Sunday, September 09, 2007

and this was a good idea... how?

Because sometimes you throw yourself under the bus...

"In Sindle v New York City Transit Authority, the defendant operated a school bus carrying between 65 and 70 junior high school students, including the plaintiff. Some of the other students became rowdy, committed acts of vandalism, and remained abusive even when warned by the driver. The driver abandoned his ordinary route, passed several stops, and drove to the police station. On the way, the plaintiff, who had not behaved improperly, jumped out of the side window, only to be run over by bus's back wheels." (taken from my Torts textbook)

Needless to say, the plaintiff sued... for false imprisonment. And won! This was reversed on appeal.

Moral of the story: if you must throw yourself under the bus, try to avoid the wheels!

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:08 AM

    Could this be the precedent case for children bound in school by compulsory education laws to sue on the basis of false imprisonment?

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  2. Well, considering that ultimately the plaintiff lost... the answer would be no if the cases were related (which they aren't).

    Be glad though that you don't get what you wish for... because under that formulation, parents who choose to school their child at home could be sued under false imprisonment.

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  3. Anonymous2:19 PM

    The issue is compulsion by the state.

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  4. actually, only compuslion was at issue.

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  5. Anonymous6:30 PM

    Compulsory education laws say children have to be in school.

    Children are born into families, thus there is no compulsion at issue.

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  6. seems to be the ultimate form of coercion and compulsion. That you find it legitimate is of course valid... but this is hardly a substantive base for good law.

    (ah.. look... I now spell compulsion properly)

    At any rate, compulsion is not the same thing as false imprisonment, though it certainly is an element of the latter.

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  7. Anonymous9:14 PM

    you are engaged in extensive lawyer speak. scary!!!

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  8. Yeah. My mom always wanted a lawyer in the family.

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  9. so she IS going to adopt me. brilliant!!!!

    does this mean I'm spoiled and rotten's auntie?

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