If You Get Sick While Traveling, You Don't Get To Sue Yahoo, US Air Or Sabre
from the just-saying... dept
Yes, we live in quite the litigation-happy world, but sometimes you see the type of lawsuits that just blow you away. Unfortunately, I have no link on this one, but Eric Goldman sent over the details on a recently decided case that's too fantastic not to share. Apparently, a guy named Sol Jaffe (who appears to have a history of being on the losing end of pro se lawsuits) booked a round trip from Phoenix to London via Yahoo and Travelocity. While in London, Jaffe apparently caught a cold. He also received an email from Yahoo that suggested his return flight had been canceled. After calling Yahoo and US Air, he found out that was not the case. He flew from London to Philly, where he then found out that his reservation on the connecting flight back to Phoenix was, in fact, canceled -- but US Air let him board anyway, fixing the problem.The next day, Jaffe went to a doctor, who diagnosed him with a respiratory infection, a sinus infection and hypertension. Jaffee chose to blame and sue Yahoo, US Air and Sabre for the ailments -- saying they caused him so much stress that it turned the cold into those infections and hypertension (there's some confusion -- by pretty much everyone other than Jaffe -- why Sabre is included). Apparently, around the same time, he also (separately) sued Best Buy -- claiming that its failure to return a computer to him in a timely manner caused hypertension and cardiac problems... but that's a different case for a different time. A lower court quickly dismissed this case. Jaffe filed an amended lawsuit and eventually the court granted summary judgment to US Air and dismissed the complaints to Yahoo and Sabre -- and dismissed the whole lawsuit, with prejudice, and (eventually) told Jaffe to pay the attorneys' fees of the three companies.
Jaffe, apparently not seeing the legal writing on the wall, appealed (though, he screwed up the appeal quite a bit, as well). Defending himself, he tried to ask the court to take a more lenient view on him, since he wasn't a lawyer or a big corporation, though the court pretty quickly slapped that concept down, pointing out that you get equal treatment under the law, pro se or as a big corporate lawyer. The court then pointed out that Jaffe failed in the most basic part of his case: showing that the defendants' actions somehow caused his ailments. He did include letters from friends and doctors that he was sick, but never showed why that sickness came as a result of these actions. Furthermore, the court found it rather silly to think that the actions were in any way negligent:
He did not allege any facts that show there was an unreasonable risk of bodily harm. Moreover, without a factual predicate, it is unreasonable to claim that changing a flight reservation or requiring passengers to go to several different airline counters creates a risk of bodily harm, much less a high probability that substantial bodily harm will result.The court then goes on to walk through all of the other claims that Jaffe made, pointing out how he failed to substantiate any of them -- including, by the way, quoting Jaffe's claim that an offer made by US Air earlier in the case had "all the merit of a rotten fritter." Believe it or not, the court did not find that argument compelling. In the end, the appeals court concurred with the lower court, trashing every argument Jaffe made, and upholding the ruling that he owes the legal fees to the three companies he sued.
So... the next time you get sick on a flight, and part of the travel experience is just slightly less satisfactory than expected, you probably shouldn't try suing everyone. You may just end up having to pay those companies' attorneys' fees, which is probably quite a bit more unpleasant than a rotten fritter.
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Filed Under: frivolous, lawsuits, sol jaffe
Companies: sabre, travelocity, us air, yahoo
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Very Interesting
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What a moron!
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Sure seems that way.
I suppose there is a remote location somewhere .....
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Re:
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Whiners
Also, when has a big corp actually paid the court ordered legal fees of their victim(s)?
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Re: Whiners
Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805
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Re: Re: Whiners
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For example a lady filed a lawsuit in the Court where I work claiming to be Marie Antoinette. She filed a lawsuit against numerous large corporations, e.g., Mobile Oil, claiming she was owed trillions of dollars.
This woman was serious but seriously crazy. She filed similar lawsuits in our circuit numerous times. She honestly believes she's Marie Antoinette. During the hearing where the judge dismissed the case he spoke to her in French. Of course she could not speak French, and complained that she could not understand the judge's dialect.
