Jeep owner sued after mechanic killed working on vehicle
- Thread starter diggerwolf
- Start date
Can’t watch it right now, wasn’t it this
https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/je...during-oil-change-cars-owner-pays-nothing.amp
https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/je...during-oil-change-cars-owner-pays-nothing.amp
OP
I remember reading about it at the time but the legal aspect is fascinating. It's easy to dismiss on the surface as another frivolous lawsuit but really it's a confluence of two unrelated state laws coming together in a nexus of stupidity.
Yep. If you don't know how to operate the machinery, you shouldn't touch it. Be that a Jeep or a (vertical) smartphone!
I'd sue the coworker that couldn't use a clutch.
To what end? He would have no money, no assets, cannot force him to be indentured...
Moreso talking about the 2 Michigan laws:
1. You or your estate can't sue your boss if you're injured or killed due to THEIR negligence (such as negligence in hiring a 19 year old who's never driven a stick or held a driver's license...to drive and work on cars)
2. The owner of the vehicle is liable for any damages involving their vehicle, even when it's being used by someone else, as long as that someone else had the owners permission.
and I'm not sure there was a specific law about it, but the kid wasn't considered negligent, his action was considered a mistake...so he wasn't legally liable for it either.
So under Michigan law, the Jeep owner was liable by giving permission to the employee to drive the vehicle, the driver made a mistake but wasn't negligent, and the dealer couldn't be sued. So there was no option left for the family but to sue the owner, who then sought (and was awarded) indemnity from the dealer (as I'd bet the plaintiff and their attorney expected). In the end, the right thing happened, though I wish the article posted went into more detail on the legal basis and logic used by the judge to make that decision without leaving a huge opening to be overturned in an appeal.
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Wow. This is why Laws, rules, regulations, and "morals" aren't perfect and can't replace ethics.
Look up Florida medical malpractice laws... Doctors can screw you up really good there, and they only are subject to a $300k payout...
Laws here are "interesting". Like anywhere else, some good some bad. Didn't know about this one...
Isn't there also a 3 strikes rule though, that they lose their license to practice? Or was that another state? My college roommate went on to become a doctor and talked about that at some point.
Wrong.
There is no cap in Florida for economic or non economic damages. Together, Rewards can easily surpass 300k.
The Florida legislature is lobbied heavily by attorneys. I've see it first hand. Attorneys spend a lot of $ to have the laws favor them and med mal is a perfect example.
https://grossmanattorneys.com/is-there-a-cap-on-medical-malpractice-claims-in-florida/#:~:text=In Florida, there are no,the damages cannot be limited.
https://www.thefloridalawgroup.com/court-strikes-down-caps-on-malpractice-damages/
https://www.wilsonlaw.com/blog/the-...tice-claims-involving-more-than-one-claimant/
just fyi @Zorba there is no such law referenced in the above post.
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Each state has its own rules regarding discipline and what is necessary to revoke a license.
I can say unequivocally that med mal is essential to have to prevent/eliminate wayward practitioners. However, without a doubt it leads to an abundance of frivolous lawsuits for no real malpractice filed by plaintiffs trying to get get rich quick and greedy lawyers who are willing to go along with it....throw tons of b.s. at the wall and an uneducated jury "of your own peers" will give some one with a sob story a boat load of $ that doesn't deserve it. That result actually hurts all of us.
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yep! My dad was an assistant US attorney before he retired, so I heard all the stories. Most of his career was here in Oklahoma, which has a lot of tribal hospitals. Guess who is liable for med mal when it's a tribal doctor? The federal government...and it seems like those particular practitioners are wayward at a higher rate than the general population. He had to defend a bunch of those cases, and the doc was often absolutely in the wrong and the plaintiff was absolutely deserving. Fortunately he was more concerned with doing the right thing so the ones that were legitimate cases never had to go to court. The stuff he talked about was horrifying. Seemed like a lot of them were just misdiagnoses with tragic results...parents bringing a baby in with something wrong, doctor negligently dismisses it, baby dies that night...that sort of thing.
Not med mal, but the federal government also owns the liability for postal service drivers, so if one of them is watching porn on his phone and goes left of center head on into somebody, it's the fed (more accurately, the taxpayer) that picks up the bill. If I remember correctly that plaintiff was the victims family because he came out vegetative. On the other end, another USPS driver lawsuit the plaintiff wanted millions in lost wages because he supposedly incurred a permanent physical disability. Investigator filmed him on his property building a fence...I think he ended up settling for something reasonable for lost wages during recovery but not for the remainder of his career.
My brother went to have a completely elective surgery to remove a lipoma around his neck. Surgeon found it wrapped around a nerve, cut the nerve. Said out loud (being recorded) that he cut a nerve and he might have a numb spot on his elbow somewhere. Turned out to be the nerve that controls his trapezius...kindof an important one for the use of your arm. Fortunately he was able to get it repaired by the one surgeon in the country that does that surgery, who also charges $800/hr to talk to attorneys on the phone. My brother of course sued the first surgeon and ended up getting what was probably fair given what he went through (in exchange for not disclosing the amount, but his ass is broke now so it wasn't something lifechanging).
You are quoting law from ‘22. Glad to see they changed that, I almost lost my wife to a surgeon f-up in 2017… we were capped to $300k, and got the full amount.
If you are looking for fair, Earth is the wrong planet.
To echo @Zorba, people generally know what right and wrong is. The world would be idyllic if everyone just did what they know is right.
To echo @Zorba, people generally know what right and wrong is. The world would be idyllic if everyone just did what they know is right.
