Slavery Reparations Effort May Have Its Day in Court

If you wait 200 years to file suit, even on a claim that would habe been legitimate, you lose. It's called "laches," the doctrine of unnecessary delay. Any competent, unbiased lawyer would agree with this point.

Juanita Brodrick couldn't charge Clinton with rape due the the statute of limitations, I believe 7 years? It seems as though an overdue paycheck limitation would have run out as well. If not, the *dead* slave owners who owe could be sued, not his innocent decendants or people who's relitives weren't even in the country at the time. It would be making someone pay a bill that they didn't owe.

TAX REVOLT!!!!!!!

Plaintiffs will face other challenges in bringing their case, said Behrens, including statutes of limitation (long since passed) and the difficulty of showing a common injury suffered by slave descendants.

Although being entirely unsympathetic to these lawsuits, I'll throw in this little bit of free legal advice...toss in a civil RICO claim.

Ask the FDIC about what happened after the West Coast Bank (out of Encino, California) plaintiffs tossed it in as the last allegation of a lawsuit over a fraudulent gold operation.

A black actor, whose name I can't recall, after finishing filming in Africa allegedly made the statement:

"I'm glad my ancestors were slow runners..."

Do Blacks Owe Jews Reparations?
Michael Savage 1-8-01 From Newsmax.com

The Third Wave leftist hoaxsters are pushing "reparations" for slavery. Now, slavery ended in the U.S. 130 years ago. There is no black person (born in the U.S.) who was ever a slave. There is not a living white person (born in the U.S.) who ever owned a slave. Yet the hoaxsters push their newest "Big Lie"? Using their Marxist "Animal Farm" thinking caps, they argue that all blacks suffered as a result of slavery, that they were permanently damaged by the institution of slavery, and that there is no statute of limitations on such a crime against (black) humanity.

Putting aside all other considerations for the sake of brevity and accepting such premises, let us reason together.

While Jewish people alive today did not directly endure slavery, their ancestors did, building the pyramids of Egypt and such. Since the legalistic hoaxsters argue against statutes of limitations for claims going back over one century past, why not go back 50 centuries and have all Jewish people make claim for reparations against all Egyptians?

And, not to disrespect revisionist black "historians" who claim the great pyramids and other Egyptian discoveries and creations were made by black Africans (not by Semitic Egyptians), we can ask for reparations from the NAACP and other black supremacist organizations.

How about it, John Conyers?

"Aetna has invested more than $36 million in the African American community. Our company has embraced diversity."

Is Aetna pleased with the return on their "investment"? When will corporations learn?

"...There was a promise of 40 acres and a mule but it never happened.

So give all the descedent of slaves (If They Can Substatiate Their Lineage) a mule and 40 acres in South Dakota.

And my ancestors were cut down in their prime fighting against slavery and for the freedom of the black man.

To whom should I send my bill?

I MIGHT give u my money for this PC crap but someone is gona be picking some cotton for minimum wage......

FYI

When the United States declared independence from Britain in 1776, the revolutionaries proclaimed that man had a natural right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". The black slaves living in the new nation, however, were excluded from this guarantee. Many Americans were troubled by the contradiction between their battle for liberty from the British and their own denial of freedom to the slaves. Advocates for emancipation began to spring up, even amongst the Founding Fathers. Benjamin Franklin was the President of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Like most Americans who favored emancipation, however, Franklin did not want freed slaves to remain in the United States. He wanted to preserve America for the white race by sending the blacks away. This was the view expressed by most who supported an end to slavery.

