There has been a huge award in a novel malicious prosecution case over the alleged theft of pet turkeys. In 2004, defendant Ralph Dupps accused Robert and Jennifer Klippel of turkey-napping their pets and then releasing them back into nature. While the charges were dismissed, the Klippels sued and were just awarded $4.25 million
They claim that the ordeal drove Robert Klippel to alcohol and drove Jennifer Klippel to the use of sleep aids and depression medication.
What is fascinating is that this is a lawsuit against the Dupps as opposed to the state.
The turkeys had been a long dispute over their scaring Robert Klippel’s son and defecating in the Klippel yard. A police officer allegedly suggested just shooting the birds. The Klippels admit that they took the turkeys to a wildlife preserve. The Dupps then went to police who issued warrants for petit larceny on the Klippels who spent 10 hours in jail.
The case involved arguments under nuisance and the right of owners to take such actions. The jury obviously agreed.
Source: IslandPacket
AY, Thanks for sharing what happened to you. I just happened to think of my old friend when I saw rafflaw’s comment and lost myself, momentarily, in some old memories. It’s never good to generalize and I need, more than anyone, to keep in mind that not everyone is who or what he or she might appear to be at first blush. With regard to the person in your life (ex-friend), I agree with rafflaw that it will “catch up” with him. Also, you did a noble and good thing, IMO, by not throwing him under the bus when given the chance. It speaks well of you.
AY,
Sorry to hear about the problem that you had with the ex-Marine co-worker. I think his attitude will catch up with him sooner or later.
anon nurse,
I had one attorney friend that was an ex-marine. It was all about him….you had to watch your back…and then he’d get you in the end….all while smiling….the rest of the people that I knew that had been service related and yes some marines, they were very honorable folks….
I trusted this guy and he ended up screwing me badly….and then he said to me so why don’t you just get over it….when he got in trouble with his previous employer, I was called by an investigator and asked about my relation with him and I do not and have not ever ratted anyone out. I said to the investigator that we also had a personal friendship outside of a business relationship and that I could not help him in his efforts…Then the bastard two years later ended up screwing me over. I had thought about grieving him but said whats the use. A number of other attorneys did and I do not know where it stands.
rafflaw wroteo: “By the way, the Marines never run away. Never have and never will.”
-I once dated a Marine. He was one of the best men I’ve ever known. I’m sure there are exceptions, but he was a good one.
Mespo,
Facts don’t mean much to people who have their head in the sand. I for one do think that whenever hypocrisy arises, it is our duty to shine the sunshine on it for all to see. That includes the Catholic Church. Harebel should tell us where he is from so that we can discuss the good and bad that the US has brought to his/her respective homeland. There are a lot of us here who believe that the Iraq war was an immense mistake that George W. and others made in an effort to line their own pockets. By the way, the Marines never run away. Never have and never will.
harebell wrote:
“Your democracy is a joke right now. 1000s die for lack of health insurance…”
Our democracy IS a joke right now. Given the things that I’m seeing, I know that I’m not living in a democratic country.
And without adequate (or any) health insurance, many in America are certainly suffering and/or dying. It’s shameful.
We do need to heal ourselves.
So a US owned company shoots in early in a disaster offers a few dollars and bugs out. Does anybody remember the response of the US gov when BP tried that with the oil spill, 11 dead and pollution that was going to be cleaned up? Bhopal (majority US owned) well you see..
Yeah you fail to understand alright; understand about the long term damage done to Central America by the huge number of weapons dumped there when drugs/guns thing was finished and as for fomenting revolution and imposing totalitarian regimes. Project much? Allende – Pinochet ring a bell? Actually anybody in a silly uniform with feathers in his hat on a world wide basis.
And then the classic American line pops out. Isolationism and pomposity all rolled into one. We don’t need help with our democracy, but we’ll help you with yours even if you don’t need it, want it or asked for it. And even if we did mess up, we chucked some money at you so that makes it alright. Sounds a bit like the USMC action in Afghanistan when they killed a load of innocents while they were running away and then came back to pay for those lives with 2,500 bucks. Poor people will take your money, hell anybody will take your money if you want to give it to them, but your hollow ethical standpoint and hubris will still be noticed.
Your greatest display of arrogance in your reply was ref to US domestic law. US actions in the second gulf war didn’t just violate US law, it violated international law, Iraqi law etc. These defendants need trying at an international level. It shouldn’t be an US call.
All that nice money that the US doesn’t have, even I’m not silly enough to accept that this is a free lunch. Quid pro Quo, Greeks baring gifts etc.
As for me, I’ve never taken a bean from the US, and will be donating to the free health clinics run by good US citizens for those folk in the USA that have been discarded by your government and general population at large. And I won’t be doing it for thanks, influence, trade etc I’ll be doing it because it is the right thing to do. Watching your “democracy” try and fix an unacceptable situation that costs your country 1000s of lives per month has been painful to me. Your democracy is a joke right now. 1000s die for lack of health insurance and politicians think calling Scottish politicians to answer for something that cannot be reversed is a more important use of their time.
Heal thyself Sir
harebell:
“Mespo, your country needs to heal itself, it has as much right to talk about morality as the catholic church.”
