“Think for a moment about who you reasonably believe to be at fault for the accident. Now, here is who actually was forced to accept liability:
- The dealer who sold them the car
- The shop that installed their tires
- Goodyear tire company
“All you can say is, huh? When looking at modern tort outcomes, a much better predictor of legally assigned liability than trying to decide who was truly at fault is to look at the net worth of everyone who had any relation to the victims, and assuming those with the highest net worth will end up being held ‘liable.’”
According to Overlawyered, “The car seller settled for about half a million dollars; a Copiah County jury found the other defendants liable for an additional $2.1 million. Goodyear appealed, complaining about various prejudicial statements made by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, such as introducing evidence from other lawsuits about other types of tires, but the Mississippi state appellate court affirmed.”
Somehow, one images that, say, five years from now the plaintiffs will have long since blown through whatever money they received as their part of the settlement (after deducting for attorney’s fees, of course), while the lawyers involved will have long since moved on to other similarly outlandish cases and will be continuing to line their pockets while making a mockery of common sense and responsibility.
(Hat tip: The Coyote Blog)
