Posted on 12/29/2017 9:44:57 AM PST by Morgana
FULL TITLE: Family sues Alaska Airlines after wheelchair-bound grandmother fell down airport escalator and died following surgery to amputate her leg due to wounds from her accident
A family is suing Alaska Airlines and a contractor after a disabled 75-year-old grandmother suffered a fall down a Portland International Airport escalator in June and later died.
Video captured the moment that Bernice Kekona, seat-belted to her power wheelchair, tumbled and crashed down an escalator, landing near the bottom with the heavy chair on top of her.
After her flight from Hawaii landed in Portland in June 2017, the family says they hired a contractor to make sure Kekona arrived safely to her connecting flight. But now they argue the airline and its contractor did not provide the service as promised.
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(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Well, when it comes to things like lawsuits, if there’s no legal support for your efforts, it probably isn’t practical.
Whether their lawsuit is valid or winnable is not part of my point.
But anybody can sue anybody, anytime. And they do it all the time.
The question might be, would you have stuck by her if you had no suspicion that she was incompetent? This was a case where you would probably have had to use physical force to gain compliance.
Would your employers expectations guide you to believe that she was the customer or that her family was the customer? It may well be that the "disability" that prompted her family to hire help was totally her lack of mental competence and nothing to do with her being in a wheelchair. The employee tasked with helping her may have made a decision based on an alternative understanding of what her needs were.
Right, but there’s also something called filing frivolous lawsuit for which the lawyers are penalized big bucks. If there’s no causation, as here, then a lawyer would be stupid to take the case. There has to be some attenuated negligence which requires duty, breach, causation, and damage. If the defendant lacks one of those elements you don’t have negligence.
Apparently you can't take a joke. Or get that the joke that I was messing with you to begin with. Now your deep into the weeds in legal strategy.
Give it up bub. Bye.
I’m just curious about who would let their wheelchair bound, 75 year old mom/grandma fly alone, without a family companion??
Either fly with Grandma/ma, on your available or vacay days, or postpone her trip until someone can fly with her. That’s how we would handle this in our family.
Law- it’s kinda what I do. I like to kid around as much as anyone but I guess your humor is too dry for me, at least through the computer.
Better luck next time.
You've been arguing the legal process and outcomes when I was just saying that all you needed to file a lawsuit was someone with some money to sue.
I actually graduated law school in the late 60's just before being drafted during the Vietnam War. Never took the bar. I joined the Air Force instead and became a hospital administrator.
Career went in different directions after retiring from the service. I ended up working in many different industries and jobs following my wife around while she was still on active duty. After she retired, I ended up in the mortgage business in Arizona and made a ton of money.
I started my own business and worked as a self-employed commercial print broker for 12 years before retiring again permanently. I never even considered trying to be a lawyer.
So I have a business degree and a law degree, but I'm permanently retired for 8 years now. No job.
Well, not a real job. My wife and I raise Angus beef cattle in rural Florida on our 30 acre farm.
Life has been varied and interesting to say the least.
Happy New Year.
Morgana, have you ever flown on Alaska Airlines?
They are a totally different breed from United Airlines. I am familiar with both, and I won’t fly United anymore even tho their hub is in my home airport. My family has flown on Alaska Airlines many, many times—and they have always been accommodating, tho we usually fly into Seattle. I am not an Alaska resident, but they do offer special discounted fares for Alaska residents needing medical travel and I believe same for a trip or two annually down to the lower 48. I get a charge out of their “pineapple or wine exemption” for baggage fees.
My favorite example of their accommodation: My spouse and I were flying from Seattle to Chicago and had aisle seats separated by several rows. Immediately prior to boarding, we were called to the gate. Why? Because they believe families should fly together and that we should be seated nearer to each other and were changing or had changed our seats...they knew we were flying together because we were on their companion fare. Very thoughtful.
I was amused because we have been married 40 years were away together for 2 weeks, boarding our third plane of the day, and did not feel the need to sit next to each other on another 5 hour flight ;)
Point is, I will be very surprised if it turns out in court documents that the family had indicated their grandmother needed assistance and Alaska Airlines did not follow thru. Not sure about the contractor...I would think there will be a paper trail documenting family request for these services and payment of requested services.
Oh and I cannot say I would be surprised at a negative outcome had they been flying with United—used to be a great airline, now not so much :(
In any event, it is very sad what happened with the grandmother.
Please keep us posted as to the outcome.
Happy New Year to you too.
The serious side of that joke is one major reason healthcare went through the roof in the 70’s - the Leftist Law Mill that abominated personal risk and responsibility. Government caused the healthcare cost problem and as usual government’s answer is more government.
Four years ago, I graduated from Regent University Law School, a Christian university and very good in many respects. There’s actually prayer and Biblical devotions before every law class and they have a required course and other courses on the Christian history and foundations of Anglo-American law - very good and very unique.
Being in my 60’s and having gone around the block a few times, I was able to sort out a lot of lies from the truth, especially in Constitutional Law, where, even in this Christian environment, they don’t actually teach you the Constitution, but case law, most of which has very little to do with the Constitution as written and originally understood and intended.
I passed the bar and am preparing to be licensed. I have no clue what I’ll do with it. Hang up a shingle as a Constitutional Lawyer? Hmmm. Not a lot of takers I suppose but this is only for supplement income anyway, so who knows? Maybe I could be a judge and hang all the Leftists or at least rule against 100+ years of unconstitutional Court decisions until they kicked me out. Them maybe I would have a platform to preach the recovery of our Free Constitutional Republic. Dunno. We’ll see.
"...died following surgery to amputate her leg due to wounds from her accident."
But we both agree, that having the law degree has helped both of us is ways that can't be counted.
Just knowing the law and how to maneuver in the world of business and contracts has made life easier.
Yes, I have found more confidence since graduation and passing the bar. I have found I am sharper in my reasoning abilities and more concise in expressing them.
I love subjects like Free Market Economics but I’m not interested in “business” per se - never have been. Money per se has never interested me. I must be more of a philosophical type. I love the world of ideas. We’ll see where it all goes.
William Shakespeare
Oh? And when the last law [and lawyer] was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, the laws [and lawyers] all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!Sir Thomas More, Man for All Seasons
:)
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