[meteorite-list] Fwd: Lorton meteorite should be 'the people's rock'

From: Bob Loeffler <bobl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 21:13:51 -0700
Message-ID: <20100205041353.B7D6B105CA_at_mailwash5.pair.com>

Hi George,

> If you were unfortunate enough to be hit by a meteorite on someone
> else's property, I believe you'd be entitled to damages for your
> injury and pain and suffering. If you were walking on my property
> here in CT and one of my black walnut trees fell on you, you could
> (and should) file a claim against my home owners policy,

I don't know if that is correct. I'm not a lawyer, but I know that the laws
are different for natural causes vs negligence. If your walnut tree lands
on someone, then he can sue you because you neglected to take care of the
tree so it wouldn't fall and hurt someone. It's on your land, so you own
that tree. So you have to take the necessary steps to the best of your
ability to prevent it from hurting anyone on your property.

On the other hand, we cannot prevent people from being hit by meteorites (or
lightning, hail, etc) when they are on someone's property. If I am walking
across someone's yard during a storm and I'm hit with hail or lightning, I
doubt that there is any court in the US that would rule in my favor if I try
to sue that home owner. The home owner could possibly sue me because I was
trespassing on his land. Even if I was invited by him into his yard, an
injury from something natural coming from above is not his concern
(legally).

Think of it this way: If I'm driving down the road and I crash because
lightning hits my car, can I sue the city or state or Fed gov? (After all,
one of them owns the air above my car.) Nope.

You can't sue (or at least WIN, because in the US you can sue anyone for
anything nowadays) for natural phenomena that is not humanly preventable.
There is the possibility if there are extenuating circumstances (e.g. maybe
if the highway department set up a metal pole next to the road that acted
like a lightning rod-type and it attracted the lightning as my car was
driving by), but in general, that will be rare.

So if a meteorite crashes through the roof of a building that is being
rented by a dentist and it hits a patient, neither the dentist nor his
landlord should be held liable. One or both will most likely help pay, but
that would be because it's good publicity and "the right thing to do". But
if an investigation shows that the roof was in bad condition or poorly made,
then the patient *might* have a case against the landlord.

It would be interesting to hear from a real lawyer about this. :-)

Regards,

Bob



-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of George
Blahun Jr
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 2:17 PM
To: Adam
Subject: [meteorite-list] Fwd: Lorton meteorite should be 'the people's
rock'




Carl:
    Hello and thanks for your comments and point of view. I actually didn't
intend for this to be taken as cut and dry. I do come down on the side of
the land owners, but my reference to the EM Spectrum implies that there is
always another point of view. If you were unfortunate enough to be hit by a
meteorite on someone else's property, I believe you'd be entitled to damages
for your injury and pain and suffering. If you were walking on my property
here in CT and one of my black walnut trees fell on you, you could (and
should) file a claim against my home owners policy, but I don't think you'd
get to keep the black walnut tree which is probably worth about 10K for the
wood.
     In your example of the dollar bill, a fairly insignificant amount if
you can afford to see a doctor, the dollar probably goes to the finder. But
if you drop your Maui Jim sunglasses there, you still have the right to them
and neither the finder nor the doctor nor the landlord owns them. Of course
most communities have a procedure for claiming a lost and found, unlike a
space rock. This series of events changes if the object which hits you is
from a military satellite. They'd deny any responsibility but want it back
anyhow.

    There was a court case recently where a contractor was removing a wall
in a house and found a bunch of money which had been hidden in there for
decades. The contractor tried to claim it using the old legal defense of
"finders keepers losers weepers" but the courts said, no.
    I guess we all have a slight bias when interpreting the law and what
constitutes ownership. This no doubt determines which side of this issue we
each come down on.

George


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Received on Thu 04 Feb 2010 11:13:51 PM PST