Lawsuit of the Day: Hamster Trouble
We're not considering a spin-off blog on animals and the law. But maybe we should given the amount of reporting we've done on our furry friends recently, including a lascivious wombat, a hedgehog as a weapon, and a dog in mortal peril. Now, we've got a diseased hamster to add to the mix:
A Whitman woman whose husband died less than a month after receiving a tainted liver transplant says a diseased hamster purchased at PetSmart is to blame for her premature widowhood.Nancy Magee, 51, is suing the Phoenix-based pet industry giant for negligence.
Businessman Thomas J. Magee was 54 in 2005 when he was one of three people who died after receiving organs donated by a woman who had contracted lynphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) from a sickly hamster she bought on March 19, 2005, at a PetSmart store in Warwick, R.I., according to Nancy Magee’s complaint in U.S. District Court.
ATL does not have a heart of stone. We are sympathetic to the woman and her loss. We just don't dig the logic in placing the blame with PetSmart. Unless the logic is that a pet store has deeper pockets than a hospital.
Forget PetSmart. That sickly hamster better be behind bars.
Widow sues PetSmart in transplant death [The Boston Herald]
(20) Comments
Good luck proving proximate cause.
Any word about Dewey closing offices?
you know what's really sad ... lawyers who encourage these kinds of lawsuits ... unbelievable
Sue the stroke-victim organ donor. If she hadn't bought the stupid critter, or, better yet, hadn't died of a stroke, Mr. Magee would still be alive today.
I believe there was already an ATL article a few days back about D&L closing offices - Hartford, Jacksonville and Austin (and perhaps Boston?)
In 2005, Gibson Dunn's New York office briefly considered holding a pro bono event that would have involved associates helping rich people set up trust funds for their pets, but the idea was dropped after one associate pointed out that it would make the firm a laughingstock.
People still have hamsters as pets? News like this makes me glad that I decided against litigation. Thought about it, but ultimately realized that going corporate would minimize familiars hitting me up for free legal advice.
is that picture really a hamster? It looks too big to be a hamster.
X buys sick hampster and gets sick and dies, donating organs to A, B, and C. B who is already sick and needs a liver transplant receives the deceased X's liver and get sicker and dies.
Proximate cause question on 1L torts exam? X loses, see, e.g., Palsgraf.
Seems like she should be suing the organization that set up the donor transplant, not going after Petsmart. Wasn't there a similar article about this in the AM paper this morning?
http://www.amny.com/news/local/ny-litrans0409,0,4320753.story
Shouldn't the deceased's parents be liable? If they had never had a son... you get the idea.
Don't love 'em, don't hate 'em, dont get involved with those anumals. They don't care about chew.
4:23 -- was that a BAR/BRI Crim Law lecture joke?
This story actually illustrates the bigger problem of making sure that donated organs aren't diseased. With the short window needed to make the removal/transport/transplant decision, it leaves little or no time for proper testing of the tissue of the organs. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for organ donation, I'm just sayin'.
For the final and last time, it is Hartford, Austin and Jacksonville (and perhaps New York, London and D.C.).
Yours truly,
Chicken Little
Don't forget the chipmunk ramp lady!
Just curious as to how she expects to win this case against PetSmart ... Could the hospital and others have made her sign some non-sue waiver ?
i think it's a guinnea pig in the picture
You people need to further educate yourselves before making such ignorant comments. And the picture at the top of the page is most definitely a Syrain hamster.
Syrian hamster