You're walking along, minding your own business, when you hear a familiar chirp; someone's sent you a text. Being the good friend/co-worker/sibling that you are, you immediately fish the phone from your pocket and start typing up a reply. But no sooner than you've let the autocorrect change "lbirary" to "library" than you feel yourself tripped up, and fall face-first into an unrefreshing pool of water.
For anyone else, this would be an embarrassment at worst, and a lesson learned at best; for Cathy Cruz Marrero, it smells like money.
The 49-year-old was the subject of much laughter and finger-pointing after a cell-phone video of a security feed from a mall caught her unruly tumble into a fountain, and was uploaded to YouTube last week. She then hinted on Good Morning America that she might be interested in suing the mall because nobody came to her aid.
When she quickly walked away, she seemed more interested in avoiding being seen then tending to any would-be injuries, so the claim seems a little thin.
But litigious restrain isn't something the U.S. has ever been known for. There was the judge who sued for tens of thousands of dollars over a dry cleaning snafu. Or the world's "most litigious man" who sued the Guinness Book of World Records from jail. And let's not forget the inmate who escaped from prison, then sued because it was too easy for him to escape.
I wish some of these were made up. They're not. It's also estimated that lawsuits make up 2% of our country's GDP, or $250 billion (that's "billion" with a 'b') per year. In a free country, one should have an avenue to fairly redress grievances. But in the case of the "fountain lady" and many others, it may be a step too far. What do you think?
--Brandon
Photo taken from this photostream and used with permission of a Creative Commons license.
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