Wake Up and Sue Someone

[SRP76]

Like this woman that thought she was living the Langoliers lifestyle:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100527/ap_on_bi_ge/us_left_on_plane


SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – A Michigan woman who fell asleep on a United Express flight to Philadelphia says she woke up and was shocked to find she was alone on the plane.

Ginger McGuire said no one had awakened her when the plane landed more than three hours earlier. She said she paced the aisle for about 15 minutes early Tuesday until the locked door opened and police demanded identification.

"Waking up to an empty airplane and not being able to get out — it was very horrifying," McGuire, 36, told reporters Thursday as her lawyer announced a lawsuit.

McGuire said she simply fell asleep after a long trip that stretched from Detroit to suburban Washington and, finally, Philadelphia. She said the plane landed Tuesday about 12:30 a.m. EDT.

United Airlines spokeswoman Sarah Massier declined to comment because the incident has led to a lawsuit. A message seeking comment was left at Trans States, based in Bridgeton, Mo. The Transportation Security Administration said it was investigating.

The United Express flight is operated by Trans States Airlines in partnership with United Airlines.

McGuire's attorney, Geoffrey Feiger, said his law firm filed a lawsuit against United and Trans States, alleging negligence, false imprisonment and distress. McGuire lives in Ferndale, a Detroit suburb.

"For a crew to leave her there and lock her is beyond a gross abuse," Fieger said.


She doesn't deserve to sue them. What she deserves is to get laughed at. I mean come the fuck on, you sleep through a landing AND everyone disembarking, smacking you upside the head with their carry-ons and whatnot?

She spent three extra hours onboard - sleeping. Which, between 12:30 AM and 3:30 AM, she would have just been doing elsewhere. Oooh, and then a whole 15 minutes "trapped" on the plane! That's her whole day, apparently.

[Danny]

thats not gross abuse. shutting a child in a car on a hot day is abuse. she fell asleep and got overlooked, thats called a mistake. they happen. so she paced up and down for a while till they let her out, what mental anguish!!!


ive been stuck in a car after an accident on a motorway for 8 hours, needing to piss my kidneys out the entire time. and i didnt fucking bitch. - and i was fucking 8 years old.

[x] told
[ ] not told.

[SRP76]

Now, I could almost see this, if she were the fabled Most Important Person in the World, and had to be at a meeting at precisely 1:00 AM to decide the fate of a multibillion-dollar corporation, and her absence cost her personally untold millions of dollars.

Almost. Someone that important wouldn't have slept through the flight without having an alarm set.

[Wyldwraith]

Couple things,
1) Some people have to take sleeping meds to deal with fear of flying. My mom does. Stuff is strong enough that if the plane ever catastrophically breaks up she'll die without regaining consciousness.

2) The law isn't about common sense right and wrong. It's about someone leaving themselves technically open to liability and jumping in there to profit off what in reality is your fault but legally u can make the fault (and expense) of someone else.

The law is beautiful that way. Legal victimization of an innocent party after being personally irresponsible and getting paid for it? Gotta love America.

Edit: I believe the principle they're suing on is essentially she could've been a deaf, blind retarded Unaccompanied Minor, and the same thing would've happened. Which is why the stewardess who serves the rear half of the plane during flight is supposed to check and make sure all seats are empty for a variety of reasons. (Not least of which to avoid unpaid dead-heading. (Which people do try, knowing the plane will almost certainly go somewhere else than where they originated))

Is it stupid bordering on frivolous? Of course. May it just possibly prevent some 4yr old being shipped to see Mon/Dad/Grandma & Grandpa from being traumatized for life? Yup. That would be my sole reason for not dismissing this lawsuit if I were the judge. Corporations only learn to be more responsible when you flog heavy penalties out of their bottom line(s).

You can bet BP will be more careful with oil rig safety after Florida and Louisiana hit them for an estimated 900m-1.2 billion each, which accounts for none of the private suits that will be slam-dunks. Everything from hotel owners suing for lost revenue from tar balls on the beach, to fisherman suing for multiple-years worth of pay due to contaminated fisheries (which includes the 100 million $/year shellfish-related businesses, that will be asking for MUCH more than the fishermen since the shellfish will rebound and be pronounced safe for human consumption far slower)...and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Anyways, got off-track. Point is that we allow a certain % of idiotic lawsuits as a reminder to corporations we can gut them at our slightest whim.

[Eyebiter]

How did the flight attendants miss her? For that matter what about the crew that comes aboard to clean the plane before the next flight? Cabin lights must have been low for the crew to miss her.

[AcesandEights]

"Waking up to an empty airplane and not being able to get out — it was very horrifying," McGuire, 36, told reporters Thursday as her lawyer announced a lawsuit.

