When the Mt. Laurel Pool in Hazleton, Pennsylvania closed, the community was devastated. “A lot of kids lived for that. They loved it,” says Paul Wanuga, a Hazleton resident. “And it was good because it kept kids out of trouble” in a community where residents say there is too much vandalism and crime. But a lawsuit shuttered the pool, and the once pristine facility is now in shambles.
The pool and its founder, Evelyn Graham, welcomed thousands of swimmers every summer for more than ten years. Mt. Laurel Pool provided a gathering place for families and neighbors and summer jobs for teenagers. One former lifeguard says, “When you’re younger, it is difficult to find a place of employment, and Evelyn gave us that opportunity to have a place to learn good work ethics.”
One summer, despite rules painted on the sidewalk and a warning from the lifeguard, a man ran and jumped into the pool, cutting his heel. “There was nothing we did wrong. He did it to himself,” the pool manager says. The lifeguard and manager cleaned and bandaged the cut, and the manager recalls that he said “It’s nothing. It’s just a little cut… No problem.”
But, later, Mt. Laurel Pool was sued. The man and his wife claimed $100,000 for the injury, and Graham’s lawyers recommended that she settle what she considered to be a wildly frivolous case. She was baffled, and, fearing copy cat lawsuits, she decided to close the pool.
In the end, it was the community that suffered most. Hazleton families no longer have a place to swim, and everyone from the ticket takers to the management lost their jobs. “They sue when they shouldn’t sue,” Wanuga says. “But then we have lawyers who thrive on it. They love it. They wish you would sue, too.”
“I’m sure they have other motives in mind,” says a former lifeguard, “but they can’t possibly take into consideration what it’s doing to everybody else.”
35 Comments
Kris Schade said on December 11, 2009 at 9:06 pm #
This is all so sad, but we currently have a President in this country who sued major banks to force them to give home loans to people who would not repay them – he may his money off frivolous lawsuits – don’t expect anything to chance under his watch. Just the fact that he wont even talk about limiting the jackpot justice suits for hundreds of millions in an effort to curtail healthcare costs for all Americans tells you right where he stands on this subject.
davidbibaud said on December 18, 2009 at 9:42 am #
what a shame for the community as a whole we are our brothers keeper the lawyer is a real shyster he belongs at the bottom of the gene pool what a scrooge bah humbug,merry xmas to all EVELYN GRAHAM you are an angel.
twotimetuna said on December 18, 2009 at 11:27 am #
typical democrat lawyers
welcome to depression obama
carla morin said on December 19, 2009 at 5:27 am #
What a shame! Lawyers are 1 reason why this country has been turned upside down. For every lawsuit that gets’settled’, prices go up, ie health insurance.
carla
CraigC said on December 20, 2009 at 12:54 pm #
The lawyers that take cases such as these, the people who file suits like this one, and the judges who tolerate this nonsense are a prelude to what is ruining our country. “Losers” win. “Winners” lose! This is exactly why the health care reform enacted by the Democrats without tort reform is just another nail in the coffin of America. The lawyers (protected by Democrats in Congress) get rich. the rest of us suffer!
John said on December 21, 2009 at 2:26 pm #
This poor lady did nothing but help the community….tell her to fill in the pool (with dirt) now because of possible lawsuits down the road.
Brian Leith said on December 21, 2009 at 2:34 pm #
People need to learn that nothing is free. Lawsuit settlements may seem like a windfall but they add significant cost to everything and they shift fault for one’s own stupidity to someone else. As a society we are long overdue for some soul searching when i comes to placing blame.
Tort Reform said on December 21, 2009 at 3:24 pm #
The best solution would be for the owner, employees, and users of the pool to sue the man in return.
The owner could sue for failure to follow proscribed rules in place, written and published, and known to all who used the pool. She should sue for the cost of the land, the improvements made to the land to install the pool, costs for maintenance, and costs to bring the pool into compliance with any applicable laws.
The employees should sue for placing them in jeopardy for having to rescue the man. Is or was there any proof he did not have any contagious disease that could have been transmitted through body fluid contact? In addition, they could sue the man for loss of wages and emotional distress.
The users should sue for the possible exposure to human blood, as well as emotional distress.
I am sure there is at least 1 lawyer in the area who would be willing to take on those three cases – just to shut the one lawyer and the idiot up. And to re-open the pool.
