Here’s another story to get your blood boiling. A woman sneaks through a chain link fence, jumps onto a moving freight train because she wanted to look “cool”, loses her leg, sues railroad. Could she possibly lose? Heck no!
Yes, idiots do get paid well. Let’s not worry about a CRIME being committed, this woman should be in jail, not laughing all the way to the bank.
(1) We do not know what Australian laws are with regard to railroad right of way’s duties. The article explicitly said the railroad had a problem with the fence.
(2) The woman was mentally handicap before jumping off the train.
(3) As bad as the laws in the States are preceived, I don’t see this verdict happenning in the United States.
Gabe
Its more like hopping all the way to the bank.What ever happened to taking personal responsibilty.I guess its easier to prove that railroad was at fault for having a hole in a fence than this person being an idiot.
As an Aussie, I feel embarrased by this story, if her intellectual capability is of an eight year old, they must be teaching law pretty good in pre-school, I don’t know any eight year olds that know how to sue for such an amount, sure the judge wasn’t the eight year old.
It is often said that America is a sue happy society, I certainly won’t cast aspersion’s after seeing this ridiculous result.
I wonder if, seeing as how only half the amount may be granted, will she find another hole in the fence and lose another million dollar leg - money seems to talk.
In my youth and throughout my growing years, personal reponsibility and accountability for ones own actions were held in high regard.
Teditor
Sounds to me like the RIC made a reasonable effort (repair every six months) to keep the fence in working order. How is it their fault that the locals have no problem destroying private property for their convenience? Personally, I would go after the boys spraying graffitti as contibuting to a public nusence.
The story does state that any award amount would be reduced 50% due the “contributing negligence” on her part, and that a final number was yet to be worked out. We could use a “stupid tax” in litigation like that here, thats for sure.
You can’t fix stupid…
While I tend to fully agree that someone who deliberately climbs through a chain link fence meant to keep people like here out, hops on a moving train just to look “cool”, falls off and loses her legs and then sues the railroad ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NEVER WIN SUCH A LAW SUIT… I kinda feel she is not “laughing all the way to the bank” or laughing at just about anything after losing her legs.
A very good friend of mine was sitting at a stop light and was rammed by an 18 wheeler and lost his leg. He got nothing except medical expense. Half a mil for being contributory negligent is a fine sum of money. The innocent suffer, the thief gets away with the crime. There are volumes of cases where a wrong doer got hurt and made millions suing the victim.
On a good note, I noticed in the news where the Supreme Court sided with the police in Atlanta in a case involving a car thief that sued because he was run off the road and paralyzed during a high speed chase.