[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Unbelievable. I know he must be hurting over the loss of his wife but how can he possibly hold Wal-Mart responsible?

Simple, greed. He can't sue the prison from which the abductors escaped because it is a public entity. Public entities have virtual immunity by way of statutory limitations for wrongdoing, a mere hundred thousand dollars or so. There are no such limitation on private business. The sky is the limit. So who do you think the lawyer advises the plaintiff to sue. The near empty coffer or the treasure chest. It's absolutely amazing that business continues to thrive in this country and that public incompetent employees go unpunished.

[Publius Valerius]

It's not exactly statutory, it's the Eleventh Amendment for states and sovereign immunity for the feds.

But there's an easy way to get around it: you sue someone individually. For instance, you want to sue a prison? Sue the warden.

[SCALEMAN]

Years ago when I was with another employer we had an employee hitch his boat to the company owned pickup and proceed to load his family in it to go to the lake for the week end. He was drunk when he hit another car. The passengers in the other vehicle sued my employer. The drunken employee sued my employer. The drunken employee's wife sued my employer. Our insurance company settled each one of the suits out of court. They bought off all of the plaintiffs. They never disclosed what the amounts were. Since my employer had the biggest pocket book, everyone sued them. Plain and simple extortion.