No, it’s not a medical question per se. I didn’t want to throw it in GQ because I think it’ll end up here again since it’s spawned by an GA episode.
Also no - please don’t use this thread to discuss how crappy the show is now. We’ll take the content as unimportant for the most part.
Spoiler for the last episode:
The lawsuit the survivors of the airplane crash that ended last season have been discussing has been changed. Instead of suing the pilot, the plane company, the airline or whatnot for pain/suffering, loss of income, medical damages, etc, their lawyer thinks they can get more by suing the hospital itself for putting them on the plane.
Drama aside - isn’t this a terrible idea if they want to continue at their current place of employment? Wouldn’t the hospital be pissed about it? And how can it possibly be more lucrative?
You’re also going to have a much more difficult time establishing the hospital was somehow responsible for a plane crash. You can’t argue issues like poor maintenance or pilot error because these aren’t issues the hospital is responsible for.
I’m an avid GA watcher and attorney. There’s no way in hell (ok, real life) how that theory holds water that I can think of. There’s no sovereign immunity issue, the Warsaw Convention doesn’t apply, and there are too many companies and weird product liability laws for bankruptcy or lack of insurance to matter…
Also, although done sometimes, suing the paralyzed pilot just to take his depo is despicable. This is why people hate lawyers. It’s already clear respondeat superior would apply in 99% of circumstances. NTSB already made him take a drug/alcohol test and the lawyers should know this. Plus, even if the pilot did something actually wrong there’s plenty of time to get discovery (perhaps even pre-suit) as to the pilot’s potential liability and still bring him in. Also, if there is some sort of bizarre coverage issue excluding the pilot’s conduct from coverage, unless he’s Dennie Ducette, there’s no collectible money worth a damn there.
I’m just boggled that, given the financial straits we often see the hospital in, they would choose that path. Especially given that they all still apparently want to work there - in fact, Yang just came BACK to there, and the others all mindfully chose not to leave.
It makes zero sense to me that they’d order their lawyers to back off of the pilot, but then allow them to target their place of work.
