Lawsuits waiting to happen

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Today at school they were working on electrical wiring, access to which is in the ground smack in the middle of the blacktop playground. Large wires were everywhere, and the only “stay-away” device they used were bright orange cones–which, BTW, are tempting toys to young children. Kids are running amuck all around these areas, and I am blowing my whistle to keep kids away, hoping no one’s going to get entangled in the mess and fall. Only one maintenance guy was out there–and there were at least 6 open areas.

They were working on those wires at school, with children present. All day. Like, when the kids were at recess, at lunch, and otherwise on the playground. DUH!

Other things maintenance has done that’s just DUMB and, as the title topc states, a lawsuit waiting to happen:

Trimming trees in the morning, during recess. Huge branches falling to the ground, fumes from the chipper and woodchips flying everywhere, kids hanging out in the same field playing soccer. HELLO?

Driving materials on campus, onto the blacktop, during recess–and relying on some 700 children to hear the horn and clear out of the way as the truck(s) drive through. Couldn’t wait another 20 minutes for the kids to be back in the classrooms, apparently.

Painting numbers down on the blacktop in the morning when students are, again, playing there. Couldn’t they WAIT until 3pm? Or even 8:30am? Sheesh.

Oh, and the killer–they have been wiring our school for the internet. All of the wiring had to be placed in large, very heavy pipes–pipes that we’re told weigh over a ton each. Part of the roof collapsed when they tried to place them there, and our marquis was destroyed. Where did they put them instead? Oh, c’mon, guess the most ridiculous place: Over our heads in the hallway, hung by metal braces. This is California! We have earthquakes! We just HAD an earthquake! Sheezo, people!

Grumble grumble. I’m seriously thinking about approaching the Board on this one.

What have you guys seen that is just begging for a lawsuit?

I used to think the world was against me. Now I know better. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.

Laura’s Stuff and Things

2

I work for a huge law firm. You’d think a large group of corporate attorneys would be a little wiser about things like this, right? Wrong!

We have files stacked on top of eachother six or seven feet high in the hallways.

We have heavy plastic overhead light-fixture covers that have an annoying habit of coming loose and falling down (nobody has been hit yet, but there have been close calls).

We have an emergency exit door that leads into a stairwell that goes down to the ground floor, only the door at the bottom sticks so bad half the time that you can’t open it. And all the other doors above are locked from the inside. So you have to go up a floor or two and pound on the door and hope that somebody hears you.

A few weeks ago a section of carpeting started to come up in the middle of the floor in a busy hallway. Perfect size to catch the tip of your foot as you walk by. Nothing has been done about it.

If a group of lawyers aren’t together enough to keep this kind of stuff from happening, I don’t who is. I’d love to see what kind of hazzards are at the CAL/OSHA buildings. I bet it’s the same kind of thing.

3

This wasn’t just a mess waiting for a lawsuit; it caused one…
My Dad was very active in a civic organization, and after retirement too over some of the oft-neglected miscellaneous repairs on the building. Hey, he loved to fix things, so it was all cool.
But the building’s elevator was defective. Lord only knows how it passed inspection (maybe the inspector was a “brother”?). Anyway, the doors would open on a floor even if the car was on a different floor. Since the lighting was kept low to save energy, it was a real disaster waiting to happen.
Dad raised holy hell about it, to the point that the organization was seriously ticked at him. No results; money was tight, yadda yadda yadda.
Then they had a swank event and a poor waiter for the catering service rang for the elevator to get to the basement kitchens. The doors opened, he stepped in–and fell into the open elevator shaft, down 4 floors, and was killed.
My poor father was in agony. He was genuinely devoted to the organization, but he felt immense personal guilt and a lot of anger that this stupid, needless tragedy wasn’t prevented. BTW, this organization runs high to “suits”–execs and lawyers and such; people who damned well should have known better.
I was never more proud of my stubborn, cross grained old man. He defied the pressure to keep quiet and instead lived up to the ideals of the organization. He sought out the insurance company for the waiter and gave the one hell of a depostion; facts, times, who knew what and when.
It didn’t make up for the loss of life, but the waiter’s family received a full settlement instead of a pittance.
Scary, isn’t it?
Veb

4

I used to work retail. One department store inparticular would have sales people (like me) help out with manual labor that we had no business doing.

  1. Helping to load riding lawn mowers. By hand.

  2. Helping to move sleeper sofas. A co-worker of mine permanantly damadged her back. She didn’t have the money to take it to court.

  3. A customer bought a big screen TV that we didn’t have in stock. They had a bunch of us take the display down—off a shelf above haed level.

Why did I do all this crap? Because I was young and stupid.

You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.

5

I picked up my 5 year old daughter from after school computer lab and she and another child were outside alone 10 minutes before the lab was supposed to be over. Both of these kids were unsupervised. When I complained the principal said I should tell my daughter not to leave until I get there!