Anyone suing over anything dept.: a Florissant, Mo. man proceeding pro se (without a lawyer) “is suing Apple because he says two of the company’s iPods contained illegal receivers that allowed the Mafia to send him threatening messages, according to court documents obtained by CNET. … The alleged motive for the threats was that the Mafia wanted McKenna to work as a fashion model for them at a New York modeling agency.” The suit also names the St. Louis County police department and other defendants. [CNet, The Petition Site, AppleInsider, Gizmodo]
8 Comments
The problem is not with the untreated schizophenics, poor deluded souls who are always with us.
The problem is with disgraceful incompetent judges who are so ignorant of the law that they allow these fundamentally defective cases to see the light of day.
What’s the point of this? Are we supposed to chortle because someone’s mentally ill? He hears voices through his iPod and wants someone to stop it, so let’s all sit around and have a good guffaw at his expense?
If this case goes anywhere – which, of course, it won’t – there might be something newsworthy here. Since it won’t, making note of it just reveals a certain mean spirited attitude.
Let’s all chip in and get the man an aluminum hat.
The point of this is that this lawsuit will cost money, shifting resources from a productive part of society to a non-productive.
Not much money. This suit gets dismissed muy pronto, and we all know that.
If you know a fair way to screen out meritless lawsuits before they are filed, speak up, because the world is waiting to hear about it. Otherwise, so long as the doors to the courthouse are open for filings, suits like this are only newsworthy if 1) it goes somewhere, or 2) it’s filed by someone who ought to know better. Unless, of course, you get your jollies poking fun at those with incurable, serious illnesses.
I think iPods cause pancreatic cancer! He should argue that one instead.
R Campbell
The judge should have tossed this one before the defendants spent one thin dime responding to it.
This won’t stop it from being filed, but it will stop the innocent victims (in this case Apple et al) from having to bear the expense of this sadly deluded persons suit.
Look at the Complaint. The man is “pro se” i.e. self represented. Yet, the “tort reformers” will use this in their endless, misleading argument that “trial lawyer greed” is responsible for all ills, tooth decay and hair loss. There are lots of drunk drivers who cost real money to innocent people when the kill people in their cars –yet the “tort reformers” aren’t calling for a repeal of driving.
The “tort reformers” have become what they ridicule: a group that points to every rare aberration as a reason to impose a draconian, socially unproductive rule. Having access to Courts for regular (sane) people performs an invaluable function in our society.
It’s beyond dumb to equate a pro se filing by a lunatic a “Big Social Problem” that’s supposed to justify closing the doors to the Courthouse for everyone else.