From Kaitlyn Maritan –
I am in the UNICEF club at Medfield High School, and we are bringing Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF back to Medfield.
We are looking to get the word out so people can start saving their coins for Halloween donations. More details on how the donation boxes will be distributed is coming soon!
Save your coins! Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is coming to Medfield this Halloween. Stay tuned for more information!
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Selectman Osler “Pete” Peterson holds regular monthly office hours at The Center on the first Friday of every month from 9:00 to 10:00 AM (his litigation schedule permitting).
Residents are welcome to stop by to talk in person about any town matters. Residents can also have coffee and see the Council on Aging in action (a vibrant organization with lots going on).
Peterson can be reached via 508-359-9190 or this blog about Medfield matters https://medfield02052.wordpress.com/, where any schedule changes will be posted.
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This comes from my current issue of the American Association for Justice’s monthly magazine, Trial. To me this is three strikes against Verizon: (1) doing things without permission, (2) seeking to avoid court by an arbitration clause, and (3) automatically re-installing cookies after people find them and take them off.
An arbitration clause in contracts between Verizon and its customers could not bar a class action against Turn, Inc., an ad company that collected data from Verizon customers’ mobile devices without their permission or knowledge, the Ninth Circuit has ruled. (In re Anthony Henson and William Cintron, No. 16-71818 (9th Cir. Sept. 5, 2017).) Verizon and Turn have a separate contract under which Verizon granted a license to Turn to use its service for targeted advertising in return for a percentage of the advertisement-generated revenue that Turn received.
Anthony Henson and William Cintron, the plaintiffs, are both Verizon cellular and data subscribers. Their contract with Verizon contained an arbitration clause that governs all disputes between the parties. Each subscriber’s wireless transmissions contained a Unique Identifier Header (UIDH) to which Turn attached cookies to obtain information such as the customer’s browsing habits and usage data. These cookies were allegedly not detectable. In fact, the plaintiffs claimed that if a subscriber deleted Turn’s cookie, Turn would “revive” it by attaching a new one without the subscriber’s knowledge or consent and repopulating it with the same information—the so-called “zombie” cookie.
San Francisco attorney Michael Sobol, who represented the plaintiffs, explained the significance and privacy concerns of this practice. “Cookies have various purposes, but ultimately they help keep track of your browsing activity,” he said. “Advertisers increasingly use third-party tracking cookies that act as a beacon, transmitting your browsing history back to the third party who first generated the cookie. This browsing history can provide a startlingly detailed picture into the user’s life because we use the internet for everything—health care, shopping, dating, news, and so on.”
He added, “We allege that by devising a scheme to secretly revive deleted cookies, Turn could maintain an uninterrupted chain of browsing history despite users’ express efforts to delete that history from their devices and browsers.”
The plaintiffs filed a class action in the Northern District of California on behalf of all Verizon subscribers in New York. They alleged that Turn engaged in deceptive business practices in violation of New York law and committed trespass to chattels through intentional interference with Verizon subscribers’ use and enjoyment of their mobile devices. Turn moved to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims—because the contract between the plaintiffs and Verizon contained an arbitration clause, it argued, it barred the class action. The district court granted the motion, and the plaintiffs filed a writ of mandamus to vacate the lower court’s order. The Ninth Circuit granted the writ.
The Ninth Circuit first noted that in deciding whether to grant a writ of mandamus, the court must weigh whether the petitioner has other adequate means to attain relief, whether the petitioner will be damaged or prejudiced in a way not correctable on appeal, whether the district court’s order is clearly erroneous, whether the district court’s order makes an oft-repeated error, and whether the district court’s order raises new and important problems or legal issues of first impression. The Ninth Circuit noted that the plaintiffs did not have adequate means to attain relief because an order compelling arbitration is not a final decision subject to ordinary appeal. The court also noted that the second factor—whether that prejudice would be correctable on appeal—weighed in favor of granting the writ because it did not allow the plaintiffs to arbitrate the appeal on behalf of a class.
Turning next to whether the district court committed clear error, the Ninth Circuit held that it did: Turn’s attempt to invoke the arbitration agreement should not have been successful because the plaintiffs and Turn did not have an arbitration agreement with each other, and Turn was not a signatory to the contract between Verizon and its subscribers. Further, the contract between Turn and Verizon specifically stated that the parties are “independent of each other” and that “nothing in this Agreement creates any partnership . . . [or] joint venture.” Although Turn argued that New York law should apply when determining whether Turn could compel arbitration as a nonparty under the doctrine of equitable estoppel, the plaintiffs asserted that California law should apply.
