Thursday, November 15, 2012

Another stupid lawsuit coming down

Two years ago to the day, Delvonte Tisdale dropped into a Boston suburban neighborhood...literally. The sixteen year old teen, a runaway, had apparently hid inside the wheel well of a Baltimore-bound jet prior to it's take-off from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In retrospect, that probably wasn't a very good idea. Either due to the cold temperatures and lack of oxygen at 30,000 feet or the crushing action of the landing gear as it folded up into the well, young Delvonte failed to survive this trip and fell from the aircraft as it lowered it's gear prior to landing in Boston, dropping several thousand feet and landing on a street below. Darwin shoots, Darwin scores.

Well now Delvonte's father has decided that he should be rich. He's filed a lawsuit naming the airport, the airline (United Airways) and the city of Charlotte itself, arguing that they all owed him a duty to keep his son out of that aircraft's wheel well.

Sorry, no sympathy here. The cost of being stupid can be prohibitively high sometimes, but that doesn't mean that those left behind by the fatally stupid are supposed to get paid enough cash to live a life of luxury forevermore. In a fair and just world, this kid's father would be paying to clean the street and apologizing to the airline for any inconvenience caused by his failure to keep control of his own kid in the first place. I mean, if you're going to blame an airport for the kid's presence on an aircraft, how about putting the blame on the parent who let the kid out of his sight in the first place?

11 comments:

  1. You can not seriously expect the parents to be responsible for their children.

    Of course, occationally a not so good kid can develop even under the best parenting, but since this one is suing I am gonna go with the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

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  2. I'm with you on this one. Stupidity is often its own reward, and there are natural consequences for our actions.

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  3. That would make too much sense... sigh

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  4. Should have been in MAD magazine.

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  5. Gasp...personal responsibility?? On the part of a PARENT????

    My guess is this guy voted for 0bummer.

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  6. Anonymous8:36 PM

    Over eat Twinkies,Ho Ho's and Ding dongs it it Hostess fault.over eat at Mickey D's it is Mickey D's fault.
    No one is responsible for their own actions.

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  7. While I agree Tisdale should get nothing one must pause to see the implications.

    Stupid kid sneeks into wheel well in a guared airport. So how may terrorist could have done the same thing, except just left a bit of boom-boom.

    Darwin may have been right about the kid, but he may also be right about us to.

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  8. So how may terrorist could have done the same thing, except just left a bit of boom-boom.


    Good point.

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  9. I agree that the airport's got some tightening up to do, and maybe even a sanction is in order for the lapse, but that doesn't mean that the breacher's dad has a nickle coming.

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  10. I missed this little bit of litigiousness somehow.

    E. Gad.

    Of course, Mr. Championship Parent's suit could spawn any number of related actions, i.e., the PTSD class action filed by all those schoolchildren who witnessed young Delvonte's maiden flight and unsuccessful landing; the airline's counterclaim for cleaning and disinfecting of its wheelwell; Boston's suit against dear old dad for the loss of tourist revenue resulting from the travelling public's fear of falling bodies You get the idea.

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