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Re: T&R Electric - No More...



Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

This whole subject reeks of the ills of modern society and the rule of
claims lawyers.  My personal belief is that if I do something dumb it's
strictly my fault and I should bear all of the consequences.  For
instance, if I buy a pole pig and fry myself, that's too bad but still
can't place any blame on the guy who sold it to me.  Reminds me of the
people who are sueing (sp?) the firearms manufacturers because someone
with a stolen gun shoots somebody.  Or sueing a toy manufacturer because
the toy he sold had parts which a kid could pull off and swallow while
his parents watched TV and drank beer or something like that.

	Similar problems have almost destroyed the light plane market; a couple
of years ago the average cost to a manufacturer for the liability
insurance associated with any new plane was around $75k, which the
buyers must pay.  A friend of mine came into some money, bought a twin
which he wasn't really qualified to fly, and then took a whole load of
people up and flew into a cloud with a big rock (Mt. Whitney no less) in
it.  The families of everyone on board immediately sued Beachcraft, the
FBO who maintained the plane, the guy who ran the gas truck which came
around and refueled it, etc.  In at least some of these suits the
lawyers found a jury dumb enough to give a big award.

	Bottom line is that this is the sort of stuff we have to contend with
in almost any hobby we pursue and we can only expect things to get
worse.  The best we can do is be as careful as we can and assume the
responsibilities for our own stupidity, not try to find someone else to
blame and pay.

Ed

P.S. I still have a newspaper clipping which has a story about the
Chicago City Council trying to find out who to sue over an extreme hot
spell!