Husband of Woman Killed by Falling Bottled Water Sues Nestle - Another Frivolous Lawsuit in America
And Americans Wonder Why Everything in the US is Getting More Expensive - Frivolous Lawsuits
First of all, let's clarify. Nobody, myself included, is saying the death of 32-year old Lori Keen, who worked at a Franklin, Indiana Kroger store wasn't sad. It was. Particularly for the husband and daughter she left behind. According to witnesses, and to a security camera that taped the incident, Lori Keen's death occurred after a pallet of water fell on her while she was checking in a shipment of water. Keen had worked at the Kroger store for more than 13 years and was well known and well liked by employees and customers alike.
However, the fact that a pallet containing bottles of water fell on Lori Keen is no more Nestle's fault than it's mine. From everything that has been reported, the fault likely lay in the Kroger store, which has been known in the past to stack things dangerously and incorrectly. In fact, that particular Kroger store has been fined by OSHA in the past, for violations ranging from incorrect stacking of products to products being moved around the store dangerously.
In the death of Lori Keen, OSHA again fined the Franklin, Indiana Kroger store, this time for $17,000, after it ruled Keen's death was due to stacking, arrangement and movement of the pallets of water bottles.
Keen's husband however, says the bottles, which are lighter due to their lower plastic content, were to blame for his wife's death, so he's suing Nestle. Why? Because he can't get money out of Kroger, so he's going to go after Nestle.
Under Worker's Comp laws, Lori Keen's husband would have to prove gross negligence on Kroger's part to be awarded a large sum of money. As this is almost impossible in many cases, the maximum amount Keen's husband would be awarded would be the actual cost of the accident plus a few thousand dollars.
Nestle, however, is a multi-billion dollar international company and is therefore a prime target for a frivolous lawsuit like this. So, why not blame Nestle, who had nothing to do with this accident, as he might be able to get a few million out of them.
Now, if you're a consumer who thinks "somebody should pay" for Lori Keen's accident, think about this. If Lori Keen's husband wins this lawsuit, and dumber things have happened, YOU will pay. For every Nestle product you buy, the price will increase - to pay for the multi-million dollar insurance a large company like Nestle needs to buy to protect itself from frivolous lawsuits filed by people like Lori Keen's husband. And that.....is what's wrong with America. A bloated court system, greedy lawyers, and people who think they can make some quick money out of a bad situation.
The bottom line is this. Accidents happen every day and, when someone like Lori Keen gets killed, it's extremely sad. But to then put that blame onto someone else, a someone or an entity that had nothing to do with the tragedy, is immoral and wrong. Plain and simple. Wrong.
Sources:
Bottled water company sued in Indiana worker's death - Yahoo! Finance
Worker dies after being injured at Central Indiana grocery store - 13WTHR
Published by Cassandra James
I'm a British-American writer currently living in Bangkok, Thailand. I've been writing for Associated Content since 2007 and was named one of AC's Top 100 Writers for 2008, 2009 and 2010. I primarily write a... View profile
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- Suing Nestle for it's 'bottle design' is just wrong. Plain and simple.
12 Comments
Post a Commentcontinued from incomplete post: (where) the safety of personnel is concerned. Safety is teamwork, not just the responsibility of one person or company. The question in such cases often is: If the defendant had properly performed all of its responsibilities, would this accident have been prevented?
To say that the manufacturer has no liability is not necessarily correct. A manufacturer of a product has a reponsibilty to determine how its products are normally used, including the warehousing of the product. For example, if it has been accepted practice to double-stack pallets of bottled water (whether that was a good idea or not), and a manufacturer was going to produce a new line of bottles that was structurally weaker, it would be prudent for the manufacturer to develop guidelines for safe storage of their product, and communicate that information reliably to anyone receiving that product. The burden of safe product use on a manufacturer is very high, as it should be. The warehouser must also have clear policies about material stacking, and train its employees in the correct practices. I am a contractor involved in industrial safety (material handling, heavy lifting, and rigging) and I know that safe work practice means no one makes choices based on simple assumptions where
And this kind of thing is killing America. Millions of Americans unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions. I noticed this when we moved to the US, but it's become an epidemic in recent years. Kroger was responsible and Kroger should give Keen's husband a decent payout. Will they? Of course not, they're saying they're not responsible.
Jon, good points but your are incorrect in your assumption that, if it was frivolous a judge would have dismissed it, it's not true and that's what's killing America's legal system. The McDonald's case where the woman put a cup of steaming coffee between her legs WAS accepted AND a jury awarded her millions. Purely frivolous. I'm sure Keen's husband will get millions to. Regardless that Nestle had nothing to do with this - IT WAS AN INCORRECT STACKING PROBLEM CAUSED BY KROGER. Don't know why that's so difficult for some people to understand. With your reasoning, any company could incorrectly stack a product and then blame the company that made the product when it fell and killed someone. Ludicrous.
Why are you so judgmental of this man? Why not write about the workers' compensation laws of America (which were written by corporations and the insurance industry) that allow the situation to exist? A corporation like the mine in Kentucky can essentially murder employees with a slap on the wrist fine. Until the recent court cases striking down the law, a TV station that didn't censor the "F-word" faced a greater fine than a company that through deliberate negligence killed an employee. Since the company doesn't have to do a damn thing, somebody along the line will have to take responsibility.
Your point, though, is that Nestle is a third party. Yet, they did design the bottle and they knew it would be stacked. It's for a jury to decide. As I said, in the United States, tort law IS the regulatory system, and tort reform is an attack on the only meaningful vehicle of reform there is. With Republican-Lite President Barack Obama in the Oval Office until Jan. 20, 2013 (to be followed by the REAL thing), this state of affairs will continue.
Corporations and companies that cause someone's death face a federal fine of $50,000. OSHA has been gutted and destroyed by the first George Bush, Bill Clinton (the Democrat-manque who was the first President since Cleveland to have never filed a meaningful anti-trust suit in his administration and who legitimated the speculation that brought the world to its knees economically by signing off on financial services regulation), and the 2nd George Bush.
In the United States, the lack of any meaningful regulation at all means that tort law is the only means of regulating the behavior of corporations. This lawsuit is not frivolous -- if it was, #1 a reputable attorney wouldn't have taken it as the court would have dismissed it on summary judgment; and #2 the court would have dismissed it on summary judgment. Did the court dismiss it on summary judgment?
And frivolous means 'lack of seriousness or sense', among other things. This is a husband out for vengeance with a lawsuit that makes NO sense as his wife didn't died because of something Nestle did.
It is a frivolous lawsuit if the company being sued had no involvement in the death.