and brought him to the United States. The day after one-year old Eto went missing, he turned up at the Town of Islip animal shelter, where Benjamin went to pick him up. According to news reports, Benjamin claimed to have all the pedigree information for the dog, including his pet passport, vaccination records and shipping/tracking information.

Belgian Malinois are often trained for use by U.S. Secret Service members and for tracking and security and have been known to be sold for between $20,000 and $40,000.

"This is the equivalent of finding a Ferrari at a used car dealership," Benjamin's attorney, Vesselin Mitev, of Ray, Mitev & Associates, LLP, said. "The outrageous behavior of those sworn to reunite animals with their owners cannot go unpunished. We must find Eto. We know he is out there and we demand him back."

In a statement, a town spokesperson said that several people came to claim the dog but none could prove ownership.

"The plaintiff had no physical paperwork in his name, and what he did have, included inaccurate information including a chip number that did not match the chip number in the dog," the statement reads. "The plaintiff admitted to giving the dog to a third party. The dog was brought in on September 14th, 2018 and adopted on October 5, 2018. We received several inquiries. We did more than our due diligence in looking for a responsible owner. The dog was ultimately adopted out to a retired NYC police officer with no relationship to the Town of Islip. This is a frivolous lawsuit and will be vigorously defended by the Town of Islip."

—Source: patch.com

The state of Louisiana is suing the state of California over its decision to ban the import and sale of alligator products.

In its recent lawsuit, Louisiana is alleging that California's ban will hurt the alligator products market, a vital part of Louisiana's economy, in addition to the marshlands that serve as habitat for the alligators and are preserved for raising them. The state argues that if California's ban goes into effect, “landowners will be forced to greatly reduce or cease their erosion control efforts because they will be unable to economically sustain those efforts, resulting in irreparable harm to their property as well as harm to Louisiana’s sovereign environmental interests in wetland preservation."

According to news reports, California banned alligator skins and meats in the 1970s but repeatedly has issued exceptions that allowed sales; the most recent exemption, scheduled to expire January 1, has not been renewed, prompting the lawsuit. The alligator ban was backed by a coalition of environmental and animal rights groups.

“California has nevertheless attempted to destroy the market for American alligator products notwithstanding the fact that no such alligators live in California," the lawsuit says.

According to Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries, over 300,000 alligators are harvested every year from both farm and wild sources.

—Source: journalstar.com

A Colorado man is suing a book author, claiming he was duped by the author's poem that contained clues to a lost treasure chest.

David Harold Hanson of Colorado Springs, Colorado, sued Forrest Fenn in U.S. District Court. Hanson is seeking $1.5 million, claiming Fenn deprived him of the treasure "by fraudulent statements." According to news reports, Fenn proffered a 24-line poem in his autobiography, "The Thrill of the Chase", that allegedly holds clues to the location of a treasure chest hidden in the Rocky Mountains. It's been reported that an estimated 350,000 people have gone in search of the treasure.

Hanson claims he followed the clues and arrived at the location where the hidden items were, but only after Fenn first issued "misleading clues" that led Hanson away from the the search area and then issued "additional clues" that benefitted someone else who "found the items in question."

Fenn, an 89-year-old Vietnam War veteran, says he hid a chest full of valuable goods in the wilderness in an effort to get people outdoors.

The search for Fenn’s treasure has spawned an annual Fennboree gathering of campers at Hyde Memorial State Park, at least two documentary films and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.

Fenn told news sources he was unaware of the lawsuit and has “received no correspondence from him [Hanson] that I know of.” He said the treasure remains where he hid it ten years ago.

Hanson said in his complaint that he came up with the $1.5 million figure because it is half of the lowest publicized amount of the value of the treasure chest’s belongings — $3 million.

He said once the real amount is discovered, “said sum may be significantly adjusted.”

—Source: Santafenewmexican.com