[~Poseidon~]

Sometimes I really ask myself, what the hell happend with this world.
In my world, you fall, you stand up and 2 weeks later you laugh about how stupid and how unlucky you were that day...

And the sad thing is, Bouchard herself probably hasnt got much to do with it, it's all about lawyers with Dollar Signs in the eyes...
They rule this system right now and it's a horrible system.

 

[~Poseidon~]

that works only if you weren't suffering severe injury like a concussion by that fall.

That's the unlucky part, isn't it?
Sometimes you're just at the wrong place at the wrong time in your life. You slip in a dark room where you expect an Ice Bath, I mean come on, that's already enough, to at least blame yourself in parts. And then? Do you really need to discuss, who is "guiltier"?
Shit happens sometimes, it obviously happend that night.

But of course, the lawsuit might have a simple reason, that is not called cash grabbing: Health insurance refusing to pay the cost for the accident.

 

[~Poseidon~]

A concussion is a very serious injury, not something you can laugh away.

She lost $100,000 just in bonus pool money because of alleged negligence of someone else, of course she is suing. Everybody would do that, including you, if you were in a similar situation.

Sorry, no, i definetely wouldn't, because I know my own responsibility and entering a dark room, expecting an Ice Bath, isn't the smartest thing to do.
As long as I had a chance to get out of a situation with my own power, I have to ask myself if I took that chance. That's my way to handle things.

I'm sick of searching somebody to blame for everything that happens to you, when you had the chance, to save yourself from it. We don't know the facts, though, so let's see what happens, but with what we know now, this looks like an accident, that was just extremely unlucky, with noone intending to do any harm.

 

[~Poseidon~]

Intention to do harm is irrelevant in negligence cases.

You'd say the same to an ordinary member of the public who slipped on a wet public bathroom floor because there had been no warning sign, and who lost the ability to do their job?

From what I understand of the Bouchard case, this is not a perfectly compareable scenario and of course, there are many different scenarios of a simple public bathroom fall as well, so there is no definete answer to you question without knowing the facts.

One things for sure, some people have no other chance than suing, if they lost the ability to do their job, that's mostly a fight of insurances though.

 

[~Poseidon~]

Yeah, no way. Really easy to claim that as long as you're not the one suffering a ijury potentially suffering your livelihood.You have the chance to get out of virtually every situation on "your own power" if you have hindsight. And she didn't fall in the "ice bath room", she fell in a room where you don't expect the ground to be slippery. There's a reason why every public facility in the civilized world uses giant warning signs for wet floors. It's not a courtesy, it's called health & safety regulation.

You're basically arguing to get rid of the whole concept of negligence. That's one dystopian world.

No, you obviously can't get out of every situation.

And as for facilities in the civilized world, the lights being out usually sends a signal, too.

 

[~Poseidon~]

You would sue the USTA if you fell due to their neglience and suffered a lifelong hand injury that prevented you from doing your job to the same capacity you used to before the incident.

But there's the if, isn't it? Do you HAVE to sue them for existential reasons (insurance not paying etc.) or are you in the lucky position, that you got out of the situation with a Guardian Angel and grab some money?

I said that before, I don't think this is any of Genies personal goal. She's probably got little clue of what's going on and the only thing she has to do is sign a form, while the lawyers hope for big cash. She's surely not sitting in her chair at home with an evil grin and planning her new Beach House.

I mean, seriously. IF I really chose to sue somebody, wouldn't that be the person mopping the floor? Well, I probably would, but then, well, where's the money? Yeah, probably not under the cleaning stuffs cushion.

And that's where the US Law has some serious flaws in my opinion, as it often is a place of personal power and money, instead of a place, that simply pronounces judgement.
It gives lawyers too much room to make big cash and put winning a case for personal fame over the actual case.

 

[~Poseidon~]

You think US government and US customers of Volkswagen should not sue the company because they should have been more diligent in catching the hatched job done by VW and its engineers to deceive the US government and the Americans people. ?

I think the Volkswagen-Case is a pretty good example tbh.

They should be sued for fraud, because that's exactly what they did, big time. They sold a lie for personal gain and that's disgusting.
But what's probably going to happen is, that they sue them for killing birds, trees and causing health issues by polluting the air. And while you listen to that news in the radio, shaking your head in disgust, you sit in your gas eating Monstertruck, shaking your head.

That's what i critizised before. Go out and pronounce judgement, instead of looking for the best possible way to make money out of it. And of course that's not an US-issue only, but things are obviously much easier to achieve there, than in other countries.

 

[~Poseidon~]

WTA better watch out if Genie wins this.

Players are going to sue the hell out of them for playing in China and catching a severe stomache bug.

