Posted on 02/08/2005 10:58:03 AM PST by FlyLow
A hotly debated issue in state legislatures and in the U.S. Congress is about what should be done with out-of-control, frivolous lawsuits. I'm talking about the subject of tort reform.
While the average American may not completely grasp what tort reform is, most of them would undoubtedly rally behind it if they had an example of why it is needed.
And now we have one out of Durango, Colorado.
Last Thursday, La Plata County Magistrate Doug Walker ordered 17-year-old Taylor Ostergaard and 18-year-old Linsey Jo Zelitti to pay a woman $930.78 for medical bills she incurred after the two girls left a gift of one dozen chocolate chip and sugar cookies on her doorstep with a note stating "Have a great night. Love, The T and L Club" at 10:30 p.m. on July 31, 2004.
At face value, most people would think there has to be more to the story than that. What dastardly act did these girls commit that would warrant such a judgment against them?
Unfortunately, that is basically the substance of what instigated this lawsuit against the teenaged girls.
When 49-year-old Wanita Renee Young alleged she became so terrified by the knock at her door by the girls that she called the sheriff's department, she said the presence of the girls at her door forced her to go to the emergency room at Mercy Medical Center the next day because she allegedly suffered an anxiety attack that she believed was a heart attack because she couldn't stop shaking and had an upset stomach. Young told the court she was assaulted by a neighbor in 1990 and thought that person was back to seek revenge against her.
(Excerpt) Read more at gopusa.com ...
And we wonder why plaintiff lawyers are all democrats. And why the democrats go absolutely ape over Republican judicial appointments. They don't care whether the appointee is liberal so much as they are scared to death the Republicans would find one with common sense!
KInd of a delayed response, wouldn't that be?
"All I wanted was for those girls to admit they used poor judgment and apologize in person," Young told the Durango Herald on Friday. "If they had done that, I wouldn't have even asked for the money. I just hope they learned a lesson."
If this is true, IF THIS IS TRUE! Then we're in a lot more trouble than anyone realizes.....Learned a lesson, I'll give that pinhead a freakin lesson.
IIRC this was in Small Claims Court. No lawyers involved. Just judicial insanity.
The woman lives with an aged mother in a very out-of-the-way place. It's hard to get to. The girls came at 10:30 at night, when the woman says she was getting her mother ready for bed.
The girls didn't go to the front door, they went around to the back, and they didn't knock, they banged on the door.
The lady called out to find out who it was. The girls didn't answer, "because they wanted to surprise her."
In my opinion, the girls got off light.
That's my point. All the greedy rapacious lawyers in the world mean nothing w/o a judiciary inclined to cater to them. Here we have the ultimate example; a judge willing to issue a muddled opinion w/o the influence of lawyers; it's exactly what they want.
What a horrid woman. I would love for someone to do such a kind thing for me. What an idiot judge. Doesn't he have anything better to do? Aren't the courts backed up enough with real cases? I bet this woman is the type to have lots of soft tissue injuries after a little no damage fender bender, too. ARRRRRRGH!
Didn't you ever do the "burning bag of dog poop" when you were younger?
No.
Fox News had the lady on yesterday. She's not an idiot, she's not malicious, she's not an old witch. She's a woman living alone in a remote area with an elderly mother, who has been attacked before. 10:30 at night is not the time to have a "surprise" cookie visit without identifying yourself, in my opinion. In my neck of the woods, the yard dog would run you off.
Not to mention that after banging on the door, and the woman calling out to ask who it was, they DID NOT identify themselves.
Do you know what it is?
They got off light? That is the most rediculous statement I have heard in my life. They did not do anything wrong. Generally, in cases such as this where someone sues for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress there must be an intent to cause emotional distress (none here), there must be some outrageous behavior = beyond all bounds of social decency (delivering cookies to someone beyond all bounds of social decency - maybe Today, but I don't think so), and sever emotional distress actually has to be caused (maybe some emotional distress was involved but I am not really convinced).
The girls didn't go to the front door, they went around to the back, and they didn't knock, they banged on the door.
The lady called out to find out who it was. The girls didn't answer, "because they wanted to surprise her."
In my opinion, the girls got off light.
These facts are certainly why the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff. It is foreseeable that creeping in someone' s backyard at 10:30PM will frighten them...
The lady didn't get any damages for emotional distress. She got part of her medical expenses paid. Not all. Part.
When was the last time you went to a rural area at 10:30 at night, snuck around to the back door, banged on it, refused to identify yourself, and then claimed you were "delivering cookies" as a "surprise"?
I bet you'd be lucky to get off with being taken to court. More likely you'd have been shot at.
You still have to sue under a theory of why you are entitled to compensatory damages. Her theory had to have been Intentional, or maybe Negligent infliction of emotional distress. She didn't suffer a heart attack or any other physical injury. She went to the emergency room because she had anxiety, and this leads one to believe that she is saying that her emotional distress should be paid for by the teenagers. Further, no other tort works in this case. Assault, Battery, negligence, etc. It had to be IIED or NIED.
I have no problem with people protecting themselves or their property, but to sue after the fact when you realize that the people who knocked at the door were delivering a gift is absurd.
Seems like some Freepers are really jumping to conclusions.
The original post is just another in a series of knee-jerk reactions that promulgate the myth of "frivolous lawsuits."
Wanita Young:
"We heard this horrible banging on the door, like someone was trying to break it down," she told the newspaper. "I ran upstairs and called out 'Who's there?' three or four times. But no one answered me and when I looked out the window, there weren't any vehicles in sight. But I could see the silhouette of someone on the other side of the window. I got really scared and called the sheriff's department."
Three sheriff's deputies arrived and found the cookies along with a note that read: "Have a great night. Love, The T and L Club." The "T and L Club" stood for Taylor and Lindsey.
The deputies didn't know what the note meant and suggested the Young stay in a motel that night. Young's husband was out of town so she took her 86-year-old mother and 19-year-old daughter to her sister's house in Farmington, N.M.
"Driving down there, I was throwing up and feeling a lot of pressure in my chest," she told the Herald. "I thought I might be having a heart attack."
Young, 49, went to a medical center emergency room the next morning and her hospital bill was more than $1,400. Doctors diagnosed her problem as an anxiety attack.
This is not a knee jerk reaction. To sue for this type of damages there has to be some sort of outrageous behavior. This might not have been the best idea in the book, but it surely was not beyond all bounds of social decency.
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