You gotta be fuckin kidding me.

[darth los]

Couple things,
1) Some people have to take sleeping meds to deal with fear of flying. My mom does. Stuff is strong enough that if the plane ever catastrophically breaks up she'll die without regaining consciousness.

2) The law isn't about common sense right and wrong. It's about someone leaving themselves technically open to liability and jumping in there to profit off what in reality is your fault but legally u can make the fault (and expense) of someone else.

The law is beautiful that way. Legal victimization of an innocent party after being personally irresponsible and getting paid for it? Gotta love America.

Edit: I believe the principle they're suing on is essentially she could've been a deaf, blind retarded Unaccompanied Minor, and the same thing would've happened. Which is why the stewardess who serves the rear half of the plane during flight is supposed to check and make sure all seats are empty for a variety of reasons. (Not least of which to avoid unpaid dead-heading. (Which people do try, knowing the plane will almost certainly go somewhere else than where they originated))

Is it stupid bordering on frivolous? Of course. May it just possibly prevent some 4yr old being shipped to see Mon/Dad/Grandma & Grandpa from being traumatized for life? Yup. That would be my sole reason for not dismissing this lawsuit if I were the judge. Corporations only learn to be more responsible when you flog heavy penalties out of their bottom line(s).

You can bet BP will be more careful with oil rig safety after Florida and Louisiana hit them for an estimated 900m-1.2 billion each, which accounts for none of the private suits that will be slam-dunks. Everything from hotel owners suing for lost revenue from tar balls on the beach, to fisherman suing for multiple-years worth of pay due to contaminated fisheries (which includes the 100 million $/year shellfish-related businesses, that will be asking for MUCH more than the fishermen since the shellfish will rebound and be pronounced safe for human consumption far slower)...and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Anyways, got off-track. Point is that we allow a certain % of idiotic lawsuits as a reminder to corporations we can gut them at our slightest whim.

In addition to that lawsuits are based on a duty of care to the person involved and if did they not meet that standard.


For instance, if there's a spill in a supermarket and some one slips 5 minutes later, there's no liabilty there. Too soon for the peopleresponsible for the area to notice and take appropriate action.


Now if the spill was there for an hour and the same thing happens then that is considered a reasonable amount of time and the person responsible is considered negligent.


So we first have to see what duty of care the airline owed the client and then proceed from there.

:cool:

[Wyldwraith]

Ok agreed,
But if events had proceeded far enough for everyone else to have disembarked including the crew, it's a given that they missed her in their own routine check. There's even a regulation against unaccompanied non-employees aboard commercial planes, so unless its a case where something unusual happened to suck up the attention of the crew, I don't see what justification could be provided if they've bypassed their own procedures.

If nothing else, this kind of thing costs an airline tickets.

[darth los]

Ok agreed,
But if events had proceeded far enough for everyone else to have disembarked including the crew, it's a given that they missed her in their own routine check. There's even a regulation against unaccompanied non-employees aboard commercial planes, so unless its a case where something unusual happened to suck up the attention of the crew, I don't see what justification could be provided if they've bypassed their own procedures.

If nothing else, this kind of thing costs an airline tickets.


Again, agreed.

Furthermore, lawsuits are based on damages. You brought up the price of the tickets, which if they owed a duty of care seems fair.

Where people go looney is where they want to sue for millions off of something like this, which is exactly what they have in mind. There's no way that's going to happen.

In fact as soon as you tell them cost of an attorney for something like this vs. what they stand to get they seem to not have been "damaged" all that badly for some reason. :confused: :lol:

:cool:

[Wyldwraith]

Oh definitely,
Most people have no conception of how the standard of reasonable expectation of compensation based on a preponderance of the evidence actually works in regards to dollar amounts.

Movies have created the impression based on mimicking a few very unique cases (that don't involve wrongful death or grave bodily harm) where a judgment in the millions/tens of millions was awarded. That such judgments are both common and easily obtained, when in fact neither is true. Even individuals who've been inarguably mangled medically due to someone else's negligence regularly run out of money and are forced to drop their suit if they can't find a generous attorney (who will then take on average the 65% most state laws allow as a maximum contingency fee)

Further, they have no conception of just how hard and how long a major corporation can fight to keep you from seeing one red cent of that judgment, regularly spending more to delay payment than the amount of the judgment. Doing so discourages more lawsuits.

The individuals at Love Canal who were horribly poisoned in the late 60s/early 70s by the most irresponsible case of industrial pollution in U.S history (pre-Gulf Oil Spill) are STILL waiting to be paid the 118 million dollars the 31 plaintiffs who went the distance were awarded.