By Tom Tracy
Trimming the fat A public relations firm hired to push an anti-obesity campaign featuring “Celebrity Fit Club” star Dr. Ian Smith couldn’t measure up to the challenge, a lawsuit charges. And a publicist who consulted on the project says she wound up being the biggest loser when the company let her go — and stiffed her ten grand. In the Jan. 18 lawsuit, Manushka Magloire claims she had been contracted by Brown Lloyd James, Ltd. to consult on event planning for the “Dr. Ian Smith/State Farm Insurance 50 Million Pound Challenge” last year. But by the end of April, State Farm had decided to shed its own dead weight, the suit says, ditching Brown Lloyd James — whose listed clients include Polo Ralph Lauren, Al Jazeera’s English-language network and the Mideast nation of Qatar — in favor of a more “localized,” “urban-centered” approach. Magloire was let go a month later. She filed suit in Kings County Supreme Court, saying she’s entitled to the money as part of a lump sum she’d been contractually promised in the event she was fired. Peter Brown, the eponymous president of Brown Lloyd James, said his company had yet to be served with a copy of the lawsuit and declined to comment further. Meanwhile, Magloire now works for Verity Records, a gospel-themed subsidiary of Sony BMG and its Zomba Label Group, and could be spotted mingling with other publicists at a recent Mediabistro party in the Bowery. No good deed An East New York woman is suing the New York City Fire Department, EMS and the city because medics who responded to a 911 call at her home last November let her walk down the stairs. While the suit doesn’t say exactly what prompted the November 2006 call to 911, Daniels was evidently well enough to attempt walking down the stairs of her Stanley Avenue building, but not well enough to avoid injury The suit claims that the EMS workers who came to Daniels’ home “breached their ‘special duty’” to her when they “failed to properly transport her … in failing to use a stretcher … [or] neglecting to use a chair” to get her down the steps. Between the second and first floors, Daniels somehow suffered “a fracture to her left lower extremity,” in addition to other injuries both “in mind and body.” She is seeking unspecified damages to rectify them. It was unclear how Daniels had fractured that extremity, or whether she had gone down the stairs under the guidance of EMS. … Two left feet A Dyker Heights man is suing his local gym after he discovered that gravity is universal, no matter much you can bench press. In a lawsuit dated Jan. 9, Min Bok Chang of bay Ridge Parkway claims that a weight fell off of the rack “on top” of his right foot while he was at the Bally Total Fitness at 1921 86th St. one day last November. The suit doesn’t specify exactly how the weight fell, but does say that a “dangerous condition” caused Chang to “have fallen and sustained injury.” And while it alleges that Chang’s injuries were “severe and permanent,” the suit does not specify how much they’re worth. Bally Total Fitness Corp. does not comment on pending litigation, a spokeswoman said. Nice try A teacher at a Bergen Beach intermediate school is suing the city and the Department of Education after she says she had a run-in with a rowdy student. Kathryn Laffan-Micklin, a teacher at the Roy H. Mann Public School, 1320 East 68th St., alleges in a Jan. 23 lawsuit that a student careening through the hallway ran into her as she changed classes, causing her to suffer “severe and personal injuries resulting in medical treatment, severe pain and discomfort.” Laffan-Micklin, of Bay Shore, is suing for $250,000. The suit claims that the DOE had been previously warned about the unnamed scamp’s need for speed, and that had the DOE disciplined the child properly, the Oct. 26, 2006 incident could have been prevented. City agencies do not comment on pending litigation. Appeal denied The Kings County Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man who pleaded guilty to having a handgun in his car, after he appealed saying the sentence was unduly harsh and excessive. In April 2006, cops arrested Gary Williams after they found him driving a car that wasn’t his with neither a license nor a registration — but with a silver .380-cal. Handgun wedged between the seats. They also found a bag of marijuana on him. Later that year, he pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. He was sentenced to probation and participation in a program, but failed to show up for the program and his next court date. He was re-arrested and sentenced to six years in jail followed by three years of supervision. Williams had appealed the sentence on the grounds that it was excessive, and that the arresting officers had no proof that he intended to us the gun illegally. But just having the gun was enough to land him behind bars, Judge Robert K. Holdman wrote in his denial of the appeal. And, he wrote, Williams “voluntarily accepted the terms of the plea bargain and was fully advised that he faced seven years incarceration if he violated any of the terms of the plea,” and that the sentence was “neither harsh nor excessive.”
