Space Empires V or ridiculous lawsuits? What is the connection?

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by snakeye:
I would like to say here that I mailed the developer of SEIV to thank him for the SEIV been such a great game. In his reply he informed me that Starfury is the next thing to come out and Space Empires V is in the works. OH BOY! CANT WAIT! *drool*

What!? How dare you bring up Space Empires V in this thread! This is the lawsuit bashing thread!

[AgentZero]

Speaking of ridiculous lawsuits, here's a good one out of Dublin.
A large company hired a man on as CEO, but after 3 years, realized all the responsibilities he had could, and in many cases, already were, being done by other people. So, him being redundant and all, he was sacked. But not in the 'clear out your office and get the hell out way.' He was informed that he was being made redundant (fired), however, then company would continue to pay him for a period of 12 months at his full salary of 250,000euro AND he would retain all the benefits (medical, dental, car, etc) for that 12 month period. And he's taking THEM to court.
His reason?
He figures he should be given TWO YEARS notice.
Can you imagine? 'Well, Bob, we don't really need you anymore, but we're going to pay you 250K over the next year to do sweet eff-all.'
'That's not fair, George! I deserve to be paid half a million euro over the next two years to sit on my oversized posterior.'
WTF?
And he's only 44. That means at least another 21 working years where he could get a similar, or superior salary. Some people...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

McDonalds WAS pretty reckless in their behaivior before the accident

how where they reckless?

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:

quote:

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McDonalds WAS pretty reckless in their behaivior before the accident

how where they reckless?

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Qualify this by saying I have no personal knowledge of the case or the evidence. What I learned I got from reading a bunch of websites on the subject. But apparently McDonalds had a corporate policy of keeping their coffee some 40 degrees hotter then the industry norm. The temperature was hot enough to be a serious risk of third degree burns. Evidence at trial was that they knew of this risk and chose for business reasons to disregard it. Apparently there were several hundred incidents involving customer scaldings prior to the incident that garnered all the attention. And that none other then the Shriners Burn Institute was on public record as having asked McDonalds corp to modify their policy before the incident involved in the lawsuit.

Sounds like fairly negligent behaivior, at least on the surface.

Geoschmo

[CEO TROLL]

Originally posted by snakeye:
I would like to say here that I mailed the developer of SEIV to thank him for the SEIV been such a great game. In his reply he informed me that Starfury is the next thing to come out and Space Empires V is in the works. OH BOY! CANT WAIT! *drool*

BWAHAHAHAHA!!! I already registered the names SEV, SEVI, ...SEX, ...SEXXX, and up. He will have to name the next one SE69!

[Iggiboo]

Isn't "SEV" a registered character for a sci-fi channel show?

As for lawsuits, take casinos. One of the most frequently sued franchises on earth, people often stage elaborate accidents to sue and reclaim thier losses. What most people don't realize is 99% of a casino is video taped and the remaining 1% is watched manually.

[tbontob]

In tort law, there is a major distinction between negligence and recklessness.

Negligence gives rise to a cause of action when the person does not exercise the standard of prudent care that a normal reasonable man on the street would.

Recklessness implies something more than negligences in that there is a deliberate disregard for the saftey of others.

I don't know much about MacDonald's practices, but it is questionable whether they are reckless. Some people like and want their coffee scalding hot.

They could be negligent, but it is a toss up. The courts could say that the consumer knows coffee is hot and should have taken proper care. The rebuttal of course is that the coffee is hotter than normal. Now if the prudent, reasonable man on the street would not make coffee so hot, then there is negligence for that is the standard.

The prudent reasonable man on the street will not go through a red light. If he does, then he is responsible for the consequences.

But some reasonsable men will make their coffee hot and there is the rub.

Mexican food can be "hot" and a susceptable person can suffer health problems with the ingestion of hot chilli peppers etc. Yet, to expect them to prepare food which is bland and tasteless in order to avoid a lawsuit would not normally be reasonable in the sense that the reasonable man on the street would not prepare such hot food.

On balance, my opinion is that MacDonald's will probably not be liable. But just as two lawyers can disagree, the judge can hold there is negligence.

If McDonald's was wise, they would have put a sign up saying that their coffee is hotter than normal and the customer should take due care. Offering to dilute the beverage would help too.

But then lawyers being lawyers, the arguement will devolve around whether the sign was prominently displayed, whether the customer saw it, whether the customer ought to have seen it, etc.

[geoschmo]

Tbontob, I'm not a lawyer. I wasn't aware of the legal difference between negligence and recklessnes. I should have said negligent.

[Fyron]

Isn't "SEV" a registered character for a sci-fi channel show?

That hardly matters as MM uses the name Space Empires V, not SEV. SE3, SEIII, SEIV, SE4 are not trademark of Malfador Machinations, they are just abbreviations. So MM could not be sued over the name of SEV because SEV is not an official name.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Tbontob, I'm not a lawyer. I wasn't aware of the legal difference between negligence and recklessnes. I should have said negligent.

Actually you did.

Narf poit chez BOOM spoke of recklessness.

I just thought it would help to understand the situation by having a clear understanding of the difference.

EDIT: I also thought your commentary on McDonalds was valid and to the point.

[ May 30, 2003, 23:51: Message edited by: tbontob ]