Company Fined For Death Of Window Cleaner

Kevin Dolan plunges through open floor-to-ceiling window of Pountney Hill House while cleaning huge glass pane from inside without harness.

Window cleaner falls to his death from third storey of Grade II-listed building: A window cleaner plummeted to his death from the third-storey window of a Grade II-listed building in the City after bosses failed to ensure safe working conditions, a court heard. Kevin Dolan, 57, fell to his death through the open floor-to-ceiling window of Pountney Hill House, in central London, while cleaning the huge glass pane from the inside. The Old Bailey heard his death on October 18, 2012 was caused by a lack of safety measures, such as harnesses or rope access.

Surrey-based cleaning company Blades (London) Ltd took immediate responsibility for his death and pleaded guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety Act. Directors Bob Sawyer, Darren Sawyer and James Curtis sat at the back of court as their business was handed a £45,000 fine. Judge Richard Kramer QC said: "Nothing this court can does today can, sadly, turn the clock back. Moreover, it is insidious to try to place a value on the loss of life."

Mr Dolan had been working in the four-storey office block when he fell from an open third-storey window. The window opened into the room like a door, so it was possible to clean from the inside - although there were no barriers to prevent a fall, prosecutor Alastair Smith said. The court heard there was no rope access, no harnesses and no fall arrest or restraint. There were "eye bolts" built into the building, but they were not being used. Mr Smith added: "The method attempted was almost certainly the quickest, but almost certainly the least safe."

Mr Dolan was a close personal friend of the Sawyer brothers and Curtis, who opened the commercial cleaning company in 2007. The firm specialised in providing services, including window cleaning, to commercial premises in the City of London and relied heavily on subcontractors. Mr Dolan was described as more experienced than his bosses, who would turn to him for advice.

Their barrister Mark Balysz said: "The company is devastated by the loss of their friend and is truly sorry for it." He said the windows at Pountney Hill House had been cleaned in the same way for many years, adding: "It took the death of a friend to realise the risk to which they had put themselves, Kevin and others."

Blades (London) Limited, of Wallington, pleaded guilty to a single charge of breaching general duty to an employee under the Health and Safety at Work Act. The company was fined £45,000 and ordered to pay £7,500 costs.

A Virginia Court Slams Cleaning Companies Phony Yelp Reviews

Bad reviews: Business owner Joe Hadeed (left, with Virginia governor McDonnell) wants to sue anonymous reviewers of his carpet cleaning business for defamation. When Joe Hadeed, the owner of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, began to receive bad reviews of his service, he suspected the reviewers were not actual customers of his cleaning service, but "trolls" out to irresponsibly damage his reputation. Both were conditions that were in violation of Yelp's terms of use. Mr. Hadeed's attorneys issued a subpoena demanding the names of seven anonymous reviewers, and after a brief review of the motion, a judge in Alexandria ruled that Yelp had to comply, and reveal the identities of those individuals who had posted the negative reviews.

Judge orders Yelp.com to unmask anonymous critics who tore into biz - 'Defamatory speech is not entitled to constitutional protection,' huffs appeals beak: A US Court of Appeals has ordered Yelp to identify anonymous reviewers who slammed a cleaning company. In his ruling this week [PDF], Judge William G Petty, sitting in Virginia, told the review-sharing website to turn over personal information on seven of its users who had panned Hadeed Carpet Cleaning on Yelp.com. 

The family run cleaning biz had alleged those seven critics were not customers – it says it has no record of the services the reviewers are complaining about. The cleaners believe the Yelp users deliberately posted negative reviews in order to harm the company. Hadeed, based in Virginia, is seeking to sue the seven for defamation. Yelp has a contact email address, ZIP code and IP addresses from which the site was accessed on file for each account holder, all of which are crucial for the cleaning biz's litigation.

The legal battle started in 2012 when Hadeed subpoenaed Yelp for the identities of seven users who had posted the bad reviews. Yelp turned to the Court of Appeals to quash the subpoena, claiming the First Amendment protects freedom of speech and, in some cases, ensures the anonymity of those who post opinions and reviews on the internet.

