Posted on 06/22/2021 12:02:51 PM PDT by tlozo
This mailbox sure delivers a big surprise.
An Ohio man who built a virtually indestructible mailbox because he was sick of people smashing it is being sued by a motorist who crashed into the thing and got paralyzed, according to a report.
Matthew Burr allegedly turned his front-yard letter box into a postal fortress, by constructing it out of a thick metal post that was buried three feet in the ground and reinforced with rocks and cement, according to reports.
It was so strong that when plaintiff Cletus Slay’s pickup truck slid off the road on some black ice in December 2016 and rammed into the box, it allegedly caused his vehicle to flip over and left him seriously injured, Slay’s lawyer, Kathleen St. John, told a panel of Ohio Supreme Court judges Wednesday, according to News 5 Cleveland.
Burr took the extreme measure to fortify his mailbox after it was repeatedly vandalized over the years, including being knocked over, having a pumpkin thrown at it and vehicles clipping it, the outlet reported.
While the mailbox’s construction goes against Federal Highway Administration guidelines, it’s not illegal, News 5 reported.
Nevertheless, Slay’s lawyers argued that it was wrong to make something that could be so dangerous in the event of an innocent accident.
“The hazardous object in this case is a severely reinforced mailbox post,” the outlet reported of St. John’s arguments. “An owner of property is not justified in inflicting, without warning, bodily harm upon the person of a trespasser or petty pilferer by means of traps, spring guns or instrumentalities of destruction unless he would have been justified in using that force if he had been personally present...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
If this idiot wins the case that means you can sue the property owner whose tree you crashed into.
Then trees are dangerous as well....................
And if the guy had lost control and flipped into a telephone/power pole?
There's no give, no guard rail, nothing, just 40 mph traffic driving by a vertical and immovable object. There's nowhere for the energy to go but into the occupants of the car.
Sad, but not mailbox or its owner’s fault.
WOW. Our mailbox is a 4-plex made out of brick. It is about 6 feet tall by 4 feet long by 2 feet deep. Due to people got tired of their mailboxes being destroyed, repeatedly. So most of the residents on our street contracted for these huge brick contraptions that cannot be knocked over by an old pickup truck or a teen with a baseball bat.
I don't see where a reinforced pole qualifies as a "trap, spring gun, or instrumentality of destruction". It was not a trap, not a firearm, not an explosive, and was not set in such a manner as to be any of these things.
Should have stayed off his lawn.
How fast was this guy going? About 3.5 years ago I hit some black ice and slid into a tree. The tree didn’t budge. My car was totaled. It didn’t flip over. I pulled through uninjured.
If the driver wins this case I guess light poles, telephone poles and trees near the road will all have to go.
My father set the mailbox in cement on the opposite side of a Telephone Pole.
The Post Office said he couldn't do that and he dare them to not deliver the mail.
Things were different back then because they never said anything else and the mailbox was never hit or smashed again and remains there to this day.
The mailbox did nothing. It is not a hazardous object. It is not dangerous. The owner did not inflict bodily harm. The owner did not have the obligation to erect a soft object that the jerk could crash into and not get hurt.
I think logically. That’s why most lawyers wouldn’t want me on the jury.
The cause of the injury was the crash. The cause of the crash was the guy’s inability to control the truck.
Sorry. No money for you!
A stationary object does no inflicting.
Drive better, idiot.
Crash into anyone else’s wall, and you’re still a paralized idiot.
Sorry you’re paralyzed. Bybyour own lack of driving skills.
My mailbox is on a 12 x 12 oak post. I got tired of the snowplow busting them all the time.
This one has lasted since 2008 with only the mailbox getting bent up some.
So, stay off my property. What’s the difference if it was a gate post, which by definition is supposed to be a barrier.
The citation being used in the case is reprobate. There was no intent to harm, rather simply have a durable mailbox.
Last I heard, losing control during driving is a result of speed too fast for conditions....
His failure to maintain control is not the homeowners responsibly to have a soft landing zone.
I see the trial court decided there was no case. The appeal is from a motion for summary judgment for the defendant which was granted by the trial judge.
If this guy had crashed into a stone building, would he be suing the owner?
Why is he not suing the town for lack of salted roads. hmm, maybe he did try but failed.
What was he doing driving in hazardous conditions?
How fast was he driving?
How fast was he driving?
oh yeah, one can do anything in a pick up truck mentality.
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