Great moments in litigation

Although perhaps not quite as good as it used to be (ah the days when it used to be a labour of love publication, published erratically and sent to less than 2000 subscribers)! I still look forward to receiving the new issue of the Fortean Times.

In between issues there is the breaking news section which throws up plenty of blog fodder, including this odd tale.

According to the Iowa new station WQAD News the Iowa Court of Appeals has ordered the relatives of a deceased man to exhume his body so his head can be cut off and cryogenically frozen.

The court sided with Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Scottsdale, Ariz., which sought to dig up the remains of 81-year-old Orville Richardson, late of Burlington Iowa, who died in February 2009. Mr Richardson had signed a contract with Alcor to have his head placed in cryonic suspension. However his Richardson's family buried him instead.

Alcor filed a lawsuit to exhume Richardson's body but a Des Moines Country District Court judge ruled against the company, which appealed. The appeals court overturned the district court's decision Wednesday, saying Alcor was entitled to his remains.

After a year in the ground I daresay that all Mr Richardson will be good for after resuscitation is as a replacement for Rush Limbaugh. Just as well he wasn’t cremated!

Holy Litigation. Batman

According to Variety, the mayor of the Turkish city of Batman is suing producer/director Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties from the film The Dark Knight.

Huseyin Kalkan, the mayor of Batman, has accused "The Dark Knight" producers of using the city's name without permission."There is only one Batman in the world," Kalkan said. "The American producers used the name of our city without informing us."

Needless to say there was no litigation in 1939 when Batman first appeared as a comic, none when the campy tv show started in 1966 and none when the first film version came out in 1989. (Could the litigation be related to the fact that The Dark Knight is about to pass the $1 billion mark at the box office?

The mayor is prepping a series of charges against Nolan and Warner Bros., which owns the right to the Batman character, including placing the blame for a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film's success has had on the city's inhabitants. The mayor is working on gathering evidence he claims will show that the city of Batman predates the 1939 debut of Batman in DC Comics.(!!!)

"We are only aware of this claim via press reports and have not seen any actual legal action," according to a Warner Bros statement...

I have no idea if this is a spoof or not but I do love a bit of frivolous litigation!