According to Judge Petty, however, the rights of Hadeed to protect its reputation from defamatory statements overrides the protections of anonymity, and thus Yelp should be required to hand over identifying data on the seven reviewers. "The freedom of speech – and within this, the freedom to speak with anonymity – is not absolute ... If we assume that the Yelp reviews of Hadeed are lawful, then the John Does may remain anonymous," the judge wrote in his decision.

"But if the reviews are unlawful in that they are defamatory, then the John Does’ veil of anonymity may be pierced, provided certain procedural safeguards are met. This is because defamatory speech is not entitled to constitutional protection."

Yelp, meanwhile, stood fast in its assertion that the case threatens the rights of its users to discuss their experiences honestly and freely. It will appeal to a higher court to scrub the subpoena. "Consumers may feel the need to speak anonymously for privacy reasons or for fear of unfair retaliation by a business," the company said in a statement. "This ruling could have a chilling effect on free speech in Virginia specifically, and Yelp will continue to fight to protect consumers' privacy and free speech rights."

Yelp has become no stranger to the courts and claims from outraged business owners. Firms have accused the site of harboring users who deliberately post negative reviews of businesses in order to harm reputations and drive away customers to rivals. Meanwhile, the site and its users have claimed that companies are using the courts in order to bully independent reviewers and customers into silence and suppressing negative reviews.

Court orders Yelp to reveal anonymous reviewers' identities in defamation case: A Virginia court has ruled that the identities of seven anonymous reviewers who criticized a local carpet cleaning business must be revealed. In a decision that will strike fear in the hearts of all anonymous online trolls, an Alexandria judge ruled on Tuesday that Yelp must comply with the demand of Joe Hadeed's attorneys and hand over the names of the reviewers. Alexandria-based Hadeed Carpet Cleaning was the subject of several negative reviews on the site by anonymous authors - who Hadeed claims were not real customers of his business.

If he is correct and the customers are not genuine, Yelp's Terms of Service will have been violated, and the comments will not be protected under the First Amendment. The case began in 2012 when several negative reviews were left on Hadeed Carpet's Yelp page, some claiming the company swindled customers, overcharging hundreds of dollars above the quoted price, while others said their carpets ended up looking worse than before they were cleaned.

Joe Hadeed could find no record that the reviewers were actual customers and sued the authors of seven negative reviews and subpoenaed Yelp for their identities. According to the Courthouse News Service, Yelp refused several times and was help in contempt of court. On Tuesday, the Virginia Court of Appeals agreed two to one, that Yelp must identify the anonymous reviewers. Yelp's Terms of Service requires that reviewers must have been a customer of a business to leave a review.

Bad opinion: The company's Yelp page has seven negative anonymous reviews from 2012 which Hadeed says cannot be matched to any customer.

The company does not require users to register with their full name, but does record the IP address of each review posted. 'The Virginia statute makes the judge a gatekeeper to decide whether or not there’s a common sense reason for someone in our position to get this information,' Raighne Delaney, a lawyer at the Arlington firm Bean, Kinney & Korman who represent Hadeed, told the Washington Times.  'In order for someone like Joe Hadeed to find out who these people are, he has to explain his case, and if he can convince the judge that there might be a real lawsuit against this person, the judge can then say, "Yes, you can get this information,"' said Delaney. If the negative reviews were written by people who were never customers of Hadeed, he will sue for defamation.

Small business: The company cleans and repairs carpets and rugs.

The non-profit advocacy group Public Citizen that represents Yelp says reviewers should not have to reveal their identities when expressing opinions protected by the First Amendment and that Hadeed should have to at least prove that the reviews were false before the identities are handed over. Yelp's lawyers say Hadeed did not meet nationwide standards necessary to uncover the anonymous users, but the court disagreed. 'Yelp said that all the posts had different IP addresses, but how many IP addresses does one person have between all their devices?' said Hadeed’s attorney, Raighne Delaney, to the Washington Times. 'It would be easy to create a number of different fake accounts.'