The district court erred when it applied New York law based on the Verizon contract’s choice-of-law provision, the Ninth Circuit held. That provision is a contractual right and cannot be invoked by a nonparty to the contract. Turn, in other words, could not benefit from the choice-of-law provision as a nonparty. Instead, the Ninth Circuit held, the choice-of-law principles of the forum state—California—should have been applied.
California law would permit Turn to invoke the arbitration clause in two circumstances: The claims are founded in and intertwined with the customer agreement between Verizon and the plaintiffs, or the plaintiffs allege substantially “interdependent and concerted misconduct” by Turn and Verizon and the allegations are founded in or intimately connected with the obligations under the customer agreement between Verizon and the plaintiffs. Neither applied here, however. The plaintiffs’ claims, the Ninth Circuit pointed out, did not rely on the agreement they signed with Verizon. Further, they could have sued Turn whether or not they had signed a contract with Verizon.
Further, the plaintiffs did not allege that Verizon colluded with Turn—rather, the allegations were that Turn acted in secret without Verizon’s knowledge or approval. Sobol explained, “The two companies disclaimed any sort of formal relationship. When a security researcher discovered Turn’s zombie cookies, Verizon strongly condemned it.” Despite this, however, Sobol also pointed out that Turn’s use of the UIDH was not unforeseen: “It’s worth noting that the Electronic Frontier Foundation expressly warned of these kinds of risks when it learned of Verizon’s headers and before Turn’s zombie cookies were made public,” he said.
The Ninth Circuit noted that the fourth and fifth factors—oft-repeated error and issue of first impression—weighed against granting mandamus relief. But because the first three factors weighed in the plaintiffs’ favor, the Ninth Circuit vacated the lower court’s order granting Turn’s motion to stay the action and compel arbitration.
Verizon itself has been fined for its own use of zombie cookies, and both it and Turn have taken remedial measures due to government enforcement actions, including giving consumers an easier way of opting out of targeted advertising programs. However, Sobol warned, “These are real steps, but the underlying dynamic remains worrisome: Internet advertisers have strong financial incentives to circumvent user privacy and the ability to employ fast-evolving technology to do so secretly.”
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From Colleen Sullivan –
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Celebrating 100 Years of the Memorial Public Library!
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More Photos from Library Centennial – Gallery #2…
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This from Rachel Brown of the town’s Transfer Station and Recycling Committee –
The Medfield Transfer Station and Recycling Committee (TSARC) is looking for up to 3 additional members. The committee works to minimize the amount of trash incinerated and also to reduce costs while encouraging the principals of “reduce, reuse and recycle.” The committee meets monthly, usually on the second Monday of the month at 10am.
This year the committee will work on three initiatives in addition to the topics that are regularly on our agenda such as recycling rates, organics collection and the swap.
The first is to explore the option of curb-side pick up in town. This is taking a priority this year as nearly half of the residents indicated that they would like to know more about this when they completed the transfer station sticker renewal survey. There are many areas to think through on this topic! If you have questions about this, join us!
The second project is to look into the options for getting recycling barrels placed next to trash barrels at public spaces in town.
The third project is to see if we can keep mattress recycling at the transfer station once the MassDEP grant that is currently funding that program has ended (1/31/18).
As you can see we have a variety of important topics on our agenda this year and could use residents’ help. If residents are interested but don’t want to formally join the committee, there is a role for you too!
For more information or to express your interest, contact Megan Sullivan, TSARC Chair, at mbsul@comcast.net. The next meeting of the TSARC is Monday October 16th.
Megan B. Sullivan
36 Whichita Rd, Medfield
(508) 359-8274
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DPW Director Maruice Goulet confirmed in an email this morning his Tuesday report to the Board of Selectmen that the Philips Street bridge will only be replaced come spring, due to the fact that it will take 16 weeks to fabricate the replacement decking. Moe says to expect a February or March delivery of the prefabricated bridge.
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DRAFT September 28, 2017 Medfield Energy Committee Meeting minutes
Attendees: Fred Davis, Jerry McCarty, Marie Nolan, Lee Alinsky and Cynthia Greene
Jerry gave us an email from Light Smart with the status on the project
Fred Davis explained that the process at the MAPC is evolving, that DOER thinks that bundling is better. The faster we do the work the more time for savings. The estimated annual savings for the Medfield project is $32,600. Unless we were significantly delayed (10months or more) it is more cost effective to go with MAPC, although we do not know how much transactional costs there will be with MAPC vs going independently with Light Smart.
