A case a lawyer won't even take on. I hope.
I didn't think I'd ever see it, but it looks like there's a case that no self-respecting lawyer would take on. A litigant is representing himself, and I'm taking it on faith that he must've contacted some attorneys to try and get help. George Allen Ward, a crack dealer in jail in Virginia serving a 200-month sentence, is suing Arm & Hammer and its parent company for $425 million. His complaint? Baking soda boxes don't have warning labels that say something like "Use of this product with illegal drugs could result in getting in trouble with the law." His argument is that the manufacturer knows its product is used to manufacture crack cocaine and that they're making quite a financial gain from it. So Arm and Hammer should add a warning that it's illegal to use this product with illegal drugs.
The plaintiff must have been high when he came up with that one.
Fortunately, he lost the first round. So he's appealing. My favorite line - in his own words - in his appeal: "I feel as if I was forewarned by this company that I'd never used this product like I was charged with." Yeah, right.
I just hope no lawyer starts thinking "settlement dollars" and jumps on board.
The plaintiff must have been high when he came up with that one.
Fortunately, he lost the first round. So he's appealing. My favorite line - in his own words - in his appeal: "I feel as if I was forewarned by this company that I'd never used this product like I was charged with." Yeah, right.
I just hope no lawyer starts thinking "settlement dollars" and jumps on board.
6 Comments:
for another 200 million the state could start a Arm & Hammer Baking soda exchange
He won't receive a settlement offer. The case will be dismissed for failing to establish a prima facie case. (e.g., Even if the facts he claims are entirely accurate, no tort existed.)
The best he can hope for is that the Department of Corrections will actually let him attend -- under guard, of course -- a pre-trial court hearing. If the hearing isn't concluded before lunch time, he might get a McDonald's happy meal or some other food that he would otherwise not receive in prison.
I saw a great comment on a legal-issues Web site forum, guy said if the Arm & Hammer guy wins, he's going to sue Charmin because its toilet paper cardboard tubes are oh-so-perfect for making bongs, or razor blade companies, for providing a product that makes it easy to form nice neat lines of cocaine on mirrors.
Funny post, Clare. The next time you go back to that legal forum web site, you might want to mention that these type of frivolous, "third-party liability" lawsuits are actually rather commonplace. Moreover, since manufacturers consider the costs associated with defending themselves against these sort of lawsuits to be another cost of doing business, the monies spent on civil defense are added to the cost that we, the consumers, pay for those products. In short, we consumers are often paying a "frivolous lawsuit tax" whether we realize that or not.
Keep that in mind the next time you are in Home Depot with your husband shopping for a ladder and the warning label attached to that ladder is two feet long. (e.g., "Do NOT use this product while drunk off your ass and while stringing Christmas lights on your house in the middle of a rainstorm; Do NOT use this product ...., etc.")
Please see the following article for more examples:
The cost of frivolous lawsuits is no joke
The poster in that legal forum was saying that tongue-in-cheek. And I hate nothing more than the "sue everybody" attitude you see so often --- too many times, people consider what they can get over the bigger picture, that it eventually costs all of us more, in insurance, in tying up courts, etc. When I was 6 months pregnant, I took a dive -- up in the air, flat on my back, scared the hell out of me -- on some ice outside a door of a car dealership. First guy who got to me said, "You could OWN this place!" Others advised me to file a police report, to do something, just to see if the car dealership would offer me something.
I didn't. We were both fine, a sonogram showed the baby was OK, I got the day off to spend in bed watching TV. I'll never get rich, but what goes around comes around.
I hope -- with this Arm & Hammer joker -- that it never reaches a point where the company even has to get involved, that any judges will stop it in its tracks.
"a case a lawyer won't even take on" is an oxy-moron !! That would equate to turning down the possibility of money.
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