This Is an Outrage and Makes Me Sick

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I just found this story in this kind of thing makes me so mad I get sick to my stomach. The small town of Miami Oklahoma had a company in it called Blitz which manufactured 75% of the gas cans we buy to store fuel for our lawnmowers and cars. At one point they employed over 350 people in the small town. Several years ago they started getting lawsuits claiming that their gas cans were exploding causing harm to people. They were told that the cans were exploding while pouring gasoline on an open flame to either accelerate or start a fire. The number of these lawsuits increased to the point where they were actually defending themselves against 40 cases and the cost of legal fees and increased insurance bankrupted the company. According to the documentary not only did Blitz USA have to pay to defend themselves from these frivolous lawsuits but they actually lost some of them due to jury members seeing plaintiffs disfigured from gasoline burns and feeling sorry for them and awarding them money.

One of the things in the documentary that really bothered me was that on the day the company was closing there was a meeting in Chicago of lawyers where one of the rooms at the event was to teach lawyers specifically how to sue companies like Blitz USA. In my opinion lawyers like this are as bad as the trolls and give good and honest lawyers a bad name.

From what I understand is the company went through bankruptcy and its assets were put up for auction, it was acquired by a Canadian company which will resume limited production but does not seem to be offering former employees their jobs back.

The original article comes from the website Faces of Lawsuit Abuse and may be found at the following link:

http://www.facesoflawsuitabuse.org/2012/12/the-last-week-how-lawsuits-doomed-an-american-icon/

[stinger]

This is definitely one of the major things wrong with our legal system.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Agreed.  I knew we were headed towards this point over 15 years ago when I was looking to purchase a hydraulic log splitter, there was a warning label on it stating “Warning: DO NOT Place Head Between Block and Ram!  Serious Injury or Death May Result!”  I have never forgot seeing this and I laughed at it, the salesman asked what I was laughing at and I pointed to the sticker and was told that the sticker was a result of a lawsuit.

This is definitely one of the major things wrong with our legal system.

[SoylentGreen]

Thanks for posting this.  This is nuts.
Too bad for that company and workers.

Time to sue the makers of the wood chipper in "Fargo"..?

S.G.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Thanks for posting this.  This is nuts.
Too bad for that company and workers.

Time to sue the makers of the wood chipper in "Fargo"..?

S.G.

[Mulligan]

Between automation, out-sourcing, the lawyers, and the politicians (who are almost all lawyers much to my disgust), in a few years there won't be any jobs in this country for most people other than WalMart greeter or hamburger flipper. God knows how my grandchildren are going to survive when the 1%ers and those striving to be 1%ers at any cost have total control.

The republic as the founders envisioned it is gone, and I don't see it returning, thanks to the greedy bastards who care only about money and power and thanks also to those of us who saw it coming but lacked the aggression gene needed to fight back tit for tat with these human sharks.