Franklin was not the only one of the Founding Fathers who openly supported abolition of slavery and the transport of blacks out of the United States. Thomas Jefferson(at left), although a planter and slave owner himself, believed that the practice should be ended. He wrote against slavery, including his famous "Notes on Virginia", in which he called the institution a "great political and moral evil" and a "blot in this country". While a member of the Virginia Assembly, he proposed a plan for emancipation that would have gradually freed all the slaves in the state. This failed, and Jefferson realized most whites felt that it would be impossible to live in the same society with blacks as equals. He then suggested that slaves could be emancipated by colonizing them in a "faraway" place where there were no whites

Although Jefferson had no specific place in mind when he made the initial suggestion, Governor James Monroe of Virginia, who would later become the fifth President of the United States, considered Africa the most appropriate place. Reacting to the Gabriel Prosser slave conspiracy in his state in 1800, in which free blacks had assisted slaves in an attempt to capture him and take over the state, Monroe decided that free blacks were a danger to society and needed to be sent away. He proposed that the free blacks, and any future emancipated slaves, be sent as colonists to Africa, the land of their origin. Jefferson, who was the President of the United States at the time, endorsed the idea. In 1802 he sent his Minister to Britain, Rufus King, to speak to the king about possibly combining Monroe's plan with British attempts to build up the new colony of Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa. Although this did not occur, it did set the stage for the federal government's later involvement with colonization.

Popular opinion largely supported colonization in the early eighteenth century. The abolitionist movement was growing as more and more Americans came to oppose slavery. Although some felt that slaves should be integrated into American society, most felt it best that they be sent away. Many simply did not want to live with blacks and wanted to maintain the country's racial purity, while others felt that the blacks would never be treated fairly in America and should be sent away to a place where they could have a fresh start. There was also a growing concern over the number of free blacks in America. While there had been fewer than 60,000 free blacks living in the United States in 1790, that number had risen to over 250,000 by 1820. Many Americans could no tolerate any blacks being equal to whites, and it was also felt that the presence of free blacks threatened the slave system, especially after the Gabriel Prosser conspiracy. Thus, colonization became an idea that both those who supported slavery and those who opposed it could agree on. Many religious leaders also got behind the colonization impulse, believing that such a settlement could serve as an opportunity for missionary activity in which American blacks could help to christianize and civilize Africa.

One of the men who felt strongly that blacks needed to leave America and settle elsewhere to escape oppression was Paul Cuffee. Cuffee was a free black who became a sailor, merchant, and eventually a wealthy shipowner in New England. He was a strong believer in the idea of colonization, and decided to follow up on Jefferson's idea to incorporate America's plans to send freed slaves to Africa with British ventures there. He visited Sierra Leone, a newly forming British colony on the west coast of Africa, in 1811 and felt that it presented the perfect opportunity for a settlement of relocated black Americans. He then sailed to England, where he was able to convince the British government that "good sober steady characters" would be necessary for Sierra Leone to prosper. He offered to transport black farmers, artisans, and mechanics there to assist with the colony's formation. The plan was accepted and Cuffee returned to America and urged free blacks living in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to emigrate to Africa. Although the War of 1812 delayed his efforts, when the fighting ended in 1815 he invested $4,000 of his own money into a venture to carry American blacks to Africa. Early in 1816, Cuffee set sail with 38 free blacks to Sierra Leone. This successful voyage gave a major boost to the colonization impulse in America by proving that shipping blacks to Africa could actually be done.

Unfortunately, Cuffee feel ill shortly after the trip and eventually died in 1817. In the wake of his voyage, however, a formal colonization movement was born in the United States. To find out more about this development, continue to The Anmerican Colonization Society: The Movement Begins

SLAVERY REPARATIONS? FOR WHAT? The plantation owners were never compensated for all their expense in buying their freedom and bringing to America so they could be free.It is the corporations and families of plantation owners who should be compensated!

Says Who??? When the President, then Abraham Lincoln, said that ALL slaves will be freed. However, the south which had seceded from the Union did not honor that proclamation. After 1865, ALL the slaves were free people. It's not MY fault that slaves in the south weren't freed. It's not my family's fault, because my family was too poor to own slaves. Not to mention the people I come from would rather do the work themselves, than leave it to someone else.

Jesse Jackson, and all of these pro-reparation people need to pack their crap and leave America today. If they want reparations, they need to go to Europe, and AFRICA, to get to the people who are ultimately responsible for the origins of slavery. It's not the white people of America who are to blame, but Europeans, and African Chieftans who are responsible for their servitude. If Blacks want reparations, then I am willing to give them enough money to get out of America and NEVER come back. If black people think they were the only ones who got a raw deal, think again. The Irish had a really bad time, not to mention my Native American Ancestors who suffered at the hands of ALL colors.

