I Hate to See People Get Sued, But...

I noticed the following story in the news this morning:

"Nine people filed a $1.3 million lawsuit Thursday against the globe-trotting tuberculosis patient for possibly exposing them to the disease on a commercial flight from Prague to Montreal.

(Andrew) Speaker (photo), a 31-year-old Atlanta personal injuries attorney, was in Europe when he learned tests showed he had an extremely drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis known as XDR-TB.

Health officials now say Speaker‘s strain of TB is not the extremely drug resistant kind but a more treatable, multi-drug-resistant form of the disease. They say tests so far indicate his risk of spreading the infection are low."

Rumor had it that this was going to happen since this story broke quite some time ago and normally I really hate to see people get sued. But this story seems very different.

First of all, Speaker's behavior was highly calculated and deliberate. He flew around the world knowing he had this terrible disease without regard to the lives and safety of others.

He's an attorney who worked for years in personal injury law. It would be interesting to know how quick the US Naval Academy and University of Georgia educated attorney would be to recommend a law suit to someone else involved in similar circumstances.

His father in law, Dr. Robert Cooksey, is one of the nation's leading experts on TB at the Center for Disease Control. It appears that Speaker even got advise on this terrible condition. I can't believe Cooksey told him "it was no big deal." If he did, sue Cooksey too.

I'm not a big believer in law suits and consider frivolous ones a major cause to many of the economic and other problems our nation faces today, but some times it makes sense. This may be one of the times.