Superman the Movie opened on December 15, 1978. This film is truly the first superhero movie of the modern era with effects that brought a comic book character to life. Jessica and I sat down to discuss the legal issues in the movie and its legacy on the comic book movies we love today.
The classic WKRP in Cincinnati episode “Turkeys Away,” is one of the greatest moments in television history. The radio station had a surprise Thanksgiving promotion that involved a helicopter “setting free” live turkeys from 2,000 feet above the Pinedale Shopping Mall. Unfortunately, the turkeys could not fly.
Dropping Turkeys from a Helicopter is Animal Abuse
There are many ways to prepare turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner. Dropping them from a helicopter is not one of them.
Ohio law states that no person shall needlessly mutilate or kill an animal. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 959.13(A)(1). Dropping a flightless bird from 2,000 feet luckily has not appeared in Ohio case law, but would be the textbook definition of “mutilate.” Reporter Les Nessman described the turkeys hitting the ground like bags of wet cement. There is no question that the turkeys were mutilated by their high velocity impact on pavement and cars.
It was Negligence to Drop Turkeys from a Helicopter
Station manager Arthur Carlson claimed he thought turkeys could fly. Moreover, he stated his plan “should have worked.” There is a strong argument Carlson was negligent for his plan that resulted in the Pinedale Shopping Mall being bombed with live turkeys.
In order to prove Arthur Carlson was negligent, there first must be a duty; a breach of that duty, and an injury resulting from that breach. Menifee v. Ohio Welding Prods., Inc., 472 N.E.2d 707, 710 (Ohio 1984). The test to determine whether the risk of injury was foreseeable is whether “a reasonably prudent person would have anticipated that an injury was likely to result from the performance or nonperformance of an act.” Id., citations omitted.
Dropping objects out of a helicopter is objectively a dangerous activity that could result in those on the ground being injured. As such, there would be a duty to not drop objects from a helicopter on a parking lot with people. However, Carlson honesty thought turkeys could fly. Was that reasonable?
There is a strong argument that Carlson should have researched whether turkeys could fly, instead of assuming they could. Has anyone seen a flock of turkeys migrate south for the winter? Moreover, since Herb Tarlek purchased the turkeys at a farm, did Carlson think they somehow were kept in pens to avoid flying away?
There is a compelling argument that a reasonably prudent person would not have thrown a second turkey out of a helicopter after seeing the first turkey did not take flight upon release. Even if Carlson had a good faith reasonable belief that turkeys could fly, that belief was no longer reasonable after seeing the first bird in free fall.
Those suffering property damage from turkeys crashing into their cars could recover from Carlson’s negligence, because dropping turkeys out of a helicopter would have been a breach of Carlson’s duty to not drop flightless birds out of a helicopter over a populated area. However, being reasonably prudent would not have made one of the greatest moments in television history.
There are very few people who are cultural icons that redefined pop culture. Stan Lee was one such individual who helped inspire imagination and joy for decades. Lee did not do this alone, as other titans such as Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Steve Ditko, Bill Everett, all were invaluable to creating the pop culture golden age we live in today, especially Jack Kirby.
Stan Lee was a force of nature who represented the best of being a geek. Lee was honored at the first Geekie Awards in 2013, where Lee wowed the crowd with his “Ode to Geeks.” Stan the Man will be greatly missed and his memory will be eternal.
Stan Against Evil is back! The season is off to a strong start as a love letter to The X-Files, Koljack the Night Stalker, and Kaiju movies.
The second episode entitled The Hex Files has Agent Nesbitt of the New Hampshire Bureau for Paranormal Phenomena (NHBPP) performing an autopsy on a demonic victim.
Sheriff Evie asked if they could just go in and perform an autopsy, which raises the issue of who can perform autopsies.
New Hampshire law on performance of autopsies state:
I. If the supervising medical examiner, attorney general, or county attorney deems that an autopsy is necessary, he or she shall direct that one be made. The commissioner of the department of health and human services may, pursuant to RSA 126-A:5, V, request an autopsy of any individual who dies while admitted to, a resident of, or receiving care from New Hampshire hospital, Glencliff home, or any other residential facility operated by the department or a contract service provider.
II. The supervising medical examiner shall have the authority to conduct an autopsy and shall comply with any request by the attorney general, a county attorney, or the commissioner of health and human services to perform an autopsy.
N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 611-B:17.
Agent Nesbitt performed an autopsy without a determination of necessity by the supervising medical examiner, attorney, or county attorney. While Evie is the town sheriff, she does not hold any of the required positions to order an autopsy. While Evie arguably had lawful access to the morgue in her official position, she cannot give permission for an autopsy to be performed. However, Sheriff Evie is in position to ask any of the authorized officials to grant Agent Nesbitt permission to perform an autopsy. Evie could have added that Nesbitt even had her own gloves if the county had budget concerns…
The Bride of Frankenstein is a reminder that you literally cannot MAKE someone to love you. For anyone who thinks the myth of Pygmalion is a workable model in sculpting a woman to love you, Bride of Frankenstein is a healthy dose of reality. The story picks up from the ashes of the original Frankenstein, with enough changes in continuity that shows the producers had not planned to make a sequel of the original film.
