Lawsuit

Tornetta Realty Co. has filed a lawsuit against Lower Gwynedd, claiming that by allowing yard signs supporting the preservation of Penllyn Woods to be erected on properties in the municipality without permits, the township is not following its own ordinance. An exasperated Kate Harper, chairwoman of the Township Board of Supervisors, announced that the suit was filed at the end of Tuesday night's supervisors meeting. "I am deeply disturbed, personally, by the lawsuit," Harper said.

A negligence lawsuit against Boston Celtics forward Antoine Walker was reinstated by a federal appeals court in Boston that said he might be liable for an alleged rape at his home if he could have stopped it without danger to himself. Monday's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit said that state law isn't clear about a host's legal duty to protect guests in his home. State law does not require bystanders to come to the aid of those in distress. However, a host is required to take reasonable care of the guests in his home.

Lawyers for a former St. Louis Rams player and three fans plan to withdraw a lawsuit that accuses the New England Patriots of cheating in the 2002 Super Bowl. In court papers filed yesterday, the plaintiffs' attorneys say they sued last month in an attempt to secure sworn testimony from former Patriots employee Matt Walsh, who allegedly taped a walkthrough practice by the Rams before New England's Super Bowl win. But the lawyers for former Rams player Willie Gary call it an "exercise in futility" because they suspect Walsh would exercise his constitutional right against self-incrimination if he is ordered to submit to a deposition.

The Somerton Civic Association has mailed letters to neighborhood residents in an effort to raise between $2,000 and $3,000 to cover attorney fees expected in connection with the group's lawsuit against PennDOT. The association sued PennDOT last year to force completion of the Woodhaven Road Extension project, from Roosevelt Boulevard west to Bustleton Avenue, and from Bustleton to Philmont Avenue on the Montgomery County line. The project was abandoned when state funding ran out in the late 1970s and it has been a continuing source of controversy in the community.

This one is more than just another father-daughter bout in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. It's Smokin' Joe vs. Sister Smoke. Former heavyweight boxing champion "Smokin' " Joe Frazier has sued his daughter Jacquelyn "Sister Smoke" Frazier-Lyde, a former lawyer. Frazier-Lyde, a candidate for municipal court judge, is a Villanova University School of Law graduate who was a college basketball star. At 38, she embarked on a boxing career and won a women's heavyweight title. Frazier-Lyde did not return a call for comment to her campaign headquarters yesterday.

Evesham Township officials are contesting a lawsuit, filed by a North Jersey real estate firm, that accuses them of ignoring the township's obligation to construct state-mandated affordable housing. The Artdor Realty Co. of Kearny filed suit against the Township Council, the Planning Board and the Municipal Utilities Authority Nov. 20 in Burlington County Superior Court. The company wants to build 336 homes on a 28-acre tract it owns at the intersection of Route 70 and Troth Road.

The community of writers and journalists have been slow in meditating the implications of the lawsuit brought by Jeffrey MacDonald against Joe McGinniss. MacDonald is the doctor who, while in the Army, murdered his pregnant wife and two children. Joe McGinniss is the author who wrote a book about the killings, Fatal Vision. The lawsuit was an act of extraordinary arrogance by a man sentenced to serve three consecutive life terms. On the other hand, if you have the kidney to murder your pregnant wife and daughters, it shouldn't surprise that you can also be playful with the First Amendment.

Four years ago, Alan J. Darragh would play records in his Audubon apartment for 9-year-old Kim just to watch her dance. Now he's threatening to kill her. In an unusual move yesterday, Darragh, 44, issued a death threat in a federal lawsuit. The suit seeks his release from New Jersey's Mid-State Prison because he contends that he was unfairly convicted of sexually assaulting the girl, whose last name is being withheld by The Inquirer. "This little lying Brat Kim . . . will be very lucky that she doesn't lose her life for what I've been through," Darragh wrote in the suit.

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a New York state lawsuit that sought a full environmental review of hydraulic fracturing in a case that might have held up natural gas development in the Delaware River Basin. U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis in New York granted a request by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies to throw out the case, finding that the Marcellus Shale development plans are in the early stages and the threat of harm is speculative. The lawsuit was brought in 2011 by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman against the Delaware River Basin Commission, a multistate compact that governs water use in the Delaware watershed and has delayed adoption of new drilling regulations.

Common Pleas Court Judge Allan L. Tereshko has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the primary election results in City Council's Second District, where State Rep. Kenyatta Johnson defeated Barbara Capozzi by 40 votes, winning the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Council President Anna C. Verna. Capozzi had claimed that the results were invalid because the name of a third candidate, Damon Roberts, who withdrew the week before the election, was improperly stickered over on a number of machines.