If he wanted to avoid emotional trauma, maybe he chose the wrong line of work? From Glasgow, Scotland: “A former policeman who sued a widower because he experienced the trauma of seeing the man’s wife die in a crash with his speeding patrol car has won ?87,275 damages. George Gilfillan was awarded the money even though a judge ruled that he was driving ‘much too fast’ and said that he was 50 per cent to blame.” The court also awarded the widower ?16,000 in a counterclaim. (Tom Peterkin, Daily Telegraph, Aug. 13).
Posts Tagged ‘personal responsibility’
UK: “Ex-Pc wins ?87,000 for trauma”
If he wanted to avoid emotional trauma, maybe he chose the wrong line of work? From Glasgow, Scotland: “A former policeman who sued a widower because he experienced the trauma of seeing the man’s wife die in a crash with his speeding patrol car has won ?87,275 damages. George Gilfillan was awarded the money even though a judge ruled that he was driving ‘much too fast’ and said that he was 50 per cent to blame.” The court also awarded the widower ?16,000 in a counterclaim. (Tom Peterkin, Daily Telegraph, Aug. 13).
UK: “Ex-Pc wins ?87,000 for trauma”
If he wanted to avoid emotional trauma, maybe he chose the wrong line of work? From Glasgow, Scotland: “A former policeman who sued a widower because he experienced the trauma of seeing the man’s wife die in a crash with his speeding patrol car has won ?87,275 damages. George Gilfillan was awarded the money even though a judge ruled that he was driving ‘much too fast’ and said that he was 50 per cent to blame.” The court also awarded the widower ?16,000 in a counterclaim. (Tom Peterkin, Daily Telegraph, Aug. 13).
UK: “Ex-Pc wins ?87,000 for trauma”
If he wanted to avoid emotional trauma, maybe he chose the wrong line of work? From Glasgow, Scotland: “A former policeman who sued a widower because he experienced the trauma of seeing the man’s wife die in a crash with his speeding patrol car has won ?87,275 damages. George Gilfillan was awarded the money even though a judge ruled that he was driving ‘much too fast’ and said that he was 50 per cent to blame.” The court also awarded the widower ?16,000 in a counterclaim. (Tom Peterkin, Daily Telegraph, Aug. 13).
UK: “Ex-Pc wins ?87,000 for trauma”
If he wanted to avoid emotional trauma, maybe he chose the wrong line of work? From Glasgow, Scotland: “A former policeman who sued a widower because he experienced the trauma of seeing the man’s wife die in a crash with his speeding patrol car has won ?87,275 damages. George Gilfillan was awarded the money even though a judge ruled that he was driving ‘much too fast’ and said that he was 50 per cent to blame.” The court also awarded the widower ?16,000 in a counterclaim. (Tom Peterkin, Daily Telegraph, Aug. 13).
UK: “Ex-Pc wins ?87,000 for trauma”
If he wanted to avoid emotional trauma, maybe he chose the wrong line of work? From Glasgow, Scotland: “A former policeman who sued a widower because he experienced the trauma of seeing the man’s wife die in a crash with his speeding patrol car has won ?87,275 damages. George Gilfillan was awarded the money even though a judge ruled that he was driving ‘much too fast’ and said that he was 50 per cent to blame.” The court also awarded the widower ?16,000 in a counterclaim. (Tom Peterkin, Daily Telegraph, Aug. 13).
UK: “Ex-Pc wins ?87,000 for trauma”
If he wanted to avoid emotional trauma, maybe he chose the wrong line of work? From Glasgow, Scotland: “A former policeman who sued a widower because he experienced the trauma of seeing the man’s wife die in a crash with his speeding patrol car has won ?87,275 damages. George Gilfillan was awarded the money even though a judge ruled that he was driving ‘much too fast’ and said that he was 50 per cent to blame.” The court also awarded the widower ?16,000 in a counterclaim. (Tom Peterkin, Daily Telegraph, Aug. 13).
Appeals court nixes $10m for drunken pier roll-off
Those mean old appeals judges: now they’ve gone and reversed a Texas jury’s $10.5 million award against the city of Galveston and the lessee of its Flagship Pier on behalf of the survivors of a couple whose car, rolling backwards, broke through railings and plunged into the water one night in 1996. The court ruled that the defendants, by failing to erect a stronger guardrail, had not injured the couple willingly, wantonly or through gross negligence as specified under state law dealing with recreation facilities. “Medical evidence presented at the trial showed that [Kenneth Wayne] Garza, who had been convicted on numerous occasions for drunken driving, and [passenger Dorey] Fabian were legally drunk, but the jury found Garza only 10 percent accountable for the accident.” (Carter Thompson, “Flagship accident verdict reversed”, Galveston County Daily News, Aug. 26).
Australia: “$300,000 payout for psychotic killer”
Updating our report of Oct. 16-17: “A man acquitted of murder because he was psychotic has won a $300,000 payout after suing a hospital for negligently releasing him into the community.” (Louise Milligan, The Australian, Aug. 20). Supreme Court Justice Michael Adams “found Hunter Area Health Service and a psychiatric registrar had breached their duty of care by failing to detain [Kevin Presland] in Newcastle’s James Fletcher psychiatric hospital.” After Presland’s release he brutally murdered his prospective sister-in-law, Kelley-Anne Laws. Justice Adams “noted that while it was generally unacceptable for someone to recover damages where they had committed a crime, in this case ‘he was insane at the time of the killing and innocent of any crime'”. The murder victim’s mother “was devastated at yesterday’s judgement. ‘Don’t give it to him,’ said Christine Laws. ‘Put it back into the mental health system to help people … It was his choice to take marijuana, his choice to drink — nobody else’s. No one made him do it, yet the system sees fit to pay him. I can’t understand the law.'” (Leonie Lamont and Miguel Holland, “Judge awards woman’s insane killer $300,000”, Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 20).
U.K.: safety signs, second ropes for rock climbers?
Sounds like an April Fool’s joke, but it’s the wrong time of year dept.: “Because of a bizarre decision by the Health and Safety Executive — that a European Union directive designed to promote safety on building sites must be applied to rock climbers — British mountaineers will have to endanger their lives by fixing two separate ropes up rock faces instead of one. It will also be necessary to fix safety notices on mountains to warn climbers when they are approaching icy or snow-covered surfaces.” The move is said to have dismayed Britain’s leading climbing and mountaineering organizations. (Christopher Booker, “Notebook: HSE has no head for heights”, Daily Telegraph (UK), Aug. 17)(and see Jul. 23, Jun. 30).