The Mad Doctor
Dr. Septimus Pretorius is the archetype of the mad scientist without any ethics. Dr. Pretorius is the poster child on why the Nuremberg Code exists to protect people from human experimentation. Pretorius paid henchmen for access to catacombs, where he identified the body of a deceased woman, and noted that he hoped she had strong bones. Pretorius later stayed in the catacombs for the ambiance, where he enjoyed a bottle of wine with a coffin as a table. He took the creepiness up a notch by decorating coffin with a skull and bones for happy hour.
Laws globally are enacted to keep the living from doing everything Dr. Pretorius did in the catacombs. Anyone who knowingly “mutilates or disinters, wantonly disturbs, or willfully removes any human remains” without legal authority is guilty of a misdemeanor. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7050.5(a). Moreover, anyone who removes any part of human remains from where they are interred, with intent to sell or dissect the remains, or with malice or wantonness, without legal authority, has committed a felony and is subject to imprisonment. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7051; Cal. Penal Code § 1170(h). Furthermore, anyone who willfully mutilates, removes, or has sexual contact with human remains, is guilty of a felony. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 7052(a).
Dr. Septimus Pretorius willfully mutilated remains by placing the skull and bones on the coffin for his twisted picnic. This was at least a misdemeanor. The removing of the female corpse for medical experimentation is a felony.
But the crimes don’t stop there.
Crimes Against Frankenstein
Dr. Septimus Pretorius forced Dr. Henry Frankenstein to collaborate on creating a mate for Frankenstein’s Creature by kidnapping his wife Elizabeth. Pretorius held Elizabeth in an unknown location and threatened her safety in order to compel Dr. Frankenstein’s participation in creating a “friend” for the Creature.
It is worth noting that the collaboration between the two doctors sought Dr. Frankenstein’s knowledge to create a living body from corpses. Dr. Pretorius proved he could “grew” miniature people, thus would grow a brain for the Bride.
Pretorius had no moral reservations about holding people against their will. His homegrown homunculi were kept in glass jars; imprisoning Elizabeth was completely within his “means justify the ends” attitude.
Kidnapping is the forcible taking of a person. Cal. Penal Code § 207(a). Kidnapping someone for ransom is a felony that can be punished with life without parole if suffers bodily harm or is exposed to a substantial likelihood of death. Cal. Penal Code § 209. False imprisonment is the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another. Cal. Penal Code § 236.
Elizabeth was taken by the Creature and imprisoned with threats against her life. Given the ease with the Creature had killed others, Elizabeth had been exposed to a substantial likelihood of death. Moreover, Elizabeth was taken in order to secure the compliance of Dr. Frankenstein in order to build a Bride for the Creature. This is a ransom case and Pretorius clearly committed multiple felonies.
Is Creating a Bride from a Reanimated Corpse Human Trafficking?
Dr. Septimus Pretorius compelled the help of Dr. Frankenstein and stole a human body (plus a heart on Frankenstein’s instructions) in order to build a mate for the Creature. This arguably is human trafficking…with the added twist that victim was brought to life by those who did the human trafficking.
Human trafficking is the deprivation of the personal liberty of another with the intent to obtain forced labor from the victim. This is a felony that can be punished in prison for 5, 8, or 12 years with a fine up to $500,000. Cal. Penal Code § 236.1(a).
The Bride immediately rejected the Creature after being brought to life and introduced to her “groom.” There is a defense that she was never actually deprived of her personal liberty, given how quickly the situation deteriorated, but that would ignore the Creature’s action to destroy the laboratory with “we belong dead.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost
The Creature survived being burned alive, shot at after saving a woman, pursued by a lynch mob, tortured, hunted, and imprisoned without the right to counsel. The one person who cared about him was a blind man who did not know the Creature was “a monster.” Cruelty drove the Creature straight to Dr. Pretorius who capitalized on the hate the Creature endured to transform him into “The Monster.” The Creature wanted only to be loved and took a dark path that lead to ruin. While the Creature ultimately realized what he had become, the real monsters were the ones who carried torches and strung the Creature up like an animal.
There is the long running lawyer joke that attorneys are vampires. However, the story of Dracula features an attorney who was retained by a creature of the night for leasing property in England. In the 1931 film, Renfield travels to Transylvania and quickly falls under Dracula’s spell. Renfield assists the vampire in traveling to England aboard a sailing ship, alerting Dracula when the sun had set for the Count’s nightly feeding on sailors. For a different take on the story closer to the book, check out the Fictional Podcast has a great three part series telling the story that follows Jonathan Harker on his ill-fated trip to Transylvania.
