September 27 -- Seesaws as museum items. Three years ago the Connecticut Supreme Court, in the case of Conway v. Wilton, casually struck down the longstanding protection that the state's towns and cities had enjoyed against being sued over free recreational use of their facilities. Across the state, towns tore out seesaws and merry-go-rounds and closed down hiking and bicycling trails; others turned down open-space donations or gave up plans to acquire ponds and other presumed hazards. Trial lawyers dismissed all this as overreaction, declaring that towns that behaved carefully wouldn't face an undue burden, and their influence easily blocked efforts in the state legislature to reverse the decision. But now Dan Uhlinger in the Hartford Courant reports that the fears are coming true: even towns that spent heavily on safety precautions are being taken to court. South Windsor invested in a "$50,000, supposedly injury-proof playscape" ordered to federal safety specs but faces a suit anyway on behalf of a six-year-old who fell and broke her wrist. "It's gotten to a point where everybody is suing towns because that's where there's big pockets,'' said town manager Matthew Galligan. "If this keeps going, people not taking responsibility for their own kids, there won't be any more playgrounds.'' Other recent playground suits have targeted the towns of Ellington and Winsted, the latter of which, as it happens, is the proposed site of hometown lad Ralph Nader's Museum of American Tort Law. "You can't swing a dead cat without being sued,'' said Meriden deputy city attorney Christopher Hankins (who for that crack is going to have the Humane Society as well as the trial lawyers on his back). "Municipalities try extremely hard to make life better for citizens, but the courts strip away [liability protection]. It boggles the mind. It just goes to show no good deed goes unpunished.'' (Dan Uhlinger, "Towns' Worst Fears Realized: Suits Follow Playground Mishaps", Hartford Courant, Sept. 24 -- link now dead) - overlawyered.com