What a sad state of affairs we’ve come to when people sue for their own stupidity and judges do not prevent the actions from becoming real court cases. It is actions such as these that cause the average American citizen to lose faith in the justice system. And to lump all lawyers into one pile of miscreant sewage. And that’s not fair to all lawyers.
Dennis H Johnston said on December 22, 2009 at 12:31 pm #
This type of irresponsible behavior must be stopped. Damn the attorneys!!
jbarb said on December 23, 2009 at 3:06 am #
The plaintiff did this to himself. Why should he be allowed to sue anyone? $100,000 for cutting his foot by his own action – an action totally against the written and spoken rules – is ridiculous.
Man Who Filed Lawsuit After Injury Surprised Pool Is Closing
L.A. Tarone, Standard Speaker (Hazleton, PA), June 6, 2005
My2Cents said on December 24, 2009 at 2:28 pm #
There is no point in counter suing because the lawyer is insulated by law and the individuals undoubtedly do not have enough net worth to even cover the cost of filing.
The best the community can do is make sure everyone knows who the parties who are suing are and have everyone shun them.
Donald Hoskins said on December 26, 2009 at 2:20 pm #
If, we, collectively, woud write all our elected representatives, from local to national, we could have a chance to stop this type of frivolous lawsuits.
bob said on December 27, 2009 at 10:44 am #
It doesn’t look like the owner carried any liability insurance.And,With this type of business that’s insanity. Granted frivolous suits are a problem but the more serious problem here is that the owner failed to properly insure herself and her customers.Insurance should of paid all but a reasonable deductible.
Steve J. said on December 29, 2009 at 5:57 am #
This is why GA. has a frivolous lawsuit law on their books. The defendants in that state can be automatically awarded 2x the lawsuit amount by the presiding judge against both the lame lawyer and whining complaining party.
Christopher said on December 29, 2009 at 3:04 pm #
This kind of thing is garbage those people who sued are evil.
Beensuedmyself said on December 30, 2009 at 10:35 am #
Are there bad lawyers? Yes! Are there bad Judges? Yes! However, that’s not the primary problem. The primary problem is the fact that under present law there is no down side to the filing of such frivolous lawsuits. It all boils down to the math.
At present there are thousands of lawsuits filed every day across America that have a snowballs chance in hell of succeeding on the merit of the claims. The problem is that every lawyer knows that 95% of all such civil lawsuits are settled out of court. They are settled because sooner or later, everyone does the math. The defendant may be faced with the choice of paying $50,000 to settle a frivolous lawsuit or paying three or four times that amount to fight that frivolous lawsuit. If the defendant chooses to fight and in fact wins, there is no hard and fast rule of law that makes the plaintiff or more importantly the plaintiff’s attorney who eagerly prosecuted that frivolous lawsuit liable for the costs, expenses and attorney fees of the prevailing defendant.
So the question then becomes what would you do if you found yourself in such a situation? Pay or fight? I don’t know the exact percentage but I do know that the majority of all legislators in both state and federal government are in fact attorneys and they are the ones who make our laws. The probability that our attorney legislators are going to pass legislation that would in effect shoot off the proverbial foot of their fellow attorneys is slim and none. The plaintiffs as well as the defendants in these kind lawsuits are just pawns used to enrich the attorneys on both sides of such lawsuits.
When a law is passed that emphatically states (no ifs, ands, buts or maybes) you lose, you pay! Be you a plaintiff who asserted a frivolous claim or a defendant who asserted a frivolous defense to a legitimate claim, you lose, you pay! Now take that one step further and make the attorneys liability equal to that of their clients and thousands of such frivolous lawsuits would vanish from the court’s dockets overnight.
Unless and until that happens, this type of court sanctioned extortion will not only continue, it will get much worse.
Ungreedy Lawyer said on December 31, 2009 at 11:29 am #
Wait, he cut his heel? Just from running? What did he cut his heel on? I get the feeling we’re not hearing the whole story here. The way the story is presented, it makes it sound like the issue was not the running and jumping, it was that he got cut on something. Were there signs warning about the possibility of getting cut?
All you people who are lawyer-bashing, a lawyer can’t bring a suit by himself, if he isn’t the one who got injured. The plaintiff in this suit is just as responsible as the lawyer. The problem is that there is a certain type of jerk who threatens to sue whenever anything goes wrong for him. Those people are the root of the issue. Then you compound it with a greedy or unethical lawyer who agrees to file the suit and boom, bad lawsuit.
