Should Animals Be Allowed to Sue?

SHERRY F. COLB

Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb comments on case in which Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) brought a civil damages suit on behalf of an abused horse, now named Justice, against the horse’s former owner. Colb dismantles three arguments critics raise in opposition to recognizing abused animals as plaintiffs in lawsuits such as this one.

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State v. Hatfield

Citation: 2020 UT 1

Opinion Date: January 27, 2020

Judge: Pearce

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the district court convicting Defendant of two of four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor but reversed the district court on the remaining two convictions, holding that the second and fourth counts of sexual exploitation of a minor did not meet the Sexual Exploitation Act's definition of simulated sexually explicit conduct. Appellant was charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after he was discovered in his middle school classroom where he taught with scrapbooks containing pornographic images of adults and images of underage, and sometimes nude, girls. Appellant entered a Sery plea of no contest and then appealed. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's two of the counts of sexual exploitation of a minor but reversed the district court on the remaining two counts, holding that the district court did not err in interpreting the Act but that there was insufficient evidence to convict Defendant on counts two and four.