Man sues 8-year old over skiing accident

[Resolute 14]

http://vaildaily.com/article/20071220/NEWS/541382740

Pretty obviously an attempt at getting someone else's insurance to pay for his "injuries". Naturally, the wife is in on the lawsuit too.

My solution would be for the kid to persue assault charges against the guy for grabbing him. Fight fire with fire!

[4X4]

One of the comments makes a good point about the injury to his shoulder possibly being cause when he grabbed the kid's boot.
This guy sounds like a combination of whiner and bully. Grabbing a kid and threatening to sue right then and there is like those goofballs that jump out of their cars 2 seconds after a 5kph rear ender and start screaming about the agony their neck is in.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Grabbing a kid and threatening to sue right then and there is like those goofballs that jump out of their cars 2 seconds after a 5kph rear ender and start screaming about the agony their neck is in.

Ozy and I went through that a couple months ago. Little lovetap from behind < 5 kmph, and the guy and his wife's necks hurt and they need to do physiotherapy / rehabilitation for sustaining painful neck injuries. The guy was a prof at the U of C as well.

People will do anything to screw over other people these days. Everyone is so bloody frikkin' obsessed over money, and some will step on everybody else to get it.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Muta

Ozy and I went through that a couple months ago. Little lovetap from behind < 5 kmph, and the guy and his wife's necks hurt and they need to do physiotherapy / rehabilitation for sustaining painful neck injuries. The guy was a prof at the U of C as well.

People will do anything to screw over other people these days. Everyone is so bloody frikkin' obsessed over money, and some will step on everybody else to get it.

Some people are so pathetic. My little brother called me up one day in a panic. He was about 17 at the time and I happened to live just a few blocks from where he was. He was right in front of Chinook center on mcleod in bumper to bumper traffic.
He rear ended a ~1988 blazer with his ~2000 sunfire. You could see the extent of the damage was that his car's nose slid under the blazer's hitch and made a 4 inch scratch on my bro's car.
Anyone that has ever been within 10 feet of a sunfire knows that breathing on it can cause major damage, so it was pretty clear that this was about as low impact as is possible.

Anyway, I rushed over there because the loser in the blazer was talking about neck pain and whatnot.
The guy was about my age (I'm 8 years older than my bro) so he was suddenly a little less of a tough guy when I got there. I asked him how in hell he can have neck pain from that accident (he was sitting in his driver seat and I was talking to him from his window) and he takes his hand off his neck and violently shakes his head around to "re-enact" the impact of the accident.

At this point is asked him if a couple hundred dollars would make his neck feel better. He said it would have to be more than that. I said ok, you'll get nothing. If I have to go to court personally, I'll make sure you get nothing.

Ended up that a cop happened to pass by, so he did a report. We never heard from the guy at all. Loser.

[ricoFlame]

wow man, that dude is a total a-hole. i agree with the kids mother, what message does this send to kids trying to learn the sport? christ that old dude is one selfish prick. should be ashamed.

[DementedReality]

if the kid caused an injury and this resulted in lost income or new expenses, then the only recourse is to sue him. i am sure he tried to get the family insurance to pay, but they refused without a court order to comply.

[You Need a Thneed]

When will people start taking responsiblity for themselves instead of trying to sue someone anytime you feel like it. You were skiing - these things happen sometimes. Anyone who tryies to sue an 8 year old because of something the kid did accidentally needs to be locked up in a mental institution.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

if the kid caused an injury and this resulted in lost income or new expenses, then the only recourse is to sue him. i am sure he tried to get the family insurance to pay, but they refused without a court order to comply.

"Pfahler was skiing ahead of Scott and turned into him. Scott, the uphill skier, did not have time to react, Robb Swimm said."

It doesn't sound like anyone is at fault to me.

It's pretty much all hearsay at this point and I don't think some idiot who threatened to sue a 7-year while on the ski hill deserves to be believed.

[Galakanokis]

If a small, low speed collision with a 50lb 7 year can cause you major damage to your body perhaps you should not be on ski hill. Hang up the boots and go play shuffle board. Whats next suing the other skiers for packing the snow down to hard and bruising your tailbone?

[ricoFlame]

it sounds like a pretty ordinary skiing accident.

[Locke]

Finally!! Its about time all those freeloading children were held accountable for their actions.

Kids these days think they can get away anything. Clearly this kid was skiing with intent to injure and reckless abandon and he should be duly punished like anyone else.

