Posted on 02/17/2005 9:21:26 AM PST by kemathen7
Durango - Herb Young turned the telephone off again Tuesday after it rang at 12:40 a.m.
One recent caller had told him that "you should be found dead in a ditch."
Nine out of 10 calls to his house are from "crackpots," he said, ever since a plate of cookies and a case in La Plata County Small Claims Court turned life upside down.
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
ooops my computer is hiccuping...
The parents could have paid and apologized and kept the cashiers check receipt as proof and a video tape of the apology if they were so paranoid.
Then, IF (and that's a big IF on your part) they could have proved to a judge/court that they did what was appropriate. I doubt Mrs. Young would have won anything more at this point, even without the signed agreement for the parents.
So, maybe it's you just being fixated on your one and only point.
This is what the Denver post February 4 article said about the agreement:"But Young, home with her own 18-year-old daughter and her elderly mother, said she saw shadowy figures who banged and banged at her door. When she called out, "Who's there?" no one answered. The figures ran off.
She thought perhaps they were burglars or some neighbors she had tangled with in the past, she said.
"We just wanted to surprise them," Taylor said.
Young left her home that night to stay at her sister's, but her symptoms, including shaking and an upset stomach, wouldn't subside. The next morning she went to Mercy Medical Center.
"We feel that knocking on a door and leaving cookies is a gesture of kindness and would not create an anxiety attack in the general public," Taylor's parents wrote to the court.
The girls wrote letters of apology to Young. Taylor's letter, written a few days after the episode, said in part: "I didn't realize this would cause trouble for you. ... I just wanted you to know that someone cared about you and your family."
The families had offered to pay Young's medical bills if she would agree to indemnify the families against future claims.
Young wouldn't sign the agreement. She said the families' apologies rang false and weren't delivered in person. The matter went to court."
You have two issues here. First the base facts:Two teens scare a woman, who then has chest pains. Medical bills are generated of which the unpaid portion needs to be paid by the families per the court. Those are the base facts as decided by the court.
The second issue is that we really have a woman with pathology here. Maybe she lives by the old "ones word is one's bond issue" and is wary of legal documents, or she is wary because, as the other related crosslinked articles at the Postwould suggest, of the Youngs' history of lawsuits(they've won some and lost some....a property dispute was a big issue for them, concerning drive way access.) I'm not sure of the husband's role in all this but from the history of the lawsuits, he seems to be quite a piece of work himself.
The Denver Post.com has all articles on this issue from Feb4 thru the present. When you link to the article posted at the head of this thread, all of the previous articles and history are there too.
I know Mrs. Young is certifiable but while she has rights to feel secure in her home and to have damages paid for harm done, she doesn't have the right to take anyone to the cleaners. She is not a forgiving sort, refusing to accept written apologies, ect.
The judge did chide the teens for being out late doing what they were doing. The one dollar in damages awarded to Mrs. Young should have been a hint to Mrs. Young to let the matter drop. The Linda Vesters and Mike Gallaghers of the Media should not allow this pathological woman on their shows or to send "cookies" to her to "teach" her a lesson about frivilous law-suits. This just feeds her pathology! She's had her fifteen minutes, we don't need to create a national Jerry Springer show out of her!
Guess your prayers are going unanswered...because of the mean spiritness of some posters on this thread perhaps.
Just because they (the parents) wanted something doesn't mean they can always get their way.
I care more about what is right than what is legal.
we don't need to create a national Jerry Springer show out of her!
Why just her? Why not all these bozos? (the parents, the teenagers, and her?)
"And this is the part that absolutely floors me. Why are people so upset about this? Had Mike Gallagher not picked up the story, you and others on this thread wouldn't be calling Mrs. Young such names nor would all the nuts and gooks out there be calling and harassing them. This is nothing more than a small town case between two families."