In a 25-page majority opinion, Judge William G. Petty said, 'Generally, a Yelp review is entitled to First Amendment protection because it is a person’s opinion about a business that they patronized. 'The anonymous speaker has the right to express himself on the Internet without the fear that his veil of anonymity will be pierced for no other reason than because another person disagrees with him,' Judge Petty wrote. However, the court said that First Amendment rights do not cover deliberately false statements and agreed that Hadeed provided sufficient reason to believe the users may not have been customers of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning.

A Virginia Court Slams Phony Yelp Reviews: Small businesses may no longer have to worry about negative Yelp reviews, provided that the reviewer was never actually a customer. That's according to a decision from the Virginia Court of Appeals, which this week ruled the popular website must disclose the names of seven reviewers who anonymously slammed Richmond-based Hadeed Carpet Cleaning. The court held that the reviews were not protected First Amendment opinions if the reviewers were never customers and therefore making false claims.

Raighne Delaney, the lawyer representing store owner Joe Hadeed, told the The Washington Times the ruling upholds a lower court statute that will allow judges to decide whether business owners may have a legitimate legal case against online reviewers or another compelling reason to get their names. In his 25-page majority opinion, Judge William G. Petty wrote, "a Yelp review is entitled to First Amendment protection because it is a person's opinion about a business they patronized," and anonymous reviewers do have the right to express themselves without fear of disclosure.

However, Petty wrote, the First Amendment does not cover false statements. After searching through his customer database, Hadeed had reason to believe the reviewers were never customers of the business, so the "review is not an opinion" but "based on a false statement." Paul Levy, an attorney who represented Yelp, said the ruling will "make it more difficult for the marketplace of ideas to get valuable information about companies." "I’ve litigated in many cases for 14 years, and it’s the first time ... in which we thought the [anonymous party] was clearly protected and the court said they were not," said Levy.

Window Cleaners Get Justice

Attacker jailed as judge praises pub customers' bravery after vicious assault (Plymouth, UK): A judge has commended two customers injured while trying to save a pub manager from a vicious beating. Recorder Paul Derbyshire said Connor Price could have suffered more serious injuries and Peter Newnham could have faced more serious charges but for the brave intervention of Gary Tucker, a window cleaner and Richard Foot. He said: "Too often people walk away; they are to be commended." Prosecutor Alastair Verheijen told Plymouth Crown Court that Peter Newnham had already been asked to leave the Mutley Crown pub on March 11. When he came in again, Mr Price asked him to leave, and sensing trouble moved to the glass-washing area to radio the police as Newnham shouted: "Why?" But Newnham, 38, followed and attacked him, raining down punches, kicking him on the ground and hitting him with a glass. Mr Foot intervened, dragging Newnham away and grappling with him.

As Newnham left, Mr Tucker tried to restrain him but was put to the ground and then kicked so hard that his arm was broken. Newnham went on the run, but handed himself in to police a month later, being picked out at an ID parade by barmaid Aelwyn Cowan. Mr Verheijen said Mr Price escaped with bruising and Mr Foot was bruised to the head, shoulder, chest and hand. But as well as suffering a scalp wound, Mr Tucker had to have an operation to pin his broken arm, which did not heal properly. He then faced further surgery, was unable to work more than two days a week as a self-employed window-cleaner and suffered financial hardship. He told police: "My life has been turned upside-down because of someone who couldn't control their temper."

Newnham, who had previous convictions for offences including assault causing actual bodily harm, affray and assaulting police, pleaded guilty to three counts: wounding Mr Price with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Tucker & assaulting Mr Foot by beating. Newnham's barrister, Jason Beal, said: "He had too much to drink and lost his temper and behaved in an utterly disgraceful way." He said Newnham, whose address was given by the court as Cumbrian Way, Southampton, had packed his belongings into an old caravan some eight years ago and moved to Plymouth, where he had found work. He was saving up to send his daughter to university, having not supported her in other ways. He could not explain his behaviour on that night.

