It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Sues

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It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Sues

’Tis the season for Christmas stories from movies and television. For lawyers, they present some interesting platforms for legal issues.

‘Holiday Affair’: Corporate Espionage

Like “Miracle on 34th Street,” the backdrop for the 1949 film “Holiday Affair” is a New York City department store.1

Janet Leigh plays a World War II widow named Connie Ennis who earns a living by being a corporate spy doing comparative shopping at Crowley’s for a rival store. When she buys a train set as part of her deception, she is brought to the attention of store employee Steve Mason, played by Robert Mitchum. Connie returns the set, to the dismay of her young son Timmy, and Steve reveals his theory of corporate espionage but lets her go because she needs the job to provide for her and Timmy. Steve gives a refund, which leads to his firing.

The U.S. Code states:

“Whoever, with intent to convert a trade secret, that is related to a product or service used in or intended for use in interstate or foreign commerce, to the economic benefit of anyone other than the owner thereof, and intending or knowing that the offense will, injure any owner of that trade secret, knowingly steals, or without authorization appropriates, takes, carries away, or conceals, or by fraud, artifice, or deception obtains such information … [may] be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both”.2

Crowley’s appears to be a large, thriving operation. It is fair to surmise that it does business across state lines, thereby satisfying the issue of interstate commerce.

‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’: Overtime

CBS aired “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” from 1970 to 1977. Moore’s character, Mary Richards, is an associate producer – later promoted to producer – of WJM-TV’s “The Six O’Clock News” in Minneapolis, anchored by Ted Baxter. The woman whose smile can turn on the world had been scheduled to work a regular day shift on Dec. 24 in her first year at WJM. Then, she gets assigned the Christmas Day shift and her burden is increased further when she falls for a co-worker’s sob story about being away from his big family and she takes on his Christmas Eve duties. Three shifts in two days.3

According to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry website, an employee must work 48 hours in a seven-day work week for overtime to trigger. This episode aired on Dec.19, 1970, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fell on Thursday and Friday that year. Assuming that this applied in 1970 and Mary works a nine-hour day (10:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.), during a Monday-Friday work week, her regular hours total 45. If her coworker also has a nine-hour shift, then the first three hours of that shift will get her to the 48-hour barrier. Mary would then be entitled to six hours of overtime.4

WJM Executive Producer Lou Grant gave Mary a personal check for her dedication, but the amount is not revealed to the audience. It is reasonable to presume that WJM also amplified Mary’s regular paycheck for working on a holiday.

‘Lou Grant’: Bigamy

When Moore ended the sitcom bearing her name in 1977, MTM extended the Grant character in prime time by returning him to his newspaper roots in the one-hour drama “Lou Grant.” As city editor of the fictional Los Angeles Tribune, Grant guides young and ambitious reporters on their quest to cultivate sources, break stories, and go beyond the bland facts to find a story’s humanity. CBS aired “Lou Grant” for five years.

In the 1977 episode “Christmas,” Lou laments being in warm Los Angeles rather than frosty Minneapolis for the holidays. Joe Rossi, the Tribune’s ace reporter, gets a rather pedestrian assignment: Write about the 25-year career of a state government official. While it appears to be a mild topic, Rossi discovers that his subject is a bigamist with two families. One resides in Sacramento and the other in Los Angeles.5

Always on the lookout for a great story, Rossi is tempted to disclose this salacious information because it will attract readers. But empathy overcomes ego. This part of the government official’s life will remain a secret. Apparently, dual family status does not affect the performance of his duties as a civil servant. However, it is illegal. California law states, “Every person having a spouse living, who marries or enters into a registered domestic partnership with any other person … is guilty of bigamy.”

Exceptions to bigamy are covered as follows:

“To any person by reason of any former marriage whose husband or wife by such marriage has been absent for five successive years without being known to such person within that time to be living. To any person by reason of any former marriage which has been pronounced void, annulled, or dissolved by the judgment of a competent court”.6

‘Grumpy Old Men’: Tax Debt

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau form one of Hollywood’s great pairings. They play neighbors and rivals holding a grudge for 50 years in the 1993 film “Grumpy Old Men,” set during the Christmas season. Lifelong residents of Wabasha, Minnesota, their characters – John Gustafson and Max Goldman – vie for the affections of new neighbor and widow Ariel Truax, played by Ann-Margret. Yet their competition is rooted even further in the town’s pastime of ice fishing.7

Goldman is a retired TV repairman; Gustafson, a high school teacher. Buck Henry plays a tax collector attempting to find Gustafson at his home to serve a final notice – 30 days to pay a tax debt. Gustafson had teachers’ union health benefits for 20 years and appropriately claimed marital status on his tax return, but his ex-wife had a part-time job for 11 of the years when they were married. So, a larger portion of those benefits were subject to the federal tax code. It comes to $13,000, although the figure gets inflated to around $60,000 because of 11 years of interest, mandatory late charges, and penalties.

