Stuff like this makes me really scared of our legal system

Poststructural Pub
1

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050205/od_nm/odd_cookies_dc_2

"DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts.

The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day.

Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday.

The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of their rural Colorado neighbors on July 31 and dropped off small batches on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message: “Have a great night.”

The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a dance where there might be cursing and drinking.

It reported that six neighbors wrote letters entered as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies.

But Young said she was frightened because the two had knocked on her door at about 10:30 p.m. and run off after leaving the cookies.

She went to a hospital emergency room the next day, fearing that she had suffered a heart attack, court records said.

The judge awarded Young her medical costs, but did not award punitive damages. He said he did not think the girls had acted maliciously but that 10:30 was fairly late at night for them to be out."

2

Wow that makes me so mad and can’t even explain it. :angry: :angry:

3

I heard this on the radio yesterday.

Sad, truly SAD.

4

:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

5

Cookies don’t kill people.
People who bake cookies kill people.

6

Well, doesn’t surprise me. No good deed goes unpunished, after all.

7

Perhaps the girls should counter sue… you know… for the stress and indignation of having their offering assumed to be evil, and for the duress caused by the realization that some of the world’s people are just not ever going to accept anyone’s good intentions, and would sue them for trying to do a good deed.

I tell ya… I thought the ‘depressing tune’ thread was a little deflating, but this is truely depressing.

8

Mmmm… cookies.

9

Had the Cookies been adorned with purple hearts I could understand it but this is just obscene.

Slan,
D.

10

wonder what this couple does when the Girl Scouts come around??? :astonished:

Missy

11

oh - and another thought -
I could see doing this over zucchini. We had neighborhood WARS over zucchini. When growing it, it becomes a game to see just how much you can dump off on your neighbors. When NOT growing it, it becomes yet another game of giving it BACK.

But cookies???

Missy

12

All’s well…donations have poured in to these girls (thousands of dollars) and the last sentence in this report says they’re not angry with the woman or the judge:

http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_2557196

Susan

13

Bless their generous spirits. I would hope I’d be a gracious, but I’m not even involved and it made me mad, LOL!

I’m glad to hear that they and their families are not angry. I hope the poor neighbor woman figures out how lucky she is to have such peop0le close by.

I can understand her fear, to an extent. I can even understand adking them to responsible about the time. 10:30 is awfully late for some people. But I don’t think it was the plate of cookies that sent her to the hospital… I think it is a host of other things that have her on edge so much that such an event would put her over the edge.

14

The article I read (which differed in minor aspects from the one posted here) stated the woman also saw shadows going past her window. Considering the late hour, no answer to her call, and shadows outside her window, I can understand her fear. Personally, however, I would have called the police first, and I don’t think it would have crossed my mind to sue anybody over it once I realized what had happened.

Long-winded personal anecdote: One late night my husband and I were startled by rocks hitting our roof. This went on for some time–at different locations on the roof. After looking around the yard and finding some of the rocks we still couldn’t tell who was throwing them or where they were coming from. It finally stopped, but it happened again very late the next night. This time we also heard someone trying our front door. My husband went out and looked around again but could find nothing. I can’t tell you what a terrifying feeling that was, knowing that someone was targeting you.

Early the next morning, my husband left for a golf game and within minutes the rocks were being thrown at the house again. Not wanting to be a target for anything, I literally crawled to the phone to call the police and stayed hunched against the wall, clutching my baby daughter, until the police arrived. They could find the rocks but nothing else.

The next rainy morning, after my husband had gone to work, I was just getting up when I heard someone running down the sidewalk at the side of my house. I quickly looked out the curtains at the back and couldn’t see anyone but could see wet footprints across the cement under the covered patio. I immediately called the police again. A neighbor across the street came out to say she’d just seen a young man run down the alley next to her house and the police went off to find him. They came back a few minutes later to report that they’d caught him: the gas company meter reader.

I can say without any hesitation that the meter reader nearly caused me to have a heart attack (they now wear identifying jackets in Salt Lake). We never did find out who was throwing the rocks. We assume it was kids and if I’d caught them I’d have made certain they got a good talking-to. But sue anybody over any of it? It would have never crossed my mind.

Susan

(My apologies: when I started telling that, I didn’t think it would be that long-winded.)

15

had to come out of my hiding for this, that was the damn stupidest judge-call i think i have ever heard. It’s plain so very very wrong!!! :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:
Idiots, stupid IDIOTS!!!

16

Call me overcautious, but I wouldn’t eat food left on my doorstep late at night by I know not who. Would you?

By the same token, I wouldn’t have an anxiety attack that required medical treatment either. Some people are paranoidly shy and it might have been sensible for the police to remind the girls of this … gently and sympathetically. But a court case and damages? :roll:

17

Well, I’m glad the girls are being taken care of. I figured lots of folks would pitch in and cover the cost.

I’m guessing Ms. Young won’t be too popular in the community for a while. Or in the entire nation, really.

18

This doesn’t strike me as nastiness so much as pathological shyness meets youthful high spirits. I think hostility would only make Ms. Young’s condition worse. Taking this to court is so weird I think you really need to ask whether this action is to be judged by ordinary standards. Personally, I can’t help but feel a bit sad for everyone involved.

19

Weird story.

But, really, there’s scarier stuff about our legal system.

20

What Amar said.

Too much blame is put on lawyers. They are not the problem. As this case and every frivolous lawsuit award testifies, it’s the judges who make idiot rulings that cause the problems.