 

[~Poseidon~]

Not comparable at all. What kind of stomach bug sidelines you for months (if lucky) or has possible lasting effects for life (if not so lucky)?

And it would certainly not be WTA who gets sued when cause and effect are determined.

http://www.tennisforum.com/12-general-messages/448065-lisicki-food-poisoning-life-threatening.html

Maybe minor issue compared to a concussion, but it obviously can set you off for weeks, too.

So let's say it happened in one of the players hotels, checked by the WTA, where is the difference to Genies case?
They sued the USTA, when it is pretty obvious, that, if so, the cleaning personal made the mistake. So you could probably try to sue the WTA, when usually the cook should be to blame for using old meat.

 

[~Poseidon~]

You're missing the concept of "vicarious liability", or "respondeat superior" if you want to get fancy-talkin', whereby an employer or organization on whose behalf you are acting is ultimately held liable for actions you take while in their employ or at their direction. This is the case in pretty much any Common Law country. It's also why the banks whose employees defrauded the market or sold their clients crap are ultimately the ones paying 8, 9, even 10 figures to settle charges by the authorities.

If the cook uses bad meat and you get gastritis, the restaurant (or the hotel, if it owns it) is held liable. The individual might be criminally liable on top of that, and/or might be held to partial account (e.g. by getting fired), but usually if you're an employee carrying out your duties in good faith, your employer is implicitly indemnifying you (holding you legally harmless and covering your ass) if you negligently screw something up. That doesn't apply if an injury is intentionally caused, of course, or if you were not acting in your capacity as an employee. But the USTA / NTC are almost certainly legally liable for the actions of their janitorial staff, whether they be contractors or employees.

(now, if the USTA uses a contractor service and the USTA is held liable, the USTA might sue that service to recover their settlement costs, so then you'd get into arguments over what the usual protocol was, who gave what orders to whom, etc... Let's hope we don't go down that rabbit-hole.)

I think it would depend to contracts between the WTA and the chosen players hotels and what they guarantee to the players, wouldn't it?

But yeah, I know how it works, but that doesn't mean, I like it, because that leads us back to responsibility and the goal should be, to find somebody responsible and I don't think this would happen by saying the USTA is to blame, because this would mean, it would have been in the USTAs power, to prevent an employee from forgetting to put up a sign or closing the door.

For me it still looks like an unfortuneate series of events, but the facts we know are obviously only enough for speculation of what happend right now, so it's exactly this: speculation.

 

[~Poseidon~]

Just for the record, it's not just common law countries, this is the case in Germany, too. I hate that the one impression one gets from this thread is that Germany is some kind of backward banana republic without a legal system.

At no point have I spoken in the name of Germany or Germanys laws, just stated my opinion, but thanks for the subtle sideswipe, I thought we were on good terms.

 

[~Poseidon~]

Imagine if Serena had been the one who slipped and hit her head, and therefore was denied the calendar slam due to a concussion. Bouchard having a crappy year does not make it any less of a lawsuit.

She could have sued the city of Munich for leaving the sidewalk in dangerous conditions, as far as we know, she didn't .

Also, remeber Vika injuring herself on the slippery grass in Wimbledon. Actually, it could have been worth a try there too. She openly critizised the Tournament, but as much as we know, no lawsuit.
And then, there was her own fall that lead to a mild concussion at the US Open, we don't know how it happend, who knows, maybe it could have been worth it, too.


The list of potential successful lawsuits is probably endless on the tour. But maybe there are countries, where it's worth it and others, where it's not.

 

[~Poseidon~]

Do you really think those examples are analogous to Bouchard's case?

I don't know the facts about Serena injuring her foot in Munich, but the examples of Vika injuring herself on court do not compare.

I don't think they need to be analogous, just an inspiration.
Just as I think, that Genie got the inspiration doing it, I have a hard time believing she stood up with an angy face, threatening to sue them as her first intention.
So maybe others just lacked the inspiration to do so. Genie obviously has one oft the most professional teams you could imagine in this sport.

But yeah, making players play on a slippery court, which sometimes happens, even with players protesting, could potentially mean trouble.
But falling on the grass (or a slippery floor) in Wimbledon most probably wouldn't have the same outcome, as falling on a slippery floor at the US Open.

 

[~Poseidon~]

If you know the grass is slippery, then you assume the risk of slipping and falling when you walk onto the court to play a tennis match.

Walking into a training room that has been treated with a slippery substance with no posted signs is different.

Oh, i'm not sure about this. Making players play against their protest on a slippery surface, resulting in an injury, might end up even worse for the tournament, as this might go one step further than negligence.

 

[~Poseidon~]

What a disgusting Media-Show before it even started.
Let's hope it won't backfire at his client.
She should concentrate on getting back in shape next year, we need her at the top.