Funny Old World
The latest edition of Private Eye contains a tragic story about the crazy compensation culture which is rife in America - and perhaps in other countries as well.
FUNNY OLD WORLD
COMPILED BY VICTOR LEWIS-SMITH
"This is a tragically bizarre case," ruled the State Appeals Court in Chicago, "and case law involving flying bodies is sparse. Nevertheless the facts are clear."
"In 2008 , eighteen-year-old Hiroyuki Joho was hurrying in puring rain across the tracks, with an umbrella over his head, to catch an inbound train at Edgebrook. Metra station Chicago, when he was struck by a southbound Amtrak train travelling at 70mph."
"A large portion of his body was thrown onto the southbound station platform, where it struck Gayane Zokhrabov, then aged 58, who was waiting to catch the 8.17 to work. She was knocked to the ground by Joho's corpse, her leg and wrist were broken, and she sued Joho's estate for allowing his body to injure her."
"After the appeals court ruled in favour of Ms Zokhrabov, her lawyer Leslie Rosen told reporters that 'while the circumstances of this case are gory and creepy, it should be treated like a regular negligence case. If you do something as stuipd as this guy did, you have to be responsible for it, even if you're dead'."
"Meanwhile, Joho's mother, Jeung-Hee Park, has filed her own lawsuit against Metra and the Canadian Pacific railway, alleging that "both were negligent, because Joho had no warning that what he thought was a slow moving Metra train was actually an express train." (Chicago Tribune, 29/12/11. Spotter Alice Furse).