Take the kid for all hes worth, I hope a set of jacks and a half-eaten jawbreaker eases his pain.

[lifer]

Originally Posted by JayP

"Pfahler was skiing ahead of Scott and turned into him. Scott, the uphill skier, did not have time to react, Robb Swimm said."

It doesn't sound like anyone is at fault to me.

It's pretty much all hearsay at this point and I don't think some idiot who threatened to sue a 7-year while on the ski hill deserves to be believed.

Later in the article it basically says that the uphill skier is at fault in these types of situations.
When skiers pass other skiers, they need to make sure that the other skiers are aware they’re being passed by shouting or giving them enough room to turn, Avon defense attorney Bruce Carey said.

“If one skier is completely behind the downhill skier, then the downhill skier would be unaware of the uphill skier,” said Carey, who prosecuted the first case of reckless skiing to go to trial in Colorado. “That’s why the burden falls on the uphill skier.”

Suing a child is pretty lame, but the Swimm family's insurance should be covering any lost wages and recovery costs. This guy has bills to pay too, and if he was off work because of the accident he should be compensated.

[Prototype]

In some fairness... small accidents CAN have lasting effects. Is it the case in all the examples provided? Doubt it. Most times people don't feel the effects of an accident right away.

I know that my mother, who was in a bigger accident than your average fender bender didn't feel any effects until months later. Was she a money grabber? Absolutely not, but she wasn't able to do many of the daily tasks she was used to until almost a year and a half later.

Sure, there's scumbags out there that could take advantage of the situation, but without reading the article, and just reading the reaction and the examples, there could still be a chance of injury.

From what I gathered though, the skier and the accident involving the 17 year old sound like scumbags.

[Burninator]

nm

[urban1]

Its hard to comment without knowing the exact facts or better yet, having seen the accident.

Its easy to say the guy is a whack job for suing a kid.

But imagine your older father is on the ski hill and a kid comes flying down the hill from behind and crashes into your father injuring him. Your father know has mounting medical bills (no public health insurance in the US), misses work, and has a ton of other expenses. Should this be chalked up to kids being kids and accidents will happen or should the kid and more specifically the parents be held responsible?

[Ice]

I think any time you head up to the mountain you know you're at risk for being hit. I guess I've missed tons of opportunities to sue for every knucklehead beginner who thinks they belong on other slopes and hits me from behind. Silly me for thinking that once I strap on my board, things like this can happen. I know its the risk I take when I go snowboarding.

Sounds like the old guy is emotionally unstable, you don't grab other people's kids because the bump into you on a slope.

[maverickeastwood]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

if the kid caused an injury and this resulted in lost income or new expenses, then the only recourse is to sue him. i am sure he tried to get the family insurance to pay, but they refused without a court order to comply.

Gee...I hope the guy is happy with getting the kids school lunch money...

[corporatejay]

I dont' see the problem here, the guy was injured in an accident, his only method of being compensated is by suing...not sure what the problem is?

[jammies]

Originally Posted by urban1

Its hard to comment without knowing the exact facts

You must be new here.

[Crazy Flamer]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Some people are so pathetic. My little brother called me up one day in a panic. He was about 17 at the time and I happened to live just a few blocks from where he was. He was right in front of Chinook center on mcleod in bumper to bumper traffic.
He rear ended a ~1988 blazer with his ~2000 sunfire. You could see the extent of the damage was that his car's nose slid under the blazer's hitch and made a 4 inch scratch on my bro's car.
Anyone that has ever been within 10 feet of a sunfire knows that breathing on it can cause major damage, so it was pretty clear that this was about as low impact as is possible.

Anyway, I rushed over there because the loser in the blazer was talking about neck pain and whatnot.
The guy was about my age (I'm 8 years older than my bro) so he was suddenly a little less of a tough guy when I got there. I asked him how in hell he can have neck pain from that accident (he was sitting in his driver seat and I was talking to him from his window) and he takes his hand off his neck and violently shakes his head around to "re-enact" the impact of the accident.

At this point is asked him if a couple hundred dollars would make his neck feel better. He said it would have to be more than that. I said ok, you'll get nothing. If I have to go to court personally, I'll make sure you get nothing.

Ended up that a cop happened to pass by, so he did a report. We never heard from the guy at all. Loser.

In all fairness, I was in a low impact collision that tore my deltoid muscle. My body was just in the wrong position at the time when I got hit. I spent about two months in physiotherapy. Even to this day, my shoulder give out pretty easily.