Been busy with business, with teaching, with Dad's estate,
and with looking after Mom (whose adjustment to widowhood is not coming about
as orderly (if such is possible) as normal (whatever that may be). I saw what my wife's mother (she had not yet
become my mother-in-law at the time) went through, and how she handled the loss
of her husband. While my m-i-l was
certainly bereaved, she did come to terms with the fact that life would be
different, and she went about the business of dealing with her husband's estate
(including the sale of his health care practice). My own Mom is not yet doing so well. I am concerned.
The demands upon my schedule will, in all likelihood,
continue to affect the frequency and quality of postings on this Blog.
But I digress.
One matter which has concerned me for years is the law's
tendency to facilitate (if not encourage) stupidity, and to discourage rational
mental reasoning. What message does it
send when landowners are compelled to pay stupid trespassers for their
injuries?
And, of course, New York is one of the nanniest of the nanny
states.
So it came as both a surprise and a reassurance to read the
case of Wolfe
v. Hatch, in which Branden Wolfe (or, rather, his mother as his not so
vigilant guardian) was denied recovery for the loss of his hand, incurred while
playing with illegal home-made fireworks.
Because the then 14-year-old was engaged in a dangerous criminal act
which was the direct cause of his injuries, he was unable to maintain a lawsuit
against his playmate who had manufactured the fireworks.
The trial court decision was sustained on appeal. Reading the Appellate
Division's opinion in the case, the stupidity of everyone involved is very
apparent. And because Branden had a
videocam which he gave to a friend to record the incident, there were few if
any disputes of material facts.
If the law fails to protect enough people from the
consequences of their stupid choices, then perhaps a few more individuals in
the population will find that they are capable of making good decisions after
all.
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