“How would you (meaning all readers of this thread) settle this case ?”
We would need to read some much more detailed accounts of this matter before we could hope to even begin to think about it.
On the face of it it seems quite ridiculous to level a judgment of this magnitude on a person in this situation. I question what effect this award will have on other efforts to make those with losses whole after this fire. I have to assume entities like a railroad are insured for such losses, because otherwise I guess us taxpayers are on the hook.
And, we know nothing about the mind set of the defendant at the time, it’s not clear from the article if his actions were foolish, malign, or otherwise.
the worse in my family was my brother starting a fire to burn some ants out and set the telephone pole on fire, and the fire trucks had to come...
community hrs is fine...garnishing a few dollars a week for 10 yrs okay...
but for the next 10 yrs, which is what he'll probably have to pay for, he'll make next to nothing so the govt will just ensure that he'll be poor, depressed, despondent.
there are no right answers...
if this was an 88 yro who threw his smoke out accidentally, it would be called a "medical issue" or early onset of dementia...
but the young....we just got to severely punish the young...