The fact that this was Goff's scoop -- and not one of the Post's court-beat reporters -- would suggest that the tip came from someone on the DCU side... someone probably none-too-thrilled with Davies' action here.
As anyone in Illinois will gladly tell you, Chicago isn't the whole of Illinois. But yes, Kakaskia being west of the river is a good pub quiz answer to know.
I was going to type a bunch of stuff, but the above quote says it all. God forbid Charlie takes responsibilty for his actions. Loser.
The outrage at CD9 is bewildering to me. Who here *really* knows what happened that night, i.e., whether CD9 drank alcohol, how intoxicated he was, whether he knew how intoxicated the driver was, the relationship between CD9 and the driver, etc.? Also, it's not like dram shop liability is anything new. On the scale of outrageous lawsuits, this registers at about a 2-3 for me. I presume the alleged damages are what they are because CD9 likely lost the ability to get a large payday in Europe, had extensive injuries/disfigurement, and will likely have a significant amount of pain to deal with the rest of his life. You could probably build a bike with the amount of hardware in the dude's body. As someone outside the situation, I absolutely do not, without the benefit of all the facts, begrudge him for filing this lawsuit. Sure, the situation sucks for MLS, but the entire situation sucks. The other passenger lost her life. The driver is in jail. And now, it *seems* like CD9, after a helluva a recovery, may be realizing that the writing is on the wall for his pro soccer days. It's sad any way you slice it.
I imagine to most people it's not just this one incident. It's probably a combination of this, his petulance at not being included in the World Cup team, the weird driving incident in France, and the way that so much of the covereage of this has portrayed Charlie as a hero and the original incident as some kind of act of God over which he could not possibly have had any influence. Now, I haven't scoured the coverege of Davies like others have, so I'm willing to accept it if that charaterization of the covereage is inaccurate. But, agree or diagree, I don't think you should be bewildered by the reaction on these boards. It's quite predicatable.
Simply accepting that people will be outraged, because they are judging the merits of a lawsuit through the lens of other, mostly irrelevant events, seems pretty cynical to me. Maybe I'm just in the minority on this issue.
Well, you seek damages where you can and Red Bull has money; the driver doesn't. It's not weird for Charlie to try to get compensation for injuries caused by others. The question is where the fault lies. More interesting in a BigSoccer context is what this means about his career. If he's filing this lawsuit, he's taking a big risk as a player, which signals to me that he's basically done. If Charlie had any belief that he could either make it back to Europe or get another USMNT call-up, I imagine he'd refrain from going to court over his injuries. So I guess he's looking at continuing his playing career at less than the league max - not a great outcome. A settlement at even 10% of the $20m claim - properly invested in an annuity - will give him enough to buy a middle-class lifestyle for the rest of his life.
After I made that post, someone suggested that was true. If so, yeah, he's got a more difficult task ahead, that's for sure. It would be good to confirm it, though. Incidentally, Goff has more on the suit this morning, including more detail from his lawyer: No comment yet from Das Enterprises or Red Bull; and there probably won't be, at least for a while, since it can't help them to do so.
That's a great point. Future coaches would have to be wary of him now. On the "east of the Mississippi" point -- I remember reading (but am too pressed for time to look up now) that ships entering the Panama Canal from the Atlantic actually travel east to reach the Pacific.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Lake,_Iowa Similar to Carter Lake, Iowa which is on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River due to similar circumstances.
Isn't this ultimately one of those "who will pay the medical bills" lawsuits? Charlie may not have personally wanted to sue, but his insurance company is more or less forcing him to do so. He probably won't end up living the life of luxury. But it has been a very LOL-worthy thread.
That seems logical -- but if it were so, I would think the lawyers pursuing the action on his behalf would be the insurance company's lawyers, or lawyers from some big firm retained by the insurance company, rather than a personal injury lawyer from a small, Bethesda-based firm.
Huh? So the bar serving the drink needs to have a crystal ball to know the person was going to crash into a car containing a Soccer player who was past curfew?
Or Marble Hill which is geographically part of the Bronx but politically part of Manhattan due to a shift in the Harlem River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Hill,_Manhattan
Contributory negligence is not available as a defense where a violation of statute is alleged, such as a violation of a dram shop act. In other words, your point is irrelevant.
If he was sober.... he has only his penis to blame (my opinion). If its true, he barely knew these girls and made chit chat with them and decided for them to give him a ride home? He probably was hoping to have a 3 some when he got there. At least tahts what I always thought when I heard this story.
It would be I would think. After the car accident I was in, I was reimbursed by my insurance company for all medical treatment and damages and then they went after the other drivers insurance for reimburcement. They also worked the settlement that we got. My wife and I did basically nothing except send in our invoices. I actually do think there could be a very narrow window of circumstances under which an establishment could be held liable for allowing a patron to get out of control drunk and then take no action to prevent them from driving. I really don't know enough about what happened (probably none of us ever will) to make a call on this one. If it was a promotion and not just a normal night out, I could maybe see promoters trying to pour drinks down peoples throats. All that aside, at the end of the day, getting in a car with some one who's been drinking will always be on you. It's not like the dude couldn't afford a cab. Or a limo.
I agree with this post. Typically, people who are involved in an auto accident that is caused by the actions of another sue for damages and pain. I have no problem with this lawsuit.
I could see him going back to Sweden and playing after this. Surely he has some good will left there that could earn him a contract.
Need to lawyer up...would like to file a lawsuit against Charlie to recover my travel costs to South Africa.
Why stop there? Let's take it a little further... He could also go after the state police (if the DC region has anything like Florida Highway Patrol) for not being there to stop an inebriated driver going over the speed limit. Unfortunately, in our society, if such an action was taken it would result in them being sued for stealing ones car. It's a no win situation.
Yea, maybe I overreacted earlier in my outrage at Davies' latest actions. He's just been on my short list of non-favorite soccer players for some time now, for various reasons, which probably effected my reaction. No doubt he's trying to make up for a perceived big payday loss in Europe due to the accident. Many of us in his shoes would probably do the same thing, yet it remains disconcerting and all too emblematic of some of our society's ills.