If you haven't seen the front page article of the Times Reporter for January 6, 2010, you might want to take a look. It concerns a lady who was robbed at the Giant Eagle in Dover in 2008. According to the T-R she was approaching Giant Eagle's entrance when a man grabbed her purse and took off. The lady held onto the purse and was dragged by the thief along the sidewalk until the strap broke. She was also struck, according to the article. She yelled for help but there was nobody there to render assistance. The police caught the thief, who is currently doing a four year term for robbery. Case closed? Evidently not. According to the T-R, the lady is suing Giant Eagle, and the property owners, because there wasn't a security guard on duty outside the store, nor was there a window in the front of the building through which the folks at the customer service desk could have seen the attack.
I regret what happened to the lady. Things like this are never pleasant, and it is with regret that I admit that such attacks are all too frequent and on the increase. But I have a question as to responsibility. How does the blame fall on Giant Eagle and the property owner? The blame falls on the thief. If someone should be mugged in front of your house, should it be your responsibility because you didn't have a security guard on the porch?
What has me upset about this whole thing is that we seem to be living in a society in which individuals no longer accept any personal responsibility for themselves. Most folks seem to want somebody else pay for their misfortune, no matter what the cause. Granted this lady was a victim, but it wasn't Giant Eagle's fault. It was the fault of the thief. Sue him.
This case recalls other memorable law suits.
A patron stopped into a McDonald's, bought a cup of coffee, got into the car, put the coffee between his, or it could have been her, legs, started up, spilled the coffee, resulting in burns from the hot coffee on his legs. The end result was a lawsuit. which McDonald's lost and was ordered to pay a large amount for medical expenses, pain and suffering. The reason? The cup was not labeled wait a warning that the contents were hot. Come on. I thought it was stupid then, and I think it is stupid now. It's coffee. It's supposed to be hot. If you buy a cup of hot coffee and don't understand what hot is, it's you who has the problem, not McDonald's. Would the customer have complained and demanded money back or a replacement cup had it been cold? Probably.
A farmer went to work on his barn. It was a cold day, started out below freezing. He set a ladder up on the side of the barn and climbed onto the roof. Came time for lunch, he got on the ladder to go back to the house and disaster struck. He had placed the ladder atop a large frozen manure pile. As the morning wore on, the temperature rose, and combined with the natural activity of such a pile, the pile melted. Since the manure pile was no longer a stable base, it promptly tipped to the side, causing it, and the farmer, to fall to the ground. The farmer sued the ladder company for damages and, surprisingly, won a settlement. The reason? The warning label on the ladder did not mention the danger of using the ladder on a manure pile.
At Yellowstone National Park a number of years ago, a man and his wife were taking pictures of the buffalo. He decided that the picture would be better if the buffalo was facing another direction. He started pushing the buffalo on the rear end to get him turned around. The buffalo didn't like it and gave him a kick that would have made a NFL punter blush with shame. The end result was that the Park Service was sued for damages. Now there wasn't any way that the Park Service could have been responsible for that one. Whose responsibility was was it? The idiot who was molesting the buffalo. But he sued anyhow. I don't know how that one turned out.
Where does blaming others for our problems end? When I was a youngster and tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, my dad would tell me to pick up my feet. Today the first thought seems to be a lawsuit.
I regret what happened to the lady. Things like this are never pleasant, and it is with regret that I admit that such attacks are all too frequent and on the increase. But I have a question as to responsibility. How does the blame fall on Giant Eagle and the property owner? The blame falls on the thief. If someone should be mugged in front of your house, should it be your responsibility because you didn't have a security guard on the porch?
What has me upset about this whole thing is that we seem to be living in a society in which individuals no longer accept any personal responsibility for themselves. Most folks seem to want somebody else pay for their misfortune, no matter what the cause. Granted this lady was a victim, but it wasn't Giant Eagle's fault. It was the fault of the thief. Sue him.
This case recalls other memorable law suits.
A patron stopped into a McDonald's, bought a cup of coffee, got into the car, put the coffee between his, or it could have been her, legs, started up, spilled the coffee, resulting in burns from the hot coffee on his legs. The end result was a lawsuit. which McDonald's lost and was ordered to pay a large amount for medical expenses, pain and suffering. The reason? The cup was not labeled wait a warning that the contents were hot. Come on. I thought it was stupid then, and I think it is stupid now. It's coffee. It's supposed to be hot. If you buy a cup of hot coffee and don't understand what hot is, it's you who has the problem, not McDonald's. Would the customer have complained and demanded money back or a replacement cup had it been cold? Probably.
A farmer went to work on his barn. It was a cold day, started out below freezing. He set a ladder up on the side of the barn and climbed onto the roof. Came time for lunch, he got on the ladder to go back to the house and disaster struck. He had placed the ladder atop a large frozen manure pile. As the morning wore on, the temperature rose, and combined with the natural activity of such a pile, the pile melted. Since the manure pile was no longer a stable base, it promptly tipped to the side, causing it, and the farmer, to fall to the ground. The farmer sued the ladder company for damages and, surprisingly, won a settlement. The reason? The warning label on the ladder did not mention the danger of using the ladder on a manure pile.
At Yellowstone National Park a number of years ago, a man and his wife were taking pictures of the buffalo. He decided that the picture would be better if the buffalo was facing another direction. He started pushing the buffalo on the rear end to get him turned around. The buffalo didn't like it and gave him a kick that would have made a NFL punter blush with shame. The end result was that the Park Service was sued for damages. Now there wasn't any way that the Park Service could have been responsible for that one. Whose responsibility was was it? The idiot who was molesting the buffalo. But he sued anyhow. I don't know how that one turned out.
Where does blaming others for our problems end? When I was a youngster and tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, my dad would tell me to pick up my feet. Today the first thought seems to be a lawsuit.
You have to wonder if the problem comes from the contingency fee system used by lawyers in the United States. The way it works, the client pays the lawyer nothing unless he wins a settlement. The lawyer then gets, as a minimum, twenty-five to thirty-three percent of that settlement. The client jumps on it because he has no expense. If he loses, it costs him nothing. If he wins, he gets paid off. The lawyer likes it because, while he doesn't win them all, the cases he does win are lucrative. Which, incidently, explains the flood of mail from law firms wanting to represent you if you were in an accident.
To me, the only consistent winners are the lawyers. Maybe it is time to go to legal system in which set fees are charged in all cases. What would the case load be in the courts if plaintiffs knew that win, lose, or draw, they would be paying the full bill?
To me, the only consistent winners are the lawyers. Maybe it is time to go to legal system in which set fees are charged in all cases. What would the case load be in the courts if plaintiffs knew that win, lose, or draw, they would be paying the full bill?
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