In Hillsborough County, Florida, there was a hardy game of "Snare the Queer" going on. The game consists of passing a football off, and tackling the guy who is stuck with the ball -- and apparently mercilessly abusing him until he is able to get rid of it. During this particular episode, Danny Heidenberg got stuck with the ball, was tackled, and then suffered a Pro-Wrestler-like elbow drop from one of the playground bullies. The drop broke his arm and damaged his forearm - the result of which is that Danny will not likely ever be a surgeon like both his parents.I know you anticipate the entry of plantiff's lawyers, the resulting trial, and the tort-reform-demanding verdit (which in this case was $4,000,000). But, before calling Bob Perry, and the Texans for Lawsuit Reform, consider this --
- The game was one that the school knew was played, and knew that it was dangerous -- they had banned it twice.
- The kids were on the playground without supervision...literally..."Nobody was wathcing them" according to trial testimony.
- The school's policy manual prohibited leaving kids on the playground unattended.
- The would-be wrestler said that he never would have beat up on the smaller kid had a teacher been around observing playground activities.
- The school had received more than a dozen complaints about bullying and fighting on the playground, and had done nothing about it.
- The broken arm required a year of electric shock therapy to get the injured nerves working again.
Now, I'm against outrageous verdicts as much as the next guy, but this is precisely the type of anecdotal case that tort-reformers described as "broken arm on school playground nets $4 Million for so-called future surgeon". What is often left out of the tort-reform ad is the clear fault of the defendant -- inexpensive, sensible and well-known steps that could have avoided injury at all. Are there really folks out there that believe that Danny should "take responsibility" and bear this injury without compensation?
1 comment:
When I was in school I broke my arm because the school required me to play red rover despite the fact that I warned them it would lead to a broken arm. I wish my parents had sued and won $4M.
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