Farmer's Market Massacre Suits Filed - the Smell of Money
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It was only a matter of time:
Today, three days before the one-year statute of limitations ends, families of victims in last July 16th's Santa Monica Farmer's Market massacre have sued 88-year-old motorist George Russell Weller and - predictably - the City of Santa Monica.
The 11 suits also target a grab-bag of the potentially liable - the organizations that operate, oversee and sanction the popular Wednesday/Saturday market, which, we should note, was back in operation not too long after Weller's fatal detour through it killed 10 people and injured 63 more ...
Says this AP item published not long ago:
Other defendants in the new suits include Bayside District Corp., which oversees the market, Southland Farmers Market Association, Los Angeles County's agricultural commissioner and the state of California. Another suit will be filed later this week on behalf of the family of a third person who died.
"The case intends to hold the city of Santa Monica responsible and accountable," said Brian Panish, a lawyer representing victims and their families. "They knew safety devices were inadequate, and they chose not to make the environment safe for patrons."
Deputy City Attorney Jeanette Schachtner declined to comment because she hadn't seen the suit but contended the city had no liability.
"What happened a year ago was an aberration, and the city could not have reasonably foreseen or prevented the accident," Schachtner said.
I can't put myself in those families' shoes. I know I would have wanted God's holy vengeance on the driver, since there's no point in suing a long-time retiree with shallow pockets who's already facing criminal penalties that would wipe out any potential earning power.
But suing the city and the market operators? What - to punish them for somebody's horrifically bad driving? For failing to anticipate that one freak accident could occur among the hundreds of thousands of harmless car trips past the market every year? To make yourself feel better about your loss?
Sorry - money doesn't bring back the dead. Nor does any amount of damages - extracted from organizations that weren't even at the wheel - accomplish much more than enriching trial attorneys, clogging up the courts and extending the agony of the bereaved.
I've covered enough civil damage trials to know this: In the end, after endless months of preparations, excrutiating testimony and deliberations that stretch mourning into rage and long-term suffering for the survivors - nobody really wins but the lawyers.
Anyone care to sue the DMV examiner? Now *there's* a tort case.
Posted by: mack_reed on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 11:28 PM
