JONATHAN TURLEY

Crazy as a . . . : Woman Takes Repair Man Hostage Over Failure to Fix Washing Machine

You have to love this false imprisonment case. Tracey Fox, 42, snapped when a repair man told her that he could not fix her washing machine, which had broken down twice this year. Fox then took matters into her own hands and locked the man in the house and would not let him leave until the machine was working.

Fox admits that she had had enough: “I told him he might as well dial 999 because he wasn’t going anywhere until my washer was sorted.” The police came to sort out Fox who lives in Durham, England. She had been forced to do the wash for her husband, daughter, and grandson at friends’ homes over Christmas.

Technically, in the U.S., insanity is not a defense to intentional torts. This would make for a classic false imprisonment case with a twist . . . or perhaps a spin. It does not appear that criminal or civil charges will follow. If someone went medieval on the Maytag man in the states, it would have washed out so easily I expect.

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