Texas court awards $150bn damages over fatal burning
13 replies, posted
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16296489[/url]
[QUOTE][B]A Texas jury has awarded $150bn (£96bn) to the family of a boy who died of skin cancer 12 years after being set on fire and badly burned.[/B]
Robbie Middleton, then aged eight, was alleged to have been sexually assaulted by the same attacker two weeks earlier.
The symbolic sum - the largest personal injury award in US history - is being seen as a plea to police to arrest the suspect, a convicted sex abuser.
The previous largest award was a $145bn fine against tobacco companies.
Craig Sico, lawyer for the Middleton family, said his aim was to pressure prosecutors in Montgomery County, Texas to charge Don Wilburn Collins, now 26, with murder.
The judgement came from a Fayette County jury in La Grange, Texas.
[B]"The jury told us afterwards the reason they made this the largest verdict [in US history] at $150bn was because they wanted to make sure their
message was heard,"[/B] Mr Sico told the AFP news agency.
Collins was convicted of a separate child sexual assault in 2001 and has been in and out of prison ever since, once for refusing to be registered as a
sex offender. He is due to be paroled in September 2012.
[B]
The Middleton family allege that Collins set Robbie Middleton on fire after tying him to a tree and dousing the eight-year-old in petrol on 28 June 1998.[/B]
[B]
The incident happened in the woods near the Middleton home in Spendora, Texas, 35 miles (56km) outside of Houston, Texas.[/B]
[B]
The young boy managed to escape but suffered third-degree burns over 99% of his body.[/B]
[B]
He went through five months of skin-replacement surgery, but died on 29 April 2011 of skin cancer.[/B] The cancer was caused by the burns, Mr Sico said.
Lawyer David Walker told the Los Angeles Times that Collins was not charged in either alleged attack because "the case was very, very difficult, with evidence that was not clear or necessarily compelling at that time".
Mr Walker said that Middleton's injures made it "extremely difficult" to tell officials what had happened.
"There will be people who will say that's an excuse," Mr Walker said, "but the professionals here worked very hard."
The criminal case was reopened earlier in 2011, but Mr Walker said any arrests would be dependent "upon the results of that further investigation".
[/QUOTE]
Just one question remains.
Where is the money going to come from?
That's a lot of money...
$150 BILLION?
BRB, pouring gasoline on my sister
[QUOTE=Dr.C;33839323]$150 BILLION?
BRB, pouring gasoline on my sister[/QUOTE]
Why? You would have to [I]pay[/I] 150 billion dollars, because you are the one who set her on fire.
You can't really put a pricetag on a life, but the fact that the family went through a fight with their son to keep alive in the hospital for 12 years and the fact that he died on the long run is really hard.
Not sure if I fully understand how this works, but wouldn't this make the family the wealthiest in the world? Or is it just a 'symbolic' number?
I think Forbes listed the Mexican president and his family as #1 around $80bn or something.
so, who's gonna pay
[QUOTE=bopie;33839356]Not sure if I fully understand how this works, but wouldn't this make the family the wealthiest in the world? Or is it just a 'symbolic' number?
I think Forbes listed the Mexican president and his family as #1 around $80bn or something.[/QUOTE]
Entirely symbolic, as there is no way a single person is going to be able to pay that much money. Never the less, it's one hell of a way to get your message across.
Nobody's going to pay, folks. The number is more a way to grab attention than anything else.
it would be pretty funny if the world went into depression because of this one case
though the subject matter isnt really that funny
nor would be widespread poverty
nevermind :(
If a corporation sues you for whatever million dollars for something like copyright infringement, you rarely pay the whole sum. In this case, he'll pay next to nothing. The number is completely meaningless.
[quote]
[b]The Middleton family allege that Collins set Robbie Middleton on fire after tying him to a tree and dousing the eight-year-old in petrol on 28 June 1998.[/b][/quote]
Fucking disgusting.
This is truly Horrible... but 150bn dollars, that's quite a lot isn't it? If i get them i will fix Americas Economy.
[QUOTE=Sexy Eskimo;33839723]This is truly Horrible... but 150bn dollars, that's quite a lot isn't it? If i get them i will fix Americas Economy.[/QUOTE]
nobody is actually getting that money don't be silly
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