Speaking of Weird Lawsuits
FoxNews reports that certain liquor establishments are suing underaged drinkers to recoup the fines they had to pay for selling alcohol to minors. Apparently, these suits concentrate on individuals who were “carded” but who produced a fake ID.
Giving a new meaning to the name “Stella Award” is Joanne Stella, a lawyer retained by the University of New Hampshire’s student government to defend students sued by such establishments. In a manner reminiscent of the other Stella, this one takes the position that fault lies with the business who believed the fake IDs, not with the students who defrauded these institutions by producing them.
But Stella’s a lawyer, and representing her clients’ interest is her job. Thus, I would not nominate her for the Stella Award simply for defending them. That honor goes instead to “Kate,” who declined to give a last name. Her take:
I feel like I made my mistake and I paid for it. I did my hours of service, I learned my lesson. And just because they were negligent, I don’t think I should have to pay.
[Emphasis added.]
To recap: Kate defrauded an institution by producing a false ID, which she knew to be false but which the establishment believed to be real. Kate thinks it was the establishment’s fault for believing Kate’s lie, not Kate’s fault for telling that lie in the first place. Yup, she’s learned her lesson, all right.
UPDATE: Spoons, Ith, the Eleven Day Empire, and the Accidental Jedi have more.
July 30th, 2003 at 5:44 pm
Heh heh, that was the “winning” quote from that article for me too.
July 30th, 2003 at 6:47 pm
DOMER CHICK OUTRAGED THAT BAR FELL FOR HER FRAUD
A University of Notre Dame freshman who got busted for underage drinking at South Bend bar is now angry with…
July 30th, 2003 at 7:05 pm
Insane Lawsuit Watch
Actually, this is more of an insane defendant watch, because the lawsuit seems pretty fair to me. So, let’s say
July 30th, 2003 at 7:53 pm
Imagine that
Busted Bars Sue Underage Drinkers Seems that bar owners who have been fined or even run out of business due to the discovery of underage drinkers in their establishments have taken to suing said underage drinkers for damages. Logical enough….
July 31st, 2003 at 11:17 am
You’re taking her reaction out of context here. She is not suing the bar — it’s the other way around. The bar is saying it’s her fault that they lost their liquor license, and she’s correctly pointing out that it’s their job to ensure that underage people aren’t inside. Every campus bar in the country has underage people trying to get in, and their liquor licenses are conditional on underage people not getting in, or at least not getting caught. The bar’s negligence in not checking IDs closely enough is what caused them to lose their license. She has a right to defend herself against this ridiculous lawsuit.
July 31st, 2003 at 11:48 am
The bar may well have been negligent in falling for Katie’s scam, but that’s neither here nor there. It takes more than a little chutzpah for the scam artist to blame the victim for “negligently” falling for his scam. Nor does it matter - to me, anyway - that she is alleging the bar’s negligence as a defense rather than asserting a cause of action of action of her own. Negligence is negligence. It doesn’t have one meaning when it’s being used as a sword, and another when used as a shield.
July 31st, 2003 at 12:10 pm
Well put, but I think it does have a different meaning. Consider an analogy: You buy a piece of software designed to protect your computer from viruses. It fails, and a virus infects your computer and causes damage. You don’t sue the virus; you sue the software maker. You assume that your machine will constantly be under attack from viruses; that’s why you bought the software. Similarly, state liquor control agencies assume that kids are constantly trying to get into bars, and place the responsbility for keeping them out on the bars, not the kids. That’s the context of this dispute. College kids are always going to try to get into bars; it’s their nature. Bars who are either negligent in checking IDs or who don’t care are going to get their licenses revoked. They have only themselves to blame.
July 31st, 2003 at 1:46 pm
I don’t think your analogy works at all. If I find that little twerp who wrote the virus and he has any assets at all, you’d better believe I’m going after him. Even if I didn’t, and I somehow managed to collect damages from the AV software company instead (rotsa ruck), they would turn around and sue him for causing the harm that got them sued. That is essentially what is going on here.
August 6th, 2003 at 3:50 pm
AlphaWatcher
AlphaPatriot joins the Watcher’s Council (unofficial theme song by Aaron) and must therefore vote on the best blog entries (one from Council members and one from outside the council) by tomorrow evening. Any comments to aid my decision are appreciated:…