Posted on 04/14/2017 3:11:24 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
As I wrote earlier, we do not know the extenuating circumstances as to why four UAL employees appear to have arrived at the gate perhaps after all the passengers had been boarded.
“He should pay United for causing the mess.”
You still here mulligan beating that drum? Dao will be able to retire nicely on $25 million or so.
I haven't tracked this in any detail, but even right here on FreeRepublic it seems that the posters who are most hostile to Dr. Dao all seem to be frequent fliers. I'm sure there's a good reason for it.
My bet is a minimum of $10mm. I heard that before boarding, when they were offering $800, someone said, “I’ll give you my seat for $1600.” Everyone laughed. Those seats selling at less than $6000 should have looked good to United versus this hot mess!
Law enforcement has routinely prosecuted people for the outcomes of a chain of events...like if you steal an ambulance and then someone dies because that ambulance wasn’t available you get charged with manslaughter or something.
That means that United is at least in part responsible for the actions of the Chicago cops because United initiated the chain of events and they did so wrongfully.
Like if I call a SWAT team to your house under false pretenses then I’m responsible for their actions.
Same thing.
The reason you are wrong about this is that United is guilty of breaching the law. Its not just optics. United cannot afford to let this play out in court. My guess is they offer $3-$5 million. Its a cheap way out.
A lot of money. He deserves it. Half of it should come from the airport “cops” who beat him to a pulp. And they need to be in jail.
“this was the legal dilemma United faced with the four crew members destined for Louisville.”
Whenever I have a legal dilemma I grab the nearest Vietnamese guy, shove $800.00 in his face and say “solve my problem or I’ll beat you up.”
Works like a charm.
Lawyers get 1/3 to 40%.
Insurance company will provide some of the legal defense costs.
United and insurance company will want it to go away sooner rather than later, and for it to be out of the daily news cycle.
United might be self-insured for small claims, then a layer of insurance by insurance company/companies, etc.
Most likely the amount of settlement will not be disclosed, by agreement.
But I’m sure you can see that this stopped being about the legal rights of passenger vs. airline policy the instant the video first hit social media. This is the world we live in today where everyone has a camera and the internet. Expensive equipment and a satellite truck are no longer needed, virtually anyone can be an instant national news reporter with what they carry in their pocket or purse.
So United will only argue the legalisms at the peril of it’s own stock price and market value. This has become one of the biggest PR nightmares of the last decade at least, on par with the time the auto industry execs flew private jets to DC to beg for bailouts, or the Bridgestone tire fiascon.
In every case it matters as much how quickly the company responds as what they say, and United punted on both. It’s kinda hard to imagine them handling this any worse, and it’s going to cost them big-league money. Better sooner than later.
According to United’s own Terms of Service, Dao had a legal right to that seat, and United had no legal basis to eject him. Munoz has admitted as much.
Dao didn’t “fight” with anyone. The three security persons who injured him were the sole aggressors.
Whatever he gets it’s going to be a s-load and I wish it happened to me.
You mean the 3 Chicago Dept of Aviation security officers whose actions were repudiated by the agency itself and who are now all on leave? Good luck with that!
“Agree, $5M minimum.”
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Yeah, I’m thinkin’ in the 5 to 10 mill $ range.
Nice and round.
And the flight crew didn’t make their flight.
I would award the following:
From United, maximum allowable DOT regulated compensation for involuntary bump.
From the security organization, 3x the cost of his injuries plus 3x the cost of his normal salary for lost work.
MINUS
The cost of the extra delay (cost to operate the aircraft x hours of delay) and the compensation already given to the Doctor and the additional compensation United has already paid to the other passengers.
Methinks the Dr would end up owing
I have taught my children not to resist arrest. How many high profile incidents are a result of resisting arrest? Should we now tell them arrest is an economic opportunity?
“The United Airlines and the City of Chicago would both be named as defendants in the suit.”
I doubt that very much. The causes of action are very different. There will be two separate trials and Dao will get big bucks from each of them irrespective of the other. And quite frankly, I don’t know who I want to pony up more. In terms of physical injuries, the City of Chicago has a bigger issue. And besides, It’s Chicago and anything that can take money from Rahm Emmanuel is a good thing.
If a lawsuit is filed against United but the City of Chicago is not included, then United will simply file a third-party claim against the City of Chicago. The city will then effectively be a co-defendant even if the plaintiff didn't name them directly.
You might want to do some research on a common-law legal principle known as the "Entire Controversy Doctrine," which basically requires all aspects of a single cause of action to be litigated together in one legal proceeding.
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