As Ages Come And Go - Change Is Very Obvious: The Age Of Lawsuits
Posted: Saturday, August 13, 2011
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
Although history was not my favorite study, I was exposed to enough of it to arouse at least a small amount of interest. It kindly intrigued me to notice how the world population would surge into a new discovery and turn it into an age. The stone age, copper and bronze age and iron age have all been named by historians as a period of time when those particular materials were discovered and begun to be utilized widely.
One which has amazed me is the current saturation of lawsuits. Frivolous, self-manufactured, and all manner of other ways. It has gone crazy! Let me tell you about 50 to 70 years ago. The United States was still have growing pains. Modernization had barely set in by the 1950’s. As a child on a southern rural farm environment, I cannot say what the situation was elsewhere, but I can tell you what it was in our area. The very terms of “sue” or “lawsuits” were anathema. The very thought of someone suing a medical doctor was not considered. If someone committed a crime against another, the local law officials took care of the offender but the injured party virtually never filed a lawsuit and only when the damage was extreme.
By the time I entered the army in 1951, I had never known of any person having sued or having been sued. Oh, I had learned what the subject was and somewhat of how it worked, but I was privy to not even one case.
That attitude towards the idea has stayed with me. I had occasion once to have been able to sue a hospital and three doctors. It was a cut and dried case of negligence and I have suffered these 20 years because of it…but not very much. I could understand the oversight of a couple of interns who were young and by the time my wife finished with them, I think they were about ready to change their occupation. But there is no question, they were truly sorry about it and I don’t believe they ever committed that error again…although I never saw them again.
I do not regret having not sued those young men and the seasoned doctor in charge of them. I suspect the young men might have received serious penalties, had I taken it to court. In fact, their careers could have been shaken.
But, that is not our subject. Our subject is the rash of suits that are in every court on a regular basis, I imagine now. Things have gotten out of hand and need to be rectified. One which all remember is the lady whose decision was to buy a cup of coffee from McDonalds and her decision to continue to drive to her work while drinking that extremely hot coffee and it was her carelessness which caused her to spill it in her lap, A jury awarded her $2.86 million for the bad burn she received. A much more prudent trial judge reduced the award to $640.000 which was still far too much. A private settlement was made with the woman rather than go through an appeal process.
That was a very bad thing. But it is not more outrageous than dozens of those which happen on a regular basis.
In 1992, Jin and Soo Chung moved to Washington D.C. from South Korea, hoping to build “their American dream” which they were convinced was doable here in the U.S. They started a dry cleaning business. As these people are noted for, they worked very hard and their business flourished. Soon they built another dry cleaning store and after some more time a third, all managed by the couple and their son Ki.
Things were going well for the Chungs, until one day a local judge complained that they had lost a pair of his pants. The Chungs tried desperately to settle peacefully, the dissatisfied judge and finally even offered to replace the pants AND pay him $12,000! But the judge refused and took them to court claiming $54 million! After two years in court, the judge lost his case.
But, the losses sustained by the Chungs forced them to close one of their stores, and later on, a second one. They now operate only the first store they had established. They could easily have recouped their court costs but graciously dropped them. Yet, the judge presses on with an appeal. The case is still tied up in court.
I encourage all to go to the following site to read details of the Chung’s case, plus there are numerous other such cases on this site also. Click Here.
This Article has been viewed 195 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.