The IRS is clear about the responsibility to pay taxes and outlines the financial impact if the taxpayer abdicates:

“If you don’t pay your tax in full when you file your tax return, you’ll receive a bill for the amount you owe. This bill starts the collection process, which continues until your account is satisfied or until the IRS may no longer legally collect the tax; for example, when the time or period for collection expires.”8

‘Goodfellas’: Carrier Facilities

Henry Hill became a household name because of the 1990 movie” Goodfellas,” based on Nicholas Pileggi’s book “Wise Guy.” Both offerings cover Hill’s mafia journey from idolater to soldier to turncoat, when he testified for the federal government and went into witness protection.

Among the roster of feats committed by Hill and his cohorts, a notorious robbery during the holiday season of 1978 stands out as iconic.9

Their target: a Lufthansa plane at JFK International Airport with approximately $6 million in cash and jewelry flown from West Germany’s Commerzbank as part of a monthly transport, then kept in a vault temporarily and destined for a Chase Manhattan outlet. A bank spokeswoman explained in The New York Times:

“We don’t really know how much money was in the packages. Originally, we were to get $5 million, and we received $2 million last Friday, which would leave $3 million. But now we get a later cable that says they shipped $7 million. Until we can confirm this, we don’t know. The Commerzbank has to do an audit now to find out exactly how much money was in those packages.”10

They gather at a bar adorned with Christmas decorations to celebrate the successful caper, but under the United States Code, Hill and his band violated the law against breaking or entering carrier facilities:

“Whoever breaks the seal or lock of any railroad car, vessel, aircraft, motortruck, wagon or other vehicle or of any pipeline system, containing interstate or foreign shipments of freight or express or other property, or enters any such vehicle or pipeline system with intent in either case to commit larceny therein, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”11

‘Chicago Fire’: Reckless Conduct

In the 2014 “Chicago Fire” TV show episode “Santa Bites,” Rescue Squad Leader Kelly Severide comes across a situation that is downright tragic because of who is responsible.12

A house fire during the holiday season causes a husband to jump out first; his wife is stuck under the bed and seemingly doomed to death until two firefighters from Engine 51 rescue her. Yet the husband – who was a burn victim when he was 16 years old – takes credit for the save while fielding questions from the press.

Severide returns to the scene and discovers that the fire was intentionally set in three different places. The husband is arrested, but there is no explanation of his reason for the horrific acts. In Illinois, he would likely be prosecuted for reckless conduct. Illinois Compiled Statutes Section 12-5 defines:

“A person commits reckless conduct when he or she, by any means lawful or unlawful, recklessly performs an act or acts that a) cause bodily harm to or endanger the safety of another person; or b) cause great bodily harm or permanent disability or disfigurement to another person.”13

Conclusion

The Christmas season traditionally begins on Thanksgiving. After the customary meal highlighted by turkey, stuffing and cranberry jam, Americans are laden with holiday obligations such as attending office parties, shopping for gifts, and traveling to see family members. For lawyers looking to strike up conversations with their colleagues at social events between Thanksgiving and Dec. 25, they might point to the legal issues described above and imagine other applications of law to their favorite Christmas movies and Christmas-themed TV episodes.

David Krell is the author of “Have Yourself a Merry Legal Christmas: Laws and Justice in Holiday Movies and Television Shows.”

This article appears in a recent issue of the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal, a publication of the EASL Section. For more information, please visit https://www.nysba.org/easl.

Endnotes

[1] Holiday Affair (RKO Radio Pictures, 1949).

[2] 18 U.S.C. § 1832, available at https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-1129-elements-offense-under-18-usc-1832.

[3] The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Christmas and the Hard Luck Kid, CBS, December 19, 1970.

[4] Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, Overtime Laws, Paying Overtime –, available at https://www.dli.mn.gov/business/employment-practices/overtime-laws.

[5] Lou Grant, Christmas ( CBS, Dec. 13, 1977).

[6] California Penal Code, §§281(a), 282, Chapter 5, Bigamy, Incest, and the Crime Against Nature, available at https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2005/pen/281-294.html.
[7] Grumpy Old Men (Warner Brothers, 1993).

[8] Internal Revenue Service, Topic no. 201, The Collection Process, available at https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc201#:~:text=If%20you%20don’t%20pay,longer%20legally%20collect%20the%20tax.
[9] Goodfellas (Warner Brothers, 1990).

[10]        Leslie Matiland, Airport Cash Loot Was $5 Million; Bandits’ Van Is Found in Canarsie, N.Y. Times Dec. 14, 1978, at A1.
[11]        18 U.S.Const. § 2117, available at https://docs.uscode.justia.com/2006/title18/USCODE-2006-title18/pdf/USCODE-2006-title18-partI-chap103-sec2117.pdf.
[12]         Chicago Fire, Santa Bites (NBC, Dec. 2, 2014).

[13] Illinois Compiled Statutes, Section 12-5 available at https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=072000050K12-5.