I hope her friends at home are nicer to her than what one of my classmates experienced back in elementary school. The school maintenance personnel left the lid off of the septic tank at the small school. James, a fourth-grader, fell in and had to be rescued.

From that day forward, he was awarded the official nickname of "Stinky", which stuck to him (no pun intended) for the rest of his life. He chose to live in the same small town for the next 60 years and answered to the nickname with no apparent resentment.

If that had happened in modern times, he would have been very wealthy and maybe even been called "King James" in reference to his new-found wealth.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Huge lawsuit to follow. She's gonna get rich and I'm certainly not implying she should.

This is certainly the knee jerk reaction. But no. As Paul Harvey used to say, here is the rest of the story.

First off, this is the government, and there may be immunities from suit protecting it. I don't know, I am not an expert on suing the Feds.

But setting immunities aside, she took the toilet apart to get in it. That means the fact finder will easily find that she contributed significantly to her own problem, and perhaps that she was solely responsible for her own problems. This will limit or eliminate liability.

There may well be warnings all over that thing, too.

Plus, by not going to the hospital, she has really damaged her damages case. No harm no foul (no lawsuit). If she wasn't hurt, there won't be much in the way of damages. "Emotional" damages are often predicated on the existence of physical injury. Her own actions indicate she had none.