Recorder Derbyshire told Newnham: "Pub managers are there to provide a useful service to the people of Plymouth, not to be beaten up by you. "If people hadn't intervened, I think you would have been facing even more serious charges today. "I would like to make it clear that this court is very grateful to Mr Tucker and Mr Foot for going to the aid of Mr Price." He sentenced Newnham to 40 months in jail.

Suspect in July stabbing death in Liberty Hill found in California, officials say: A 20-year-old man suspected in the July stabbing death of a Liberty Hill man has been caught in California after a month long search by law enforcement officials, the Williamson County sheriff's office said Friday. The search for Zachary Price (pictured) ended shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday in California, where he was apprehended by California Highway Patrol near a music festival, sheriff's officials said. He will be extradited to Texas in the coming days. On July 3, 51-year-old Richard Meyers was stabbed to death at his home in the 300 block of Spring Grove Drive, west of U.S. 183, after a dispute with Price "over the death of a cat," officials have said. Meyers lived at the home with two sons he had with Lisa Price, the suspect's mother. Zachary Price lived with the family, sheriff's officials have said.

Deputies who were called to the home last month discovered Meyers lying on the kitchen floor, according to an arrest warrant. Meyers was stabbed at least four times in the upper torso, according to an arrest affidavit issued last week. Lisa Price and her two sons told a deputy that Zachary Price had stabbed Meyers, the affidavit said. Price "became angry and was arguing with his mother because of a deceased cat," the affidavit said. Price struck a wall inside the house and then argued with Meyers in the kitchen, the affidavit said. Price then grabbed a large kitchen knife and stabbed Meyers several times, the affidavit said. Meyers yelled that he had been stabbed and asked for someone to call 911, the affidavit said. One of Meyers' sons asked Price why he stabbed his father. "He deserved it," Price said, according to the affidavit. Price then grabbed his computer and fled from the home, according to the affidavit.

On Thursday, Price was taken into custody without incident after his vehicle was located in Laytonville, Calif., near the site of a music festival in northern Mendocino County, sheriff's officials said Friday. "Details of Price's arrest will be guarded at this time to protect the integrity of the case against him," the sheriff's office said in a statement. Meyers, who owned a window cleaning business called Squeegee's Windows, was described by family and friends as an active church volunteer who served food to the homeless in downtown Austin.

Suspect in Liberty Hill homicide located in California, sheriff’s official says: A 20-year-old man suspected in the July death of a Liberty Hill man has been apprehended in California, the Williamson County sheriff’s office said today. The national search for Zachary Ryan Price ended shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday in California, where he was apprehended by California Highway Patrol, sheriff’s officials said. On July 3, after a dispute with Price at his home “over the death of a cat,” 51-year-old Richard Meyers was stabbed to death at his home in the 300 block of Spring Grove Drive, west of U.S. 183, a sheriff’s official said. Meyers had two sons with Price’s mother, and the suspect lived with the family of four, Sgt. John Foster of the sheriff’s office said last month.

Price’s vehicle was located in Laytonville, Calif., near the site of a music festival in Northern Mendocino County. “Details of Price’s arrest will be guarded at this time to protect the integrity of the case against him,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement today. “He was taken into custody without incident and will be extradited back to Williamson County in the coming days.”

Meyers, who owned a window cleaning business called Squeegee’s Windows, was described by family and friends as an active church volunteer who served food to the homeless in downtown Austin. They said he would assist them when they moved, baby-sat and had been organizing a blood drive this summer. Sheriff’s officials said Price is believed to have stabbed Meyers after they argued over a pet’s death, Foster has said. The mother and two younger sons were at home at the time of the incident. Friends said the boys are in middle school and high school. Meyers also had an adult son in San Antonio, a friend said.