Master Diver - Liability

[boulderjohn]

A second was in Oklahoma a lady bought an R.V. and was told that the cruise control would make driving the rv a lot easier. The lady puts it on and leaves the driver seat while its going down the road and attempts to make a sandwhich. No one in their right mind would leave a drivers seat while the car is going down the road yet she did and caused a major accident. She sued the dealer and won.

It would be a good idea to check out stories before posting the as anecdotes to prove a point.

This is an urban legend. I never happened.

this is an INCREDIBLE RV lawsuit story!

 

[boulderjohn]

How many times have you heard of a burgler breaking in a home he has no buisness in and slipping on a toy in the childs bedroom causing himself to be injured? It happens all the time and the burglar wins quiet often dispite he should not have even been there to begin with.

If it happens all the time, you should have no trouble giving us a specific example of when it actually happened. I am waiting with anticipation.

 

[seaducer]

Correct. If a person is in a position to be of the highest authority of a situation and fails to act he can be held negligent. If your a doctor and you see someone having a heart attack and a witness can place you at the scene as just looking down at him and walking off you have failed in your medical capacity roll.

What if the doctor has been drinking? If they are not working they are just normal people like anyone else. For that matter not every medical doctor is trained (or mentally prepared) to handle trauma, so in that situation they are perhaps no better than anyone else who has taken a Red Cross course to deal with that situation. Last but not least why should someone be held to a higher standard than all the rest of us? Just because they spent a lot of time and money earning a degree in the medical field?

Sure they may get named in a suit but if I were on that jury I would not find against.

If you are a police officer off duty and witness a crime in commission you still have a duty to react. If not its not performing within the trust given to you. You can be sued and this actually happend in the town I live in now where the officer even lost his job as well.

If that really happened the way you describe it, then that is just plain wrong. Again, the cop is just a normal person when they are not working (as evidenced by the behavior of a great many of them at parties) and should not be held any more responsible than anyone else in that situation. Unless it is written in the contract that that town has bargained with the PBA I can't see this as actually happening, and if it did the cop will get his job back with full pay as soon as his/her suit is settled.

People fail to realize when you take on certain roles you assume liability. One role often over looked is that when you fail to render aid (At least call 911) to some one in distress it can turn civil and it can turn ugly.

And there is a super duper simple way to avoid this. Prove I could have made that 911 call. Just because everyone has a cell phone on them does not mean I did, or that it was working at the time. Of course this actually assumes I have some sort of contract with that person in which I had act to begin with. Here's the rub, I do not have to act, at all, ever. I just don't. There is no law that says I have to act and I don't care what some civil lawyer says, I don't have a duty to act.

People always say you cant be sued for something yet america has it on the books that you can sue for anything any time anywhere..

a few situations as living proof is the well known lady who spilled coffee on her self and won money.

I don't like that suit either, but I believe she won because the coffee was hotter than it should have been and teh cup was weaker than it should have been. Regardless she spilled it, but this case is often cited incorrectly.

A second was in Oklahoma a lady bought an R.V. and was told that the cruise control would make driving the rv a lot easier. The lady puts it on and leaves the driver seat while its going down the road and attempts to make a sandwhich. No one in their right mind would leave a drivers seat while the car is going down the road yet she did and caused a major accident. She sued the dealer and won.

According to SNOPES this is an urban legend.

How many times have you heard of a burgler breaking in a home he has no buisness in and slipping on a toy in the childs bedroom causing himself to be injured? It happens all the time and the burglar wins quiet often dispite he should not have even been there to begin with.

I have heard of many, yet none have ever shown up in the news as actually having happened. The only one I know of was in Upstate New York, involving someone who had a cabin that was being broken into during the week while the owner was in the city. He was sued because he charged the door handle with electricity and didn't post any warnings that there was any danger. Since the door looked normal and was not protected anyone could have touched it and been electrocuted, even if they had no intention of breaking in.

Have you not heard of the Stores having to pay big money to people who slip and fall outside of the stores on rainy days? Do you really expect them to put wet floor signs outside of the stores when it rains? Apparently some juries did.

Can you cite any actual cases, or just some random email chain? Stores that get sued for stuff like this, you generally find they have been negligent in some crazy fashion, or they violated local zoning laws such as de-icing their sidewalks.

Although I will grant you, stores have more risk of this sort, mostly because insurance companies have been known to settle before. Kind of why the US does not negotiate with terrorists, it simply invites more terror.

But just because it rained? Not buying it.

 

[boulderjohn]

a few situations as living proof is the well known lady who spilled coffee on her self and won money.

If you had been on the jury, you probably would have voted with the majority. See this explanation.

 

[seaducer]

If you had been on the jury, you probably would have voted with the majority. See this explanation.

Jeez, you beat me to the punch on everything:depressed:

At any rate, it is interesting that my Keurig machine will not brew lower than 187F. I should think most machines and companies that sell coffee to serve would have options much lower than this after that suit.

 

[boulderjohn]

Jeez, you beat me to the punch on everything:depressed:

At any rate, it is interesting that my Keurig machine will not brew lower than 187F. I should think most machines and companies that sell coffee to serve would have options much lower than this after that suit.

The issue is not what it will brew it at, but rather what it will keep it at when it is stored. You always have to brew the coffee at those high temperatures, but you don't have to store it at those high temperatures.

Note that McDonald's has apparently changed its policies and forbids its stores to maintain coffee temperatures at the level it did when she received those 3rd degree burns.

 

[TMHeimer]

I admit to not reading all the posts. Had to add that this has been discussed at length in the Going Pro forum. Consensus is that every situation is different and anyone can get sued. It was also discussed about one buddy suing another, whether they knew each other or just met. Signing of waivers means something legally, but not everything. The dive op or DM can be responsible for something or not, depending on what happened and how a jury would see it. No one answer fits all I guess.

 

[Peter Guy]

As I wrote in my first post, these threads generate so much misinformation, half-right information and correct information -- all in the same sentence that it is so very frustrating.

Correct. If a person is in a position to be of the highest authority of a situation and fails to act he can be held negligent. If your a doctor and you see someone having a heart attack and a witness can place you at the scene as just looking down at him and walking off you have failed in your medical capacity roll.

And in what jurisdiction is this the law? The norm in Common Law Jurisdictions is to the contrary. The general rule is there is no duty of rescue, for physicians or anyone else -- but that is the NORM and may well be contrary to a particular statute or case law of a particular jurisdiction. (BTW, this is assuming no prior relationship/duty of care!)

OTOH, if you saw it on Law and Order.....

 

[openmindOW]

Saw it on an episode of Law and Order once.

Thank you.

 

[openmindOW]

As I wrote in my first post, these threads generate so much misinformation, half-right information and correct information -- all in the same sentence that it is so very frustrating..

Thank you. I have largely refrained from commenting on this thread, because there was so much misinformation on this thread.

Warning: Do not rely on legal advice posted on internet forums, especially Scubaboard.