And I should note that case was dismissed about a month after it was filed without any attorney fees being wasted from the Defendants. So you cannot claim that such lawsuits are always costly despite being dismissed.
We had another guy attempt sue the New York Yankees due to rain delayed game. That case was dismissed quickly.
I think you should concentrate on legitimate but still ridiculous lawsuits. There are enough of those that you shouldn't have to resort publicizing the cases brought by wackos.
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Fees
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Re: Fees
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Um, three seconds of research online shows that Sabre owns Travelocity, which you even stated he used when booking his trip. So they're just as responsible as Yahoo, right?
@pope ratzo: "First of all, the "world" is not litigation-happy. Large corporations have become so hostile to their customers that people feel as though they are fighting an on-going war against them. In fact, they are, but that's another story."
Maybe that's because of the idiots who refuse to take personal responsibility. Like, I don't know, not driving with hot coffee between your legs, or standing on the shelf on a step ladder. It must be the big corporations fault that people are getting stupider by the minute.
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I agree with you regarding personal responsibility. If you do something stupid and get hurt, it must be someone's fault, right? How about your own? When you fail to drive with headlights on and it is overcast, maybe you go smacked because the other driver could not see you.
Maybe you slipped and fell on your own sidewalk because you did not take the time to shovel it off.
If you sliced your hand with a knife, perhaps it is because you are uncoordinated.
If a piece of paper ends up on your windshield that someone else threw out of their car and you wreck, did you ever consider that it might have been a piece of paper that you threw out the window earlier in the day?
If people behaved ethically and morally, we would have far fewer laws than we currently have.
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...you forgot not testing medicine properly or lying about the results. Importing unsafe product from 3rd world slave labor pools, like tainted meat and caustic toys. Knowingly polluting drinking water supplies. Lying about the nutritional content of food. Producing popcorn that can ruin your lungs or peanut butter that kills people.
I can go onto other specific companies, like Enron, WalMart or Citigroup, but I'm assuming you just forgot about them...
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you generalize this system too much, there are legitimate lawsuits, like carcinogens in popcorn oil(workplace safety), deliberately lying about nutritional information, and extorting your employees out of benefits and well-being, they are real concerns that our system is designed to help bring truth and honesty out of those involved, but to say that hot coffee, and improper ladder use are as legitimate as those is insane, McDonalds woman would have probably sued if her coffee was too hot, or too cold(just happened to be hot). people that use hair dryers while sleeping/in the shower, and put stepladders on shelves are simply ignoring common sense.
no if you'll excuse me, im going to take a bath while i make some toast.
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The actual case notes why Sabre had nothing to do with this:
Just because Sabre has an ownership interest in Travelocity does not make them liable for Travelocity actions.
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"the whole world"
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Re: "the whole world"
Really? These are just a few found @ TD in the past ~week
Italian -http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090131/film_nm/us_button
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Privacy-Exec-Facing-Criminal-Charges/?kc=rss
French - http://www.out-law.com/page-9758
EU - http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=9764
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Re: Re: "the whole world"
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except the lawyers
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Clearly Jaffe needs a holiday.
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I Wish it were possible
I agree that this guy is just out looking for a big payoff, but I would like to see the airlines forced to put better air purifiers on the planes.
I used to fly 2 maybe 3 times a year, and by the time I was back home I would almost always have some form of cold or sinus problems.
Now that I fly 1-2 times a month and have built up an immunity to most of the common stuff it's rare that I get sick anymore.
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Re: I Wish it were possible
Now that I fly 1-2 times a month and have built up an immunity to most of the common stuff it's rare that I get sick anymore.
There were some studies done on this recently, and it showed that the problem is actually not the air quality, but the lack of humidity. That makes any germs more likely to stick -- and it's not an easy problem to deal with. Effectively, there's no easy to way to inject humidity into the air without causing significant other problems.
So if you want to avoid getting sick, just bring along a saline nasal spray for yourself. It adds humidity within your own system, and flushes out the germs before they can do much damage.
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