Frivolity Is In The Eye Of The Beholder
There is a man who lives in York, PA named Albert Snyder. His son was in the military, and was killed in the line of duty. When Mr. Snyder tried to bury his son in Baltimore County, MD, the funeral was picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church. They showed up with signs saying things like “God Hates Fags.” Apparently, they believe that U.S. military deaths are God’s revenge for our society’s tolerance of homosexuality. Mr. Snyder sued the Westboro Baptist Church and got an 11 million dollar verdict. This has been in the news recently because Mr. Snyder lost on appeal to the 4th Circuit, and was ordered to pay the church’s costs of about $16,000.
The same day, there was a $1.44 million dollar verdict in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County in a medical malpractice case. This was a death case. The defendant was an ER doctor who failed to diagnoses sepsis, leading to the death of the patient. Baltimore County is one of the most conservative jurisdictions in the state. Because of this, this verdict was also in the news.
Our local paper’s website allows comments, and I read the comments to both of these stories. The comments to the medmal story pillory the plaintiffs and their lawyers. The plaintiffs are called greedy, their case was called frivolous, and one commenter said it wasn’t fair because $1.44 million dollars won’t bring the dead man back. This is a case where a man died.
The comments to the Snyder story support him fully, and are appalled that he now has to pay costs. There is no mention of the amount of the verdict, and nobody called him greedy, or his case frivolous, even though he sued essentially because his feelings were hurt at a very emotionally sensitive time.
Why do people think one of these cases is frivolous and not the other? Death case= frivolous. Hurt feelings case= not frivolous. I guess frivolity is in the eye of the beholder.
Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think either of these cases is frivolous. But there is an incredible amount of hypocrisy in calling one case frivolous but not the other, simply because one case is wrapped in the flag.
