WOW

[xlence]

And just when I thought I had seen it all

 

Convicted last year of intoxication manslaughter for the death of her boyfriend, the 21-year-old daughter of a state district judge is suing the truck driver she ran into during a drunken driving crash.

 

Elizabeth Shelton, the daughter of juvenile judge Pat Shelton, is accusing truck driver Lance Bennett of negligence in the Oct. 23, 2007, wreck that killed her boyfriend Matthew McNiece.

 

Shelton had a blood alcohol concentration more than three times the legal limit, two tests showed. She was sentenced to eight years' probation and had to serve four months in jail.

 

Shelton, her family and the family of the boyfriend who was killed are suing for $20,000 for the destruction of the Lexus SUV she was driving and an undetermined amount for mental anguish, pain and suffering.

 

Bennett was driving the box truck that Shelton rear-ended on the Southwest Freeway near Kirby around 2 a.m.

 

Bennett's attorney, John Havins, said the lawsuit, filed in October, was the last chance to make a claim before the statute of limitations ran out.

 

He noted that Shelton named 16 defendants, including insurance companies and banks. "They're just throwing everything against the wall to see if anything sticks," Havins said.

 

During Shelton's trial, an expert for the defense testified there was evidence that Bennett swerved into Shelton's lane. An expert for the prosecution, however, said there wasn't evidence that Bennett got in her way.

 

Testimony also showed that the company Bennett was working for let the insurance on the truck lapse.

 

"The injuries and property damage sustained by (Shelton and her family) were not the result of intentional acts, but were accidental and caused by the negligence of the uninsured/underinsured driver," Shelton's attorney Mark Sandoval wrote in the lawsuit.

 

brian.rogers@chron.com

[skylive5]

LOL Reminds me of a nephew of mine and his experience with something like that.

 

He was in high school and worked at night for a large grocery store. His car was parked in the parking lot out front and some lady ran into it. Did some pretty good damage to both cars. She got an attorney and took it to trial and won a judgement against him. Her defense..... if he hadn't been parked there she wouldn't have hit him. Gotta make you scratch your head sometimes...

 

It's a shame...but this broad will probably win.

[Riffraff]

Sometimes a good offense is better than a good defense.

[Ursa Majoris]

Here's another one:

 

LOS ANGELES – Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, the state's high court on Thursday said a would-be Good Samaritan accused of rendering her friend paraplegic by pulling her from a wrecked car "like a rag doll" can be sued.

 

California's Supreme Court ruled that the state's Good Samaritan law only protects people from liability if the are administering emergency medical care, and that Lisa Torti's attempted rescue of her friend didn't qualify.

 

Justice Carlos Moreno wrote for a unanimous court that a person is not obligated to come to someone's aid.

 

"If, however, a person elects to come to someone's aid, he or she has a duty to exercise due care," he wrote.

 

Torti had argued that she should still be protected from a lawsuit because she was giving "medical care" when she pulled her friend from a car wreck.

 

Alexandra Van Horn was in the front passenger seat of a car that slammed into a light pole at 45 mph on Nov. 1, 2004, according to her negligence lawsuit.

 

Torti was a passenger in a car that was following behind the vehicle and stopped after the crash. Torti said when she came across the wreck she feared the car was going to explode and pulled Van Horn out. Van Horn testified that Torti pulled her out of the wreckage "like a rag doll." Van Horn blamed her friend for her paralysis.

 

Whether Torti is ultimately liable is still to be determined, but Van Horn's lawsuit can go forward, the Supreme Court ruled.

 

Beverly Hills lawyer Robert Hutchinson, who represented Van Horn, said he's pleased with the ruling.

 

Torti's attorney, Ronald Kent, of Los Angeles didn't immediately return a telephone call.

 

What a fine state California is.

[H8tank]

Read this one: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=207127

[Clubfoothead]

Read this one: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=207127

 

Who would have thought a boat was a bad investment tool for college tuition.

[TimC]

And yet another one:

 

Driving in the city today in the snow storm. I'm going about 15 MPH on the West Side Highway (Posted limit is 50 or 55) and have to switch lanes. There's a car in my lane stopped waiting to make a left. I have about 10 car lengths to him. I signal, I check the lane I'm moving into, I turn the wheel. . .

 

My car continues to go straight ahead. The road is iced over. Like a slow motion shot in a film, I'm tapping the brakes, turning the wheel, yelling "noooooo!!" (you know, that movie yelling where it drops 2 octaves when in slo-mo). I hit the guy in my lane. His car: not a scratch. Like new. My car: damage to the hood, the front quarter panel, the fender, the light.

 

Long story short: My insurance is putting me at fault. I don't believe I was at fault, as I was driving with extreme caution (did I mention I was going 15 in a 50 and had a full city block to react?). I've already threatened to switch insurance companies. Is there anything else I can do to appeal them putting me at fault for this?

[Furd]

Here's another one:

 

 

 

What a fine state California is.

 

 

I willing to bet that there is no state in the union that requires a person to come to the aid of another absent some type of "special relationship" as defined by state law (like maybe teacher-student)