The Town must decide on the types of lights and fixtures. There are two kinds of lights being sold now. In the past the lights were 5,000 Calvin that emitted a blueish light. The options now are for 3,000 Calvin, a warmer, yellower light or 4,000 Calvin a neutral, but blueish light. Medfield could do a pilot as was done in Cambridge and Northampton, to see which light color the community members like. The way to do this would be for committee members to observe and then let the community know and take opinions. Northampton did this, but the results were not conclusive. We also discussed that Westwood and Cambridge have smart controls on their lights, but that is more upfront costs. Westwood and Cambridge have 4,000 Calvin lights. Both lights are the same price.
Cambridge video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq2nATNFW7M
Fact sheet http://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/electricaldepartment/LED-Conversion-Fact-Sheet_FINAL.pdf
Website http://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/Electrical
Northampton http://www.northamptonma.gov/1706/LED-Streetlights
Future Work for the committee. Lee outlined some of his ideas and others added ideas and all were discussed.
Sources https://www.energy.gov/articles/how-microgrids-work
http://www.microgridinstitute.org/about-microgrids.html
https://ilsr.org/report-mighty-microgrids/
MA microgrids http://www.masscec.com/microgrids
Lincoln http://www.lincolntown.org/DocumentCenter/View/26877
Concord http://www.concordma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1604
Meeting adjourned 9:15 pm.
Next meeting – Tuesday Oct 17 at 7:30 pm (hopefully at the Public Safety Building.)
Respectfully submitted by Cynthia Greene
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How many selectmen does it take to cut a ribbon? Two, because . . . (please submit your answers).
The full and accurate story on the library centennial below from Colleen Sullivan –
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Hi Pete,
So glad you enjoyed the Centennial Celebration! This was truly a group effort and the Library Centennial Committee consisted of Library Director, Kris Chin, Board of Trustees, Maura McNicholas, Lauren Feeney, Geena Matuson and myself, as well as Library staff member, Terri Wickham, and Friends of the bookstore President, Carol Wasserman.
Each of us took on a task to make yesterday’s event, memorable and fun! We are so thankful to those who participated, like yourself and Selectman Marcucci, as well as having our Town Historian, Richard DeSorgher return to recite many interesting facts regarding life in 1917.
In wanting this celebration to encompass all ages of the Medfield community, we were thrilled to show a wonderful Medfield TV production, created by Brett Poirier of previous Library Staff and long time residents of Medfield as they were interviewed by Director Chin, as well as offering a Children’s program with well known and beloved storyteller, Kurt Jackson.
As a community, we have so many talented and kind people here in Medfield, and having the acting skills of Steve Small as “Granville Dailey” and Cynthia Small as his elder daughter “May Belle Dailey” added greatly to the entire event.
We are thankful to all who attended and enjoyed this very special 100 year celebration of our town’s library.
Best,
Colleen
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Re-enactment yesterday of the town selectmen accepting the key to the Medfield Memorial Library in 1917 from Granville Dailey and his oldest daughter, Maebelle.
I learned from Richard DeSorgher’s remarks that (1) Mr. Dailey gave $74,000 to the town for the library, which must have been a huge sum at that time, and (2) that the Medfield Memorial Library was built only 24 years after the Boston Public Library. Impressive facts for what was then a town with 1,700 residents (and 1,900 patients at the Medfield State Hospital).
Photo by Colleen Sullivan. Re-enactment event by Colleen Sullivan and her library 100th committee. In the photo are Cynthia Small and Steve Small as the Dailey’s and Mike Marcucci and me as the selectmen. This was my email to Colleen Sullivan this morning –
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Colleen,
Congratulations to the Medfield Memorial Library and to you for a great event.
Long ago I concluded that our quality of life in Town of Medfield is composed of the sum of the many such events as you orchestrated Sunday, so thank you for making Medfield a better place for all of us!
Best, Pete
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NB – CORRECTION = I believe it was Gus who talked about the Medfield State Hospital Master Planning Committee disbanding after the special town meeting (STM), but I know it was not me.
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Medfield Select Board member
I started this blog to share the interesting and useful information that I saw while doing my job as a Medfield select board member. I thought that my fellow Medfield residents would also find that information interesting and useful as well. This blog is my effort to assist in creating a system to push the information out from the Town House to residents. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how it can be done better.
For information on my other job as an attorney (personal injury, civil litigation, estate planning and administration, and real estate), please feel free to contact me at 617-969-1500 or Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com.
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