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Two weeks
ago everyone was talking about the USAir
ditching into the Hudson River, which
was caused when a gaggle of Canadian
geese were ingested into the aircraft’s
two engines. There were no fatalities
and only one passenger was seriously
injured. The pilot’s skill and a lot of
luck have been credited with the
survival of the passengers and crew.
As a
gesture of goodwill, USAir also gave the
passengers $5000 to compensate them for
their inconvenience, loss of luggage and
personal items as well as giving them
“Chairman’s
Preferred” status, which usually
requires earning 100,000 qualifying
miles—for a year. This entitles
customers to a number of perks,
including priority check-in and
boarding, priority security lanes, and
first dibs on standby seats. They also
refunded the passengers ticket price for
the ill-fated flight and their insurance
carrier promised to cover any property
losses exceeding $5000. This sounds more
than fair to me.
They could
have been fish food, but instead they
got an invigorating bath, a free scenic
boat ride and something to tell their
grandkids.
But as one
might expect, a few passengers weren’t
satisfied and decided to sue the
airline. One of them told a reporter, “I
just want to be made whole.” Apparently
his idea of being made whole is being
made rich.
While most people would be grateful just
for getting out alive and in fact,
whole; there are a few like this guy who
see the accident as an opportunity to
win the litigation lotto.
As seems to
be part of American culture these days,
everything that happens is seen as
someone else’s fault and a chance, with
the help of the right scumbag lawyer,
for a big pay off—greed pure and simple.
The concept of ordinary bad luck has
gone out of fashion. This is no shortage
of law firms that specialize in suing
railroads, cruise ships and airlines.
I don’t have
anything against lawyers. I have several
friends who are attorneys and my daddy
practiced law for 64 years. I know for a
fact that my old man wouldn’t have taken
a case like this. The lawyers I know
aren’t greedy or sorry enough for this
kind of litigation-most of them anyway.
It isn’t as
if this particular accident was the
airline’s fault. Nothing vital fell off
the airplane, there was no apparent
pilot error nor has the incident been
tied to any terrorist activity. It’s
clear that USAir did everything right
and the survivors should be kissing the
pilot’s shoes--or something, not trying
to shake down the airline. I suppose the
geese could be sued—or maybe Canada,
since they were Canadian Geese.
It’s plain to
me that the airline is blameless. That
doesn’t mean they will win though. If a
judge doesn’t toss the case out of court
and warn the lawyer against frivolous
litigation; if it gets to a jury the
verdict might well go to the plaintiff.
Juries are unpredictable and all too
many of them these days are only too
happy to give away copious amounts of
other people’s money no matter what the
evidence. Whatever happened to
gratitude?
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