Also, every state bar association in the country has rules of conduct for lawyers about not filing frivolous suits, not pressuring people into suing, etc. If a client brings you a lawsuit that you feel is unethical or frivolous, you are supposed to turn them down. Lawyers are also never supposed to make the decision on their own to proceed; that’s the client’s decision. That’s why you aren’t supposed to pressure the client into anything (just tell him what the possibilities are). Lawyers who do these things are unethical. There are plenty of lawyers with integrity who would never bring a frivolous suit because they do have a sense of right and wrong. There are also lawyers who wouldn’t file a bad suit because you might get disciplined for it. I think sanctions should be imposed a lot more often than they are against unethical lawyers, and maybe we could weed the sleazeballs out of the profession. They make the rest of us look bad.
Simon Abela said on December 31, 2009 at 3:11 pm #
America is doomed, and we all will fall due to the incompetent politicians and stupids laws we have. America become the number one place for lawsuits. It is a shame that everyone in that town has to suffer because of one person irresponsible actions.
Don Smith said on January 1, 2010 at 11:37 am #
This should never been allowed to happen. HOWEVER, blaming the government, and the current administration is even more ridiculous.
This happened almost 4 years ago, so does that mean it is George Bush’s fault? Let’s stop trying to blame political parties and find solutions.
richard said on January 3, 2010 at 2:25 pm #
How rediculous that so many people are trying to blame Obama for this. Like lawsuits didn’t happen before he was president, or that he has done ANYTHING to make the situation worse. Just a lot of bitter Republicans trying to capitalize politically on a bad situation. Typical.
Kent McCullough said on January 5, 2010 at 1:40 pm #
Trial lawyers and members of congress are ruining this country. Tort reform should be enacted that would charge the person suing AND the lawyer bringing the lawsuit, then maybe things would change.
Michael K said on January 8, 2010 at 2:04 pm #
Being in the legal profession, I think that this story may have elements that are left out. It would be unlikely a lawyer would take a case involving a minor cut because the possibility of recovery is non-existent. Proving the tort elements of Duty–> Breach –>Cause –>Harm would be difficult, for instance a simple cut does not satisfy a claim for harm. Then not to mention assumption of risk / proportional liability. Its a visceral reaction to blame the lawyers, but the prima facia case here is absurdly weak given the facts presented. What if the guy had indeed been running but due to a dangerously sharp edge he was cut in a way that he lost permanent use of his foot. Careless behavior would be dealt with in the allocation of damages, but surely if this hypothetical scenario occurred then legal theory suggests a recovery should take place.
Ron said on January 9, 2010 at 11:35 am #
The judges that allow frivolous cases like this to happen should be fired, but of course they never will. Our legal system is just like our political system, it is ran by crooks.
Tony said on January 9, 2010 at 12:18 pm #
Since it is a matter of public record, why not publish the name of the man who filed the suit as well as the name of the lawyer who represented him? It is time to fight these people with the weapons of shame and public scorn.
Tim S said on January 10, 2010 at 7:19 am #
Why is this a surprise? If a person can sue McDonalds for making them fat anything is possible.
Earl SMith said on January 10, 2010 at 1:08 pm #
The “primary” story is certainly one that should concern us all. Its not about the lawyers or anyone else. It about personal GREED!!!! We never want to accept blame for our own actions….we as a society continue to miss the point!!!
This is even more clearly demonstrated by the ascertions that this is due to the lawyers, democrats and the president!!!! Who are these people who continue to blind themselves with conspiracy theories for which the government and the presidecy are responsible for every negative action taken by individuals. This is a “mind set” that allows for no one being persoanlly responsible. This level of ignorance is completely unacceptable and intolerable.
Please people put away the political agenda and focus on common decency and accountability!!!
Tom Warsinske said on January 13, 2010 at 12:55 pm #
Typical right wing diatribe. One greedy guy, a seedy lawyer and suddenly it’s Obama’s fault. Did you miss the speech where he advocated tort reform with the health care bill. I wouldn’t be surprised if the both the guy and his lawyers were republican, the party of greed. How about the community ponying up the money to buy the pool instead of whining about not getting something for free.
Chris Lopata said on January 13, 2010 at 8:16 pm #
An extremely unfortunate and devastating situation for the community. Though I’m a little perplexed as to how any of you can connect President Obama’s actions in the current economic crisis to the level of frivolous lawsuits in this country. Do you mean to tell me these types of lawsuits didn’t happen in the eight years under President Bush?
