Ann:
I will bet you $5 per case that no one on this board can come up with a citation to the cases that are recounted in your post to prove that they actually exist. If any real cases come to light, I will pay the $5, but I will also bet $25 that an examination of the court record will reveal that there were other highly pertinent facts that are conveniently not included in the synopses floating about the Net.
Take No. 1:
January 2000: Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running amok inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving tyke was Ms. Robertson's son.
This writeup implies that the toddler's running amok was the proximate cause for the injury. But if you look carefully, you find that is merely an inference the casual reader takes from the synopsis. It says only that she was awarded money AFTER breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler. We no not know if there were other factors involved. It's entirely possible that Ms. Robertson was actually backing up to avoid an irate store employee and tripped over her child. It's possible she was running to stop him from being run over by a fork lift whose operator did not see him.
Look at No. 5:
May 2000: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, PA, $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.
On the surface it seems ridiculous. BUT! The report does not claim a nexus between either the injury or the spilled soft drink and the award. The restaurant owner may have come over and maced Ms. Carson after she had fallen. It could be that the owner put her into handcuffs and she claimed false imprisonment. It could be that the owner refused to call for medical help. The writeup does not say that the award was compensation for the broken tailbone. There could be a million reasons why the award (if it really exists) was granted.
Then take a critical look at no. 6.
December 1997: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the lady's room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.
Similarly, there is neither a claimed nor a reported nexus between the injury and the award. It could be that an employee came into the restroom, observed Ms. Walton's attempted entry, and pulled her out of the window, with the push itself causing the injury. Perhaps they strip-searched her and dragged her naked and in handcuffs through the nightclub.
There is a glibness to these reports that raises my inherited reporter's hackles.
TEd
