It's Called a Finger, but why doesn't it fing?
The finger-gate plot thickens:
Anna Ayala was taken into custody at her home, San Jose police spokesman Enrique Garcia said. He said police would not give any details until a news conference Friday afternoon. Las Vegas police also refused to comment.
The arrest is the latest twist in the bizarre case about how the 11/2-inch fingertip ended up in a bowl of fast-food chili.
She was going to sue Wendy's but found the process too "emotionally taxing." Ha hahaha.
There's actually a relatively sad part to this story:
All the employees at the San Jose store were found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said.
Sales have dropped at franchises in Northern California, forcing layoffs and reduced hours, the company said. Wendy's also has hired private investigators, set up a hot line for tips and offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who provides information leading to the finger's original owner.
Now, I'm all for litigation and trial lawyers. I don't think a few corrupt people in the system means that the entire system is corrupt. And when the right wing talks about tort reform this and activist judges that, I think it's bullshit. However, when a clearly BS case, like this one, comes up, it does show you that there are problems inherent in a litigious society as ours is. This woman has:
a litigious history. She has filed claims against several corporations, including a former employer and General Motors, though it is unclear from court records whether she received any money. She said she got $30,000 from El Pollo Loco after her 13-year-old daughter got sick at one of the chain's Las Vegas-area restaurants. El Pollo Loco officials say she did not get a dime.
So she's clearly a fucking kook. But what does it say about our system?
posted by Mark K @ 10:07 AM
3 Comments:
she's a fraud
Wendy's Gate closed
The problem is not in the system, it's in the individual. The fact of the matter is that even though she has attempted to sue various businesses on multiple occasions, she has ultimately failed on all accounts. The tort system is not failing because it is not awarding illegitimate plaintiffs damages.
Even people who are supposed proponents of have found themselves or their families plaintiffs in legitimate cases. Senator Rick Santorum is one of the biggest proponents of "tort reform" but his wife accepted damages well over the punitive damages cap that he proposes. The problem is not a litigious society, the problem is trial lawyers haven't been successful enough at their own political spin.
It's unfortunate that illegitimate cases like this Wendy's one keep showing up in the judicial system. They are making it easy for people who are taking away victim's rights to look good, and for the hypocricy of "tort reformers" to continue.
I'm not so sure that by "system," I meant legal system, but instead society. It was a poor word choice. I was referring to the system in which people that file suits like this are given credence prior to any sort of analysis of where the culpability lies. i.e. cases where someone gets burned by coffee, or any other case that is a)incorrectly blown out of proportion or b)correctly viewed as a microcosm of a bigger issue, but before anything's been decided. In this case, clearly the woman was a kook, was out to gain money, and wanted some more of her free publicity, but it came back to bite her in the ass. However, before it bit her in the ass, she fucked over a perfectly legally operating Wendy's franchise. The press fed the beast by covering the story, and the public asked more of it from the press...that's the system that's fucked up, not the legal system.
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