Pool store owners "goosed" then sued

"It's possible that, if this lawsuit had come away with a large verdict, it could have caused us to close our doors."

In the spring of 2003, two Canada geese landed in the planter outside of Contemporary Watercrafters, a small pool maintenance business in Maryland owned by Howard Weiss. After several weeks, Howard and his business manager, Kelly Reed, contacted the Humane Society about having the geese relocated because they were pooping in front of the store.

Because the geese were protected under the Migratory Species Act, Howard and Kelly were informed that it would have been illegal to disturb the geese. So they put up tape around the planter, posted signs, and waited for the geese to hatch their goslings and move on.

Unbeknownst to Howard and Kelly, the male goose had flapped his wings, honked, and snapped at a woman walking to the fabric store next door to Watercrafters. Startled, she fell on the sidewalk.

Two years later, Howard and Kelly were served with papers announcing that the woman was suing Watercrafters for $750,000, alleging that the goose was Watercrafters' responsibility.

"We really didn't have anything to do with the goose other than it was in front of our store," said Howard.

After extensive preparations, Watercrafters was forced to go to trial. Fortunately, the jury determined that Watercrafters had not been negligent. "It's possible that, if this lawsuit had come away with a large verdict, it could have caused us to close our doors."

Howard says that the costs of lawsuit abuse to small businesses are not just financial. They include "the time taken away from your business the way you run your business. You start to second guess how you do business because you're worried about the next lawsuit, and that's not the way to run a company."

Part of the FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org campaign.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Canada
• goose
• bird
• fowl
• Migratory
• Species
• Act
• small
• business
• legal
• lawsuit
• abuse
• grassroots
• outreach
• reform
• tort
• iamlawsuitabuse.org
• facesoflawsuitabuse.org

[SlimePr0ducti0ns]

This is so fucking stupid, beyond stupid. They are wild animals that can't be moved, these people had nothing to do with any of it. The fact that you can actually be sued over something that's obviously not your fault in any way shape or form is absolutely ridiculous. Is their no rules to this sort of thing? Can I sue youtube for hosting this video because it pissed me off?

[Zaners]

In a just society, the lawyer and that particular plaintiff would be flogged for wasting the time of the public and deceitfully using the system to shut down an honest business. I hate this country.

[packerfan748]

she should sue her fat thighs for being unstable and making her fall

[AndrewNeilFalconer]

They called the "do nothing" Humane Society, not the "involved" Humane Society.

Next time this happens people have to call a local bird sanctuary or a college that will take the birds to a safe place.

[ignoranceisbad]

People plz wake up , don't you see that injustice is happening in the name of law and order.

Your own money is being used to fund this long, and expensive judicial process

You can't do anything in this country without a permit.

No freedom or liberty here... this a joke

[infinitysends]

Boy, its pretty sad living in a world with these types of greedy and evil people. But its just scary living in a country where any douche bag or his mother can take you to court over something as small as paper cut. I can think of about 100 people I know that would just love to get this lady who tried to sue, alone in a room for 5 minutes. Dumb ass bitch!

[close2water]

I love happy endings !

[mnkittel]

@lovegun001 - That's precisely what it was - greedy and unethical lawyering. The ethical lawyer tells the potential client "You have NO CASE! - now go away."

[mnkittel]

@DistendedPerinium - Oh he clearly saw it. I'm in law school now and I know people there that are going to BE lawyers like this. (Me, I'm going to be the guy representing shop-owners like this and fighting lawsuit abuse.) He saw it and didn't care, because he figured he could get a jury to ignore the federal law and spin the goose as their responsibility. A good lawyer would have told the woman she had no case and shouldn't bother.

[JimmJacob]

lawyers blow so bad