Ding Dong the witch is dead...

Yeah for me! Jury duty is over!! :) (Can you tell I’m ecstatic?)

Now that the trial is over and technically a matter of public record…although I have no idea how to find the trial (I tried) I can now spill the beans!

So here’s the skippy:

This guy, Bob, was suing this company because he fell from a ladder. Simple enough, but the darn thing dragged out for a week and a half!!! One reason that the trial took so long is that the plaintiff’s attorney was annoying beyond all reason!! He was so completely random! He asked the same questions over and over… to the point where the judge was voicing the objection of “asked and answered”. Hell, I was getting ready to object!

Even the plantiff’s lawyer’s closing arguments were random. For example: “The Houston Astros want to close the dome on their stadium, and if we look at how Bob was treated by MTI construction... (HUH?). He also proceded to remind the jury that this was a real case and “nothing like Law and Order on tv”. (Get out! I thought you were Jerry Orbach!)

The case (based on the evidence presented) was pretty cut and dry. Bob was a laborer. He was on a ladder cutting support beams with a blow torch from a wall that was to be demolished later on the construction site where he was working. He was on the ladder. He reached out (having no spotter, the ladder not tied off) to the left to cut and was only having one hand on the ladder. I’m no safety expert, but this wasn’t the smartest thing to do, because poor Bob fell.

I have to make this very clear. I feel very sorry for Bob. The injuries sustained were awful. I can’t imagine falling approximately 22 feet from a ladder on to concrete. I’m happy to say he’s alive and doing well.

Here’s more to the story. MTI is the defendant. They were a general contractor. Bob worked for a sub contractor, Bestway. Bestway is Bob’s brother’s company. Bob claimed that he had no training and no ladder safety classes and MTI had an unsafe job site. With this claim we (the jury) felt that MTI, might have a small amount of blame for not correcting Bob. But not more than 50% blame. We felt that Bob should have sued his brother’s company and not MTI. We also felt that Bob had some blame. The magic number in the law is 50%. If one party is more than 50% at fault then they are liable. We felt that MTI was not close to 50% at fault.

How much was Bob suing for? 2.5 million. That’s insane! The lawyer tried to make it look like that was a low-ball number! The lawyer thought Bob should get 3.75 million!

While we feel sorry for Bob he isn’t going to get that money from MTI construction.

The next part of my story made all of us jurors laugh. Bob’s wife also had a claim. She was also suing MTI construction for the “Loss of Companionship and Loss of Sexual Contact” between her and her husband.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! She’s suing because she isn’t getting any?!?!

All of us on the jury panel laughed at that one! How can you sue for that? Give me a break. One juror speculated that the two were even divorced. No wedding rings. No affectionate contact. Nothing.

Can you imagine suing for lack of sexual contact? If we awarded that claim, what next? Suing because the sex is bad? Our courts are already backed up as it is! Can you picture going to court and suing someone because the sex was bad? There are so many questions!?! How do you prove they were bad? How do you prove you faked the orgasm? How much money should be awarded? If this is the case, I bet we all can think of a person or two who owes us money!

Well, that was my week. What do I have to show for it? A semi-entertaining blog, 7 checks for a whopping $17.20 each and a certificate generated by the county that is like a “get out of jury duty free” card for the next year.

Hooray for the legal system!