Erut said on January 13, 2010 at 10:17 pm #
Our local community pool was sued by the father of boy (a lawyer), who cut “the tip” of his finger off (about 1/4 inch – really more of a deep cut) when they were horsing around on some chaise lounges. The boys had been warned multiple times to stop their activities but resumed again after a short period. Luckily our insurance backed us in fighting the lawsuit, and it became apparent the boy’s story justifying the pool liability was fabricated by his father in cross examination. The lawsuit was thrown out; but the pool, and our insurance company was not compensated for our legal costs. The family didn’t even withdraw from the coop pool while they were suing. They were quite open that they were suing simply to get money “because they could”. As a board member, I wanted to kick them out and counter sue but we were advised not to. People like should pay a price for bringing frivolous lawsuits.
Robert Tulloch said on January 14, 2010 at 10:28 am #
Legal bottom feeders action in collusion to split the fees.
Most trial attorneys are vile slime who produce nothing but sadness and profits for their own pockets.
MBlad said on January 15, 2010 at 9:31 am #
I don’t understand this at all.
First off, did the pool owner have insurance? If she did, then what was the problem? That her rates would increase? OK, that happens, but to close the pool because of it?
If she didn’t have insurance, then the lawyers (and I am one) could not force her to settle (though she would have to pay their fees to defend the case). If she believed she was not to blame (and according to the way the story is written, she wasn’t to blame), then she should have taken it to trial. If she was right, then the jury (made up of ordinary citizens, not lawyers) would have likely agreed with her, and that would have been the end of it.
Or is there more to this story? Was there a sharp object on the floor of the pool that cut his foot (so that the injury was due to that, and not to the man running)? The article just doesn’t say.
I will tell you that there certainly are frivolous suits, for sure, but if you make it too hard to sue for injuries, you remove the motivation for safe spaces; this has been proven time and again. Go to a country where civil remedies are not available, and you will see the lack of safety in public spaces.
That’s my two cents.
Eric Rehwaldt said on January 22, 2010 at 1:43 am #
Lawyers are destroying our country. Let’s face facts…..this country was founded upon GREED, plain and simple. We took it from the folks that lived here and then told them they were all FREE Americans with rights and laws. As we yelled FREEDOM, we chained a couple milion people and splitt their families to weaken them. We have a pattern of taking whatever we want from whomever we want it from. Read the particulars of the Treaty of Guadalupe, signed between USA and Mexico in 1848. We added 66% to our country. They gladly signed…..at gun point and the threat we would destroy their new government and Mexico city, AGAIN. Now we are screwing OURSELVES and we have the gall to say “oh gosh, it’s these damn lawyers” Without a million greedy pigs looking for a free lunch, we have NO frivolous lawsuits. So if you want to blame someone, start like I did, by looking at the face in the mirror.
Frank said on January 28, 2010 at 12:11 am #
It is being blamed on the political left by posters in here because it is a hard fact that whenever attempts are made legislatively to act against frivolous lawsuits, it is the elected officials hailing from the political left who, acting on special interest marching orders from the lawyers’ lobbyists that support them, roadblock such reform and make false claims that their actions are to protect the little guy.
Earl Wheber said on January 29, 2010 at 10:58 pm #
You are making a nobel effort here and telling the truth but nothing will change because of it because lawyers dominate all 3 branches of government as well as both major political parties and this is known as the legal caste. A political approach is needed to get lawyers out of government before you will see any changes. One of the most obvious indications of this is Obamas’ so-called health care reform where he has attack insurance companies but has refused to even consider the medical mal-practice crisis (doctors being sued and causing them to do unneeded expensive testing to try and protect them against lawsuits). Of course the doctors insurance against medical mal-practice has gone way up so that, along with the expenses of the unecessary testing, is passed along to the patients. Read bestseller book “How to Avoid Probate” by Norman Dacey (at your public libary) and the chapter on lawyers in the book!
al said on March 5, 2010 at 2:06 pm #
we are trying to limit our liability in potential future lawsuits. I wonder if the pool moved the assests to a different corporation and leased the pool management and operation to a different corporation, if the hurt party could only have sued the managament company and the pool and building assets would have been safe. Also, didn’t the pool have insurance to settle?