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So? Sue me!
The Americans are litigation mad, we all know that.
There is the famous story of the woman who sued McDonalds for
millions because she scalded her legs while trying to back out
of parking lot with a cup coffee wedged between her thighs.
Then there is the case, currently being considered, of the woman
who is also suing McDonald’s because her 14-year-old son
is clinically obese. She didn’t realise, she said, that
his eating three super-sized burger meals a day might have an
impact on his waistline. And take a look at the top entry in
our Highest Awards ranking 2004 opposite. A woman has been awarded
$1.6 billion for being swindled out of $3,000. One –point-six
billion?
So, lawyer-happy idiots, no? Well, not so fast. There is some
reason behind such immense payouts.
Broadly speaking, you can structure the legal basis of your
society in one of two ways: the Anglo-Saxon way, in which what
counts as ‘just’ is simply what the people, in the
form of juries, decide is just; or according to the Napoleonic
concept – literally promulgated in the places where Bony
went – which sees law as a body of rationally worked out
principles that the courts, in the form of investigating judges,
then apply. (Case law is not ignored in Napoleonic countries,
and neither is statue law ignored in the Anglosphere, but the
broad distinction applies.)
Now, the question then is, Whom do you trust to keep companies
in line? For all the talk about US corporations being rogue
elephants, unchecked by the interests of the people, one of
them has just been punished to the tune of $1.6 billion for
swindling an ordinary woman out of $3,000 she could ill afford
to lose. II rather reckons that’s a good outcome. Would
the company have been punished so harshly if it had been left
up to the government to slap its wrists? II reckons not.
Lawyers Weekly USA"s Top Ten Jury Awards Of 2004
1. $1.6bn – Whittaker v. Southwestern Life Insurance
Co. - Alabama
The plaintiff paid her insurer $3,000 in premiums
for an insurance policy that had already lapsed.
2. $1 Billion – Coffey v. Wyeth - Texas
The plaintiff, a mother of three, died of a rare lung
disease after taking the diet drug fen-phen.
3. $776 Million – Brown v. Dorsey - Georgia (Nov.
18, 2004)
The sheriff-elect for DeKalb County was gunned down
outside his home by henchmen hired by the corrupt sheriff he
was about to replace.
4. $570 Million – Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc.
v. Michelson - Tennessee
The inventor of a revolutionary spinal treatment sued a medical
device manufacturer, claiming that it failed to pay sufficient
royalties for his device.
5. $368.6 Million – Buell-Wilson v. Ford Motor
Co. - California
The plaintiff was paralyzed when her 1997 Ford Explorer
rolled over on a highway.
6. $366 Million – Poliner v. Texas Health Systems
- Texas
The plaintiff, a cardiologist, claimed his practice
was ruined when three fellow doctors and a hospital worked together
to suspend his privileges to perform heart procedures.
7. $156 Million – Boim v. Quranic Literacy Institute
- Illinois
The family of a teenager shot to death in Israel sued
three U.S. based Islamic charities and an Illinois man for allegedly
funneling money to terrorists.
8. $117 Million – Reden v. Wagner - New York
The plaintiffs’ daughter was severely brain
damaged during birth. The plaintiffs sued her doctors for failing
to respond to warning signs of fetal distress during the birth.
9. $105.5 Million – Flax v. DaimlyerChrysler -
Tennessee
The parents of an 8-month-old boy who was killed when
a minivan seat collapsed on him and fractured his skull sued
DaimlerChrysler for failing to redesign its seats.
10. $105 Million – Brown v. Price - Maryland
A Maryland police officer on his way to work shot
to death a man he believed to be his estranged wife"s lover.
The officer claimed that he was acting in his official capacity
and felt threatened by the victim, who was hit by 21 bullets.
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