Well now you know my problem with this story. The spin of it is amazing, and Mike Gallagher stepped in a pile of poop on this one. People are reacting out of emotion...here's the stream of public consciousness spin as it now stands...["two teen girls, naive but kind hearted play a prank by delivering cookies in the dark of night. A mean old spider woman hag acts all scared, feigns illness and has a P.C. appoved anxiety disorder attack and tries to suck out the financial life blood of the teens' families via lawsuit. The crazy judge awards 900 dollars, the unpaid portion of the medical bills to the crazy old hag and her dollar oriented husband even though he does tell the ol' hag to take a hike on the pain and suffering and awards her only 1 dollar for damages. The poor innocent(and virginal in the minds of the upright purists here on FR and in the public) teen girls just cried and cried how it was just unfair that all they ever wanted to do was good, oh boo hoo...just brings a tear to the eye...So let's just get that ol' Hag and her little husband too. Let's hang them on the gallows of public opinion. Let's send them cookies and phone death threats to them in the middle of the night....it serves them right!"]
This little town dust-up did not need this kind of attention!
The small claims court judge was right to limit the scope of the damages while delivering a message to the teens to be more cautious in the future. He should have issued a gag order forbidding futher public discussion of the case though it may beyond his power to do so!
The Youngs have had their 15 minutes, now they need to go away!
I certainly agree....lets not have a national Jerry Springer show concerning all of them.
Then again,the ACTUAL Jerry Springer show may be the best place for them to air their greivances...now that MIGHT make a fun show....!
I stumbled over that statement too, but what can she sue over and who?
You are dead on in that statement. I think this guy would argue against the color of the sky. I'll bet he is someone in desperate need of attention and this is the only way he can get it.
What I don't get is the daughter: why didn't she say "Mom, it's just a plate of cookies!"
Or how about, "Mom, you're going to humiliate me in front of my friends."
Because the poor daughter is used to this crap.
Okay, they are that too. ROTFL
And so do the teenagers who have been making the rounds of the talk shows and their parents.
By the way, loved your synopsis of the situation. Made me laugh.
And I notice that each of you continue to respond post about this. What does that say about you?
She can sue the parents and/or the children, or more accurately, their personal liability/household insurance companies, for emotional harm/psychic harm/emotional damages, whatever the term of art is in Colorado.
It happens all the time, when there are claims of psychological consequences of the alleged tortious act.
In cases like this the idea is to convince the insurance company that it is cheaper to pay up than to contest the issue. If it was Ohio they'd be looking for $25,000.00.
25,000 by the time you knock off a third plus expenses for the lawyers and time is not worth the grief for most people. These slugs may think it is worthwhile. I wonder what a jury in that area would do?
I think you hit the nail on the head there. I don't know how well justified the lawsuit was on its merits; the Judge awarded the money, and I don't think there is any appeal, so I'm assuming that legally it was well founded. That does not mean this woman should have taken that action. Even it was "legal," I don't think it was right.
I suspect that, years ago when neighbors had more friendliness toward one another, this type of lawsuit would not have been undertaken for fear of the type of scorn this woman now is experiencing (although pre-Internet, the scorn would certainly have been on a more local scale!). I think the Internet and media does allow for playing up what once would have been local stories, but I'm not convinced that is always a bad thing. While no one should be threatening or harassing this family, I still think the poor opinion others now hold of this woman is well deserved. Just as you and some of other posters don't have much sympathy for these teenagers, a lot of people have no sympathy for this woman.
The reason I mention that figure is that, in Ohio, you do not have to file in common pleas for lawsuits up to a threshold of $25,000. Quick and dirty, as they say.
Sate laws differ, and I have no idea what the law is in Colorado. My hypothesis was limited to the state I have a certain acquaintance with. If one went above that limit then yes, the costs in lawyer fees and grief inherent in the system go way up.
I think a jury would be hostile, right now, which is why I believe they will wait and file after some time has gone by. Also, as Howlin noted, provide time for the "Plaintiff" to build a medically documented case. No doubt she will be seeing a psychotherapist soon who will diagnose PTSD.
see my posting at 388 to know how I really feel about the situation....
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