WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET YOUR ATTENTION?
Posted: Thursday, June 7th 2007
NO I MEAN TO REALLY GET YOUR ATTENTION.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ordered the California state appeals court to review a jury's decision requiring .6 million in damages paid to a woman who was paralyzed after her Ford Explorer rolled over. The award includes million in punitive damages. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that punitive damages can only be awarded because of the harm done to the person suing and not to others who are not party to the case.
Benetta Buell-Wilson was injured when a Ford Explorer's roof crushed and collapsed on her neck, severing her spine. She was paralyzed from the waist down. Back in June 2004, after hearing all the evidence from Benetta Buell-Wilson's lawyer and Ford's legal team, a jury decided to award 9 million, including 6 million in punitive damages. The award has been cut twice by reviewing courts and now is down to .6 million.
Now the U.S. Supreme Court is asking California courts to see if the entire punitive damages should be tossed. George W. Bush's Supreme Court picks have been viewed as particularly insensitive to the rights of the injured and particularly sensitive to the complaints of corporate America. Interestingly, Ford is being represented by Theodore Olson, who has previously served as George W. Bush's Solicitor General, the person who conducts all litigation on behalf of the United States.
Black's Law Dictionary reads that punitive damages are based upon the policy consideration of punishing the wrongdoer and setting an example for others. In other words punitive damages are attention getters.
Corporations cannot feel pain. They have no lawful purpose but to make money. So how to you get the attention of a corporation? Yes, you take away money. That will do it. How much do you take away? That depends on the amount of attention you want and how long you intend to keep that attention. It also depends on the assets of the corporation. A ,000,000 punitive damages award might seem large until you really stop to look at annual net profits.
You might think that .6 million is way too much money for any one jury to award to any one person for any one incident. 9 million, you might say, is even worse.
Ford posted a full year 2004 net income of .5 billion. Yes, billion with a "B". Yes, net. Check it out yourself at the Detroit News Autos Insider.
Subtract .6 million from .5 billion and see how much is left. Oh heck, subtract the full 9 million from .5 billion and you'll still have billions left. Yes, billion with a "B". Even after paying the punishment the jury determined was appropriate Ford would still be a wealthy corporation, having earned over billion. Benetta Buell-Wilson would still be paralyzed, but she would have had the satisfaction of having received full justice from a jury of her peers. She could have put this awful incident behind her.
I said incident on purpose because it was no accident. Vehicle roof crush has been a known problem since before the 1960s.
I said incident on purpose because it was no accident. Vehicle roof crush has been a known problem since before the 1960s. When someone dies because of roof crush it's not an unfortunate accident, it's the result of corporate greed. Anyone who has researched this subject must reach this conclusion. It's the only reasonable conclusion.
As I write this I'm thinking about this Sunday. This Sunday the 600 mile Nascar race at Lowe's Motor Speedway will be on TV. There will be crashes. Severe crashes at speeds of over 100 mph. Cars will likely roll over. Yet, the drivers will probably climb out of the wrecked vehicle and walk to the side of the track to gesture to another driver before walking into the ambulance for the ride to the infield care center. We've all seen it before. We'll see it again. The wrecked vehicle will still look remarkably like a car because the roof won't crush.
The honest, awful truth is that the Nascar vehicle's roofs don't crush because the manufacturer's of those cars value the Nascar drivers more than commercial car manufacturer's value you and me. Roof crush can be designed right out of existence. In fact, it has been in racing cars.
The manufacturer's will value our lives as much as the Nascar drivers, once enough juries are allowed to get the manufacturer's attention. Then, and only then, will roof crush be history. Until then it's a reality for far too many people.
General Motors' Deadly Cutbacks (GoLeft Tv)
Michael Carter talks with Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire about the deadly decisions that have been made by General Motors regarding your safety. Apparently to GM, your life isn't worth an extra a car.
Michael is representing victims who have been injured or killed by "roof crush" in rollover accidents.