By: Michael Seinberg
In what some legal scholars are calling a true sign of the end of days, a court in Wyoming actually issued an eminently sensible ruling. The case involved a methamphetamine addict, a stolen car, two injured kids and the unwitting car owner.
In December of 2009, Nanette Holbrook returned home from work briefly to retrieve her forgotten purse. While she was in the house, she left her car running in her driveway and it was stolen by Colbey Emms, a meth addict. Police pursued Emms and he eventually crashed into the car of Katrina Lucero. Lucero was relatively unharmed, but her two children, one 5 years-old and one 6-months-old, were badly injured.
In the true holiday spirit, Lucero chose to sue Holbrook on behalf of herself and her kids. Lucero argued that Wyoming state law prohibits cars from being left unattended while running but the Wyoming Supreme Court said that law only applies to public highways, not your own driveway.
Lucero, for some odd reason failed to note that she got hit not only due to the stolen car and the high-speed chase of a driver under the influence of drugs, but she also ran a red light.
The court, in a rare moment of sanity granted summary judgment to Holbrook. “We cannot say that the appellants’ injuries resulting from a subsequent high-speed chase were a foreseeable consequence of the appellee’s act of momentarily leaving her car unattended in her driveway,” Judge Barton Voigt wrote for a five-member panel.
Too bad a sensible ruling comes just as the world is about to end. Oh well, better late than never. Happy holidays and happy end of days!
