Business gets sued for doing its job

 

 

We rule in favor of the plaintiff.

      Let's say you have a large, successful business that hires thousands of employees and contributes millions of dollars to the economy.  You produce a quality product with legions of faithful customers.  You pay your taxes and always obey the law.  And then one day, somebody sues you for millions of dollars - and wins.

      Was it because your company did something wrong?  Defrauded customers or vendors?  Dishonest advertising? Polluted the environment?  Sexually harassed employees? 

      Nope, nope, and nope. 

      What happened was that some crazed, low-life scumbag used a product - made by your company - to commit a horrible crime.

victims of the Sandy Hook massacre

      The company is Remington Arms.  They manufacture guns.  In 2012, a nutcase named Adam Lanza used Remington-made weapons to kill 28 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  The victims were mostly children.  (Lanza also killed himself, so his motive was never actually determined.)  Remington was sued by families of the victims, and the court has awarded them   $73 Million.

      Without a doubt, this was a crime too horrible for words.  I shudder to think of how the parents felt upon learning that their beloved child, kissed and sent off to school on an otherwise typical day, had been murdered.  I understand their rage and their cries to "Do something!" so this doesn't happen again.

      And "do something!" the courts did.  Only they did the wrong something.

     Remington   did not do anything wrong.  This was a flag-waving American company that has been in business since 1816, employs 3,500 people, and pulls in revenues of $950 Million.  They make a quality product that worked exactly as it was supposed to. 

Personal Injury billboard

      If Remington can get sued for a truckload of money for simply doing its job, then ANY of us could be the next victim of our over-aggressive judiciary.  It matters not what your product is.  If someone uses it to commit evil, you're guilty.  Even if your product is involved in an ACCIDENT where people are hurt or killed, you're guilty, too.  And if evil occurs on your premises, not even using your product, you're guilty.

deep pockets

      It's all an extension of a leftist/liberal concept I have expounded on for many years:  businesses are always the bad guys!  They always have nice, deep pockets.  And if a business uses some of its profits to create jobs, hire people, and pay them money, well, crucify them!

      The leftist/liberals will probably counter with something along the lines of:  "Hey, we're not opposed to ALL businesses, just those that make things like GUNS that, you know, are specifically made to KILL people!"  Yeah right - tell that to the people in, for example, the tobacco industry.  Tell that to the hotel industry.  In this article,  I wrote how the government is going after them because of a nutcase who used his hotel room to commit mass murder.  

      So what is the alternative?  If victims and their families cannot sue gun manufacturers (and other businesses unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time), how can we stop all these armed mass murderers?  Especially at school, where we presume our kids are safe?  

      Well, one solution is to be prepared to fight back.  A "gun-free" zone is, in fact, an open invitation to bad guys who don't follow the rules.  In my article, I pointed out how some teachers across the land have done just that.  Despite the screams of impending disaster from the teachers' unions and anti-gun groups, the actual results have been … rather uneventful. 

      Meanwhile, here's the really scary news:  No matter WHAT industry you're in, and no matter how honest and law-abiding you try to be, the personal injury lawyers - and the courts - have a target on your back.  Our civil judiciary has basically become systemized extortion.  Every businessman in the land should be afraid.  Very afraid.

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