I thought about this today. I'm a veteran. I'm a disenfranchised veteran who defended black people. I think I should be compensated. Oh wait, I was compensated, the only difference was that I worked hard for it. It wasn't just given to me, I had to earn it. Just like everyone else in America who works, and produces, they had to earn it. When you tell a black family, who worked their rear ends off to get out of a ghetto, that they're still a slave, because some special interest group says so, you find it insulting. I have friends who are black, and they are outraged at reparations. Why aren't more blacks outraged? Because the majority of the blacks who follow Jesse Jackson, Rainbow Push, and Al Sharpton, are nothing more than the dregs who want a hand out, rather than work an honest day in their life.

I am an angry white male who is sick to death of always being told that I can't be proud of who I am, or that I can't achieve more than someone else because it's politically incorrect. Screw political correctness. The truth needs to be spoken. Africa is a toilet because Black Africa likes it that way. IF they wanted change, they would have acclimated to a changing world. They did acclimate, however they had nothing but slaves to trade, which they did willingly. If Slavery was so bad, then why did these slaves stay here in America? Ask yourself that question, how many slaves were repatriated, and how many were repatriated unwillingly? You will find that the numbers are astoundingly low, and you will also find that those who were repatriated, Their Children went on to come back to the United States. There's something you don't hear told very often. If Jesse Jackson wants to find people culpable, he needs to go back to Africa, trace the lineages of all of the ruling tribal chiefs who took rival tribespeople prisoner. There he will find the truth. Africa, as a nation only developed because of European and Arabic Influence. Black Africa was primitive, and is STILL primitive. Go figure as to the reason.

If reparations go through, if you think it's hard to live on what you make, imagine a tax on every single person who isn't black, that would include Asians, Hispanics, Arabic, Jewish, and every other non-black peoples. Now imagine having to work two jobs, while your average black citizen who has NEVER been a slave in America during their whole life, gets to win the lottery. How is that going to make you feel when you sleep at night? It's going to make you angry. It makes me angry as my ancestors suffered worse than slavery. My ancestors were nearly wiped out, or bred out of existence.

If Black America wants reparations, go get it from Black Africa, because that's where your problems began. It wasn't with any of my ancestors, and it certainly wasn't the immigrant side of my family either.

This lawsuit is going nowhere in the Courts. I can tic off about a thousand affirmative defenses. Clearly, it was filed for political and negotiation reasons. It is, in essence, an attempted shakedown of these companies.

Now, I assume that the counsel for these firms will file the appropriate Motion to Dismiss 12(b)(6).

Concurrent with the above Motion to Dismiss, Counsel should seek sanctions under Rule 11(c)(1). And, even if they did not, the Court could slap plaintiffs with sanctions under 11(c)(1)(B).

Rule 11(b)(2) requires that "the claims, defenses, and other legal contetions therin [must be] warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of a new law."

Courts give great leeway to a plaintiff on the standard for pleading for an extension, modification, or reversal of a law. Thus, far too few cases actually have Rule 11 sanctions imposed -- in my view. Courts do this so as not to have a chilling effect on the filing of lawsuits that may have merit for such an extension.

Here, it is safe to say this is a frivolous claim. It seeks reparations from companies for lawful acts. And, it seeks to disregard the statute of limitations which serves as an absolute bar in all civil cases. I assure you, that there is no statute of limitations that would permit raising a cause of action 149 years later -- at least not on the civil side. (Most states have no statute of limitations on murder -- but you wouldn't try someone 149 years later for that either, as he would be dead, and unlikly subject to the jurisdiction of a Court).

Now -- the real question is, will these companies go for the throat, or will they bow to pressure by settling. Such a settlement may be something like increased "community involvement." PR moves and the business side will dictate the terms, as the bottom line alone dictates settlements of suits like this. Thus, I would not be surprised if the lawyers don't seek rule 11 sanctions. I would be disappointed, however, if the Court fails to raise them on its own.

I would sure love to argue this Motion to Dismiss. Some suit in New York will do it for $650-700 an hour. I would cut the Plaintiff's Heart out for free on this one.