Posted on 08/26/2006 10:48:53 AM PDT by bwteim
NEW ORLEANS A New Orleans man may have thought he'd get a thank-you for rescuing more than 200 people from Hurricane Katrina floodwaters.
Instead, he got a lawsuit.
John Lyons Junior is suing Mark Morice (mohr-EES') for taking his boat without permission and not returning it. Lyons' lawyer says Morice made no attempt to return the boat.
Morice says he left it for other rescuers to use. Lyons' 18-foot boat was one of three Morice said he commandeered after water started rising. Morice said one of the other boat owners told him he was glad he'd been able to hot-wire the boat, and the other boat owner apparently hasn't complained.
You mean like the NO police officers who were all over the news stealing carts full of merchandise (games/DVDs/etc.) from WalMart who were later cleared of any wrongdoing (and I don't believe they had to pay any restitution to WalMart either).
Ummm... OK.
I think Junior is looking for 12,000. Anyway, more in post #14. I tried to put reference to Mayor Nagin in School Bus yellow in Morice's letter. But it is sort of hard to see...;)
See #14 right above
Who apparently slept through the lecture on the Doctrine of Necessity in his first-semester Torts class.
I'm sure they could find 200 willing wannabe jurors that know what it is like to be rescued by boat.
See
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1690460/posts?page=14#14
for a letter from the attorney written in Sept '05.
Found it at
David Burn | Poet, Critic and Storyteller
http://davidburn.com/index.php
I serious doubt a personal injury lawyer would risk his/her life for others. They have no sole.
WalMart is evil......m'kay. :)
We can only excpert NOLA.com, Here's some background
"...Morice returned .. [and] spoke to Lyons' wife, he said, explaining why he had taken their boat. He later e-mailed the Lyons a picture of him using the boat to rescue people.
The lawsuit accuses Morice of taking the boat "solely to promote himself and his law practice." Although he appeared in several newspapers in the storm's aftermath, Morice said he never sought the publicity.
Mills said Morice could have been more responsible ... "If I felt I had to take the boat I would have at least left a note," Mills said.
Morice's reaction? "Next time there's a major storm or natural disaster and I'm called to save lives, I'll try to remember to bring a pen and paper," he said.
Excerpted from:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1156572434292430.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
"Jus' like a good neighbor . . . State Farm is there . . ."
Did State Farm really change engineers' reports of wind damage to WATER damage to keep from paying claims? Just asking . . .
I am no expert in excperting
Yes, I recall it was sort of chaotic there....
check out the NOLA link above this one
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1156572434292430.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
Also, the Washington Times covered this man and others, pitching in where Nagin failed to, rescuing people in August 30, 2005 already:
Rescue efforts abound as New Orleans copes
By Mira Oberman
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
August 30, 2005
Private citizens were already conducting rescue efforts. In New Orleans, Mark Morice, 35, steered his boat through four feet of water, downed power lines and broken tree limbs.
"We are going out, there are people out there on top of homes," he said.
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050830-123011-7607r.htm
But risking consequences means accepting consequences when they arrive.
I respect the man who says, "I don't care how much trouble I get in; I need to do this to save lives," but I lose a lot of that respect when he later says, "I shouldn't be in trouble; just because I TOOK the boat doesn't mean I ASSUMED RESPONSIBILITY for it!" Yes, Morice, you did.
The guy was literally saving lives, rescuing people trapped in hot attics for days by floodwaters. More than 10,000 needed to be rescued, and it took days for the full force of military and volunteers to accomplish that, with some people dying during the wait. Your post is perhaps the most idiotic I have ever read here.
BTW, in case you missed it, the a-hole who is suing left his keys in the boat's ignition.
I agree with you. There was a blurb on Fox news just now saying this would be covered a bit in the news hour coming up.
The Nola article has additional info: apparently he and two friends tried to call, text messaged, etc. to locate boats and owners to borrow them so they could get people out of water or from homes.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1156572434292430.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
The same logic used in firing Nat'l Guardsmen called up to serve in Iraq or when the guy sued the volunteer who gave him mouth to mouth to save his life.
Some Conservo-utopians can be just as big assholes as the worst leftists.
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