**************
I had no idea that the citizens of the US are responsible for every multi-national corporation with a US mailing address, and even for their separately managed assets, but if you say so, it must be true. I must have missed my profit check this year and that day in law school when they talked about corporate liability. In any event, I do know that Union Carbide India Ltd., the separate Indian company mandated by the Indian government to construct and run the plant and composed exclusively of Indian nationals, has already made payment (along with Union Carbide) of the settlement funds to the Indian government in 2006 to the tune of $470 million. UCIL was 50.9% owned by Union Carbide with the remaining ownership interets in the hands of Indian investors. According to the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals, UCIL is a separate and independent legal entity run by Indian citizens with its plant in Bhopal being constructed in India by Indians without benefit or even one single American in a managerial role. In re UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION GAS PLANT DISASTER AT BHOPAL, INDIA IN DECEMBER, 1984. v. UNION CARBIDE CORP, 809 F.2d 195 (1986).
Thus using your logic, the Bhopal plant, manufactured, managed, operated, and staffed by Indians when the leak occurred, makes the Indian people responsible for their own harm. In that vein and assuming you have some connection to our favorite sub-continent, may I hold you responsible for the Indian caste system, or how about witch branding there?
On Reagan/Iran Contra, I fail to see how opposing a group of totalitarian loving rebels with a penchant human rights abuses and fomenting revolution among its neighbors qualifies as harm to the Nicaragua people, but maybe you can explain that to me in the context of an armed struggle. People do tend to die civil wars in your part of the globe, I take it.
Now, maybe we in the US have a bitch about the violations of US law perpetrated by the Republicans, but as with many internal issues, we scarcely need any foreign help in righting our democracy. Most folks cashing our aid checks think we do a pretty good job of it or they wouldn’t come hat in hand, I suppose. BTW, Nicaragua got $39 million in aid last year from the “devil of the North.” Not counting disaster relief, security agreements, and inter-governmental loans, India took home a cool $63 million in aid plus $13 million more in food aid from the “scourge of the Americas.”
I’ll tell my fellow countrymen and women “thank you” for ya’.
no arguments from me against the catholic church and it’s immense levels of hubris and hypocrisy.
However the “heal theyself” line stunningly reveals the viewpoint I take towards the USA. The good folk of Bhopal are still awaiting their 20B escrow account from Dow/Union Carbide for the 1000s killed and 10s of 1000s suffering today.
The good folk of Central America love the fact that Reagan was allowed to play the senile old git and Ollie North was pardoned because the communities and 1000s of murder victims of US sponsored terrorism. (And the Gulf war…. well that’s jsut more evidence.
It appears one stubbed American toe is enough to send you into a tantrum of self pity, but 1000s of dead foreigners, well that’s American interests abroad.
Mespo, your country needs to heal itself, it has as much right to talk about morality as the catholic church.
That Cardinal is a real Turkey! Mespo, I like your suggestion. I would like to nominate the Catholic Church in its entirety for next weeks Turkey award!
Catholic Chickenhawk Dispute?
Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien
42 Greenhill Gardens,
Edinburgh,
EH10 4BJ
T el: 0131-447 3337
f ax: 0131-447 0816
Email: cardinal@staned.org.uk
Drop him a line. Let him know how much credence a pompous windbag from an organization that protects child molesters when pontificating on . . . well . . . just about anything related to ethics or morals.
Thank you , mespo, for the link … having been raised by Scots and spent the majority of my childhood totally surrounded by Scots and thus immersed in the Scot culture I found the following sentence to be the most absurd claim among many contained within the article:
“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth – that is not our culture in Scotland …”
The not so good Cardinal O’Brien isn’t really lying for the culture in Scotland would insist “Two eyes for one eye and all teeth for one tooth …” the man is a revisionist … he’s simply attempting to cover up the fraud and excuse the greed … in that manner Scotland’s culture is no different from the cultures of many countries around the world.
I recommend a Sunday Turkey Award on the Turley blog. Here’s my nominee in the form of a BBC story about Scottish cardinal, Keith O’Brien, who condemns the US for having the audacity to criticize the Scottish government for releasing admitted Lockerbie child-bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, after receiving a report from a physician paid Libya. What’s all this fuss about the lives of a few score of American college students when an admitted terrorist might have a fatal disease? The good prelate invites the US to “direct its gaze inward” over our obsession with capital punishment. Direct our gaze inward? From a Roman Catholic priest named O’Brien? My dear Bishop, first heal thyself.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-10905562
There’s usually more to these stories than meets the eye. I skimmed a few of the comments (see below) and found this one. We only know a fraction of the story, it would seem. Having said this the award seems excessive, but could it be that the jury was sending a message to “the good old boys” and the system which protects them. I don’t know — I’m just speculating…
yardawg wrote on 02/15/2010 01:30:51 PM:
This case does sound ridiculous in the headlines, but the articles fail to focus on the point that someone was sued for using “The Good “Ole Boy” system and maliciously prosecuting two individuals who were merely protecting their family and property. Dupps brought it all upon himself. First by bringing the birds illegally into SC. Second by failing to address the neighborhood concerns about the Turkeys roaming freely in Sea Pines. Third by ignoring 3 different law enforcement agencies that no crime had been committed and getting the judge to sign an arrest warrant.
“They claim that the ordeal drove Robert Klippel to alcohol and drove Jennifer Klippel to the use of sleep aids and depression medication.”
*****************
“It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time;
you can even fool some of the people all of the time;
but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Lincoln must have been referring to the good citizens, tried and true, of Beaufort, South Carolina in his reference to “some of the people all of the time.”
Morning, AY. 🙂
Morning, anon nurse…
First smile of the morning, AY. (Thanks.)
I suppose “Wild Turkey” was the substance of choice….the I’ll end by saying WTF…