Here is a question worthy of a bar exam, what should a lawyer do if a vampire seeks their legal representation?
Client Discrimination Based on Status as a Vampire
Attorneys have a duty “[n]ever to reject, for any consideration personal to himself or herself, the cause of the defenseless or the oppressed.” Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6068(h). Moreover, lawyers “shall not unlawfully discriminate or knowingly permit unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, age or disability in accepting or terminating representation of any client.” California Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 2-400(B)(2).
It would be wrong to reject representing a vampire on the sole basis the client is a vampire. Lawyers cannot discriminate based on a disability (such as being undead, bursting into fame if exposed to sunlight, and requiring human blood based on dietary restrictions), or national origin (such as being Transylvanian). These factors are alone not a basis for rejecting someone as a client and could be grounds for a discrimination lawsuit.
Lawyer Can’t Advise Breaking the Law
Renfield (or Harker in the book) did not know Dracula’s intentions besides his real property interests in England. This is important, because attorneys are not supposed to advise clients on violating laws. California Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 3-210. If the attorney knew that Dracula intended to travel to England in order to murder and feed on an unsuspecting population who did not decorate their homes with Crucifixes and Communion wafers, the attorney did not knowingly advocate violating the laws against murder. If the attorney knew Dracula’s intent, then there is a serious ethical breach.
Attorney-client Privilege Doesn’t Apply to Enabling Crimes
Attorneys have a duty to maintain their client’s confidential information. Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6068(e)(1). However, an attorney may, but is not legally required, to reveal confidential information if the attorney believes it is necessary to prevent criminal activity that can result in death or substantial bodily harm. Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6068(e)(2). Moreover, the attorney-client privilege does not apply if a lawyer’s services were sought to enable or aid anyone to commit a crime. Cal Evid Code § 956(a).
Dracula’s attorney would have to maintain his client’s confidential information that went into securing the real property agreements, but if the lawyer knew of Dracula’s intent to kill, then the lawyer has options for informing law enforcement. The attorney could inform the police of Dracula’s intent to kill people for their blood, which could include the location of Dracula’s properties. However, there is no legal requirement that the attorney has to inform law enforcement, which would make the lawyer a true monster if he decided to not take any action to stop his client from feeding on others.
If the attorney offered Dracula legal advice on how to murder, locations around London that would be prime hunting grounds, that advice would not be protected by the attorney-client privilege. At that point the lawyer has transformed from attorney to henchman, and is assisting with committing crimes.
The cultural watershed of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is the perfect Halloween treat of horror and comedy joining together, much like a Reece’s Peanut Buttercup.
In a tale of monsters, the Uniform Commercial Code, and possible insurance fraud, one legal issue towers above the rest: Dr. Sandra Mornay’s seduction of Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) in order to transfer his brain to the body of Frankenstein’s Creature without Grey’s medical consent.
Doctors in Florida (the state where Wilbur Grey and Chick Young worked for a shipping company), are required to explain to patients proposed medical procedures within the accepted standards of the medical profession, so that a reasonable person would understand the risks of undergoing the procedure, or alternatives. Fla. Stat. Ann. § 766.103(3)(a)(1) and (2).
Dr. Sandra Mornay conspired with Dracula to transfer Wilbur Grey’s brain to the body of Frankenstein’s Creature. While Mornay ultimately fell under the influence of Dracula, she had agreed to the “brain transfer” before falling under Dracula’s spell. After kidnapping Grey and transporting him to an island laboratory, Dr. Mornay explained the following procedure to Wilbur:
I’m not going to hurt you. Soon, instead of being short and chubby, you’ll be big and tall and as strong as an ox. And furthermore, you’ll live forever and never grow old.
I shall remove your brain and put it in his body.
Dr. Mornay explained the basics of the removing Wilbur’s brain and placing it in the Creature, but there was no discussion of how the procedure worked or risks. Moreover, “brain transfers” are outside the accepted standards of the medical profession, as seen by the lack of “brain transfers” performed by doctors. This is in addition to Dr. Mornay having the worst bedside manner ever and body shaming Wilbur after kidnapping him.
Florida law states that it is the duty of a physician to obtain the informed consent of a patient, which requires the patient to know the degrees of danger of the medical procedure to be performed. Cedars Med. Ctr., Inc. v. Ravelo, 738 So. 2d 362, 367 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1999). Wilbur was never a patient, but a kidnap victim who was being subjected to an unorthodox medical experiment. Even if the kidnapping is overlooked, Wilbur was being subjected to a medical procedure that was never fully explained without his permission.
Informed medical consent for any procedure, especially medical experiments, is to ensure patients understand the risks. Moreover, it is to protect patients from physicians who want to play Dr. Frankenstein.