Stephens Family suing Government (1st Anthrax victim)

CBS news | 2/26/2003 | CBS news report

[TheBattman]

Just saw a story on the CBS morning show about the Stephens family filing a claim (first step in lawsuit) against the US government over her husband's death from inhalation anthrax.

Her attorney's claim is that the anthrax came from a US government lab that was insecure, making the government responsible for his death.

The suit is for $50 million. It first must go through a claim system. If the Government does not offer an acceptable settlement, then it goes on to court as a federal lawsuit.

[TheBattman]

OK...so they either have evidence that specifically implicates government officials and lacking security at bio-facilities (doubtful as they mentioned one lab, but then mentioned it was there or other labs.

I think they are grasping at straws.

I think a suite against Saddam, Osama, and Islam as a whole would be more appropriate. Unfortunately, our courts are so unpredictable- this woman might wind up very wealthy over this. I certainly feel sympathy for her loss, but dang....

[CobaltBlue]

I don't believe that they will be able to prove their case, because whatever vehicle the anthrax came in (probably a letter in an envelope with anthrax) was destroyed long before the man became ill.

Maybe with DNA testing they can prove that the anthrax was identical to that produced at Ft. Detrick, but will that be enough to prove negligence? Especially against the federal government, which had no involvement with the incident at all.

My guess is that the lawyer just wants his/her name in the papers, maybe a few guest shots on cable news. It's free advertising.

[B.O. Plenty]

We can hope that the judge that hears this case throws it out of his court forthwith(a little lawyer talk)then throws the lawyer and people that that filed the case into jail...forthwith....

IT WASN'T THE GOVERNMENT'S FAULT THAT SOME WORTHLESS NUT WANTED TO KILL RANDOMLY...

.........The first thing we do......