A Ride On The Wild Side
So, I’m sitting in my law office the other day, working (no kidding) and Ms. Polly Anna stopped by. It seems that while Polly was riding with her friend, Ima Hurtin, Ima was injured and blaming Polly for the accident. Although Ima had stopped talking to Polly, she did introduce Polly to a new acquaintance, Mr. Gonna Gettya - who just happened to be a lawyer and, by strange coincidence, just happened to be Ima’s lawyer. Mr. Gettya initiated a pen pal relationship with Polly, but his range of topics were limited to how much pain, suffering, expense, and general ill feeling Ima suffered as a result of her ride with Polly. Polly’s discussions with Mr. Gettya simply caused the situation to deteriorate from bad to worse. Mr. Gettya invited the court to join the pen pal act by filing a lawsuit against Polly. Polly became an instant celebrity of the worst kind among her friends, Ima’s friends, and many other people she knew in the community. Polly thought that, as an experienced rider, Ima was responsible for her own injuries. She didn’t understand why she was now being sued for something Ima did. Switching on my “super shrewd analytical legal mode,” I inquired further (that’s lawyer for “so, tell me what’s goin’ on”). Polly advised me of the circumstances (that’s lawyer for “details”). Polly invited Ima to go on ride in the desert on Polly’s horses. Ima accepted, and so they met at the stables where Polly boarded her horses on Friday the 13th at 4 pm (some might believe that this trip was ill-fated from the start). Ima would ride Polly’s super laid-back, mellow trail horse, Myassisdragon. Arriving at the stables, Polly discovered that Myassisdragon was lame. Anxious to go, Polly decided to “borrow” one of the boarding facility owner’s horses for Ima to ride. Polly selected a black Arabian from the owner’s herd of 96 black Arabians (Yeah, I know, who has 96 black Arabians? - Just go with it). Polly was sure that this was the gentle, well-mannered black Arabian that she had ridden in the arena previously. It was now getting late, the sun was setting, the rest of the horses were being fed, it was getting cold (get the idea?), Polly hurried to put one of her saddles (a Thoroughbred saddle) on the Arabian, but failed to notice that he then started fidgeting. Did I mention that he was an Arabian (before you Arabian fans bite my head off, I’m allowed ‘cause we have one…). Well, anyway, off they go in to what’s left of the sunset. The horse was spooky and unpredictable, despite Ima’s riding experience, she had considerable trouble controlling him. Nevertheless, Polly advised Ima that everything would be OK if they kept moving. Somewhere along the way, Ima’s horse spooked at something in the now deep shadows (imagine that) and crow-hopped sideways into some Teddy Cholla cactus. The good news was that Ima didn’t notice the Teddy Cholla barbs stuck in her leg. The bad news: the horse noticed the ones in his leg and shot up, what Ima would later swear was at least 10 feet, into the air, spun around, executed a perfect 2 ½ gainer with a 3/4 twist and was out of there as fast as he could go. Ima, meanwhile, also executed a perfect 2 ½ gainer (thanks to the horses athleticism), but blew the 3/4 twist (also thanks to the horses athleticism), she landed directly on the Teddy Cholla, broke a leg and with all of those barbed spines in her, Ima didn’t even notice her concussion. Reviewing the lawsuit filed by Ima, I noted that Polly’s actions were claimed to have caused the accident and, therefore, Polly should pay for Ima’s injuries. Polly looked perplexed and said “but, the horse did it and I wasn’t even close to them” (sounds like my kids: the dogs did it, the fish did it, the cat we don’t have did it…). I explained to Polly that the law recognizes that the actions of one person can cause injury to another person even without physically touching that other person. In this case, Ima didn’t claim that Polly physically knocked her off the horse, but that Polly’s negligent acts led up to her being knocked off the horse. Ima supported her contention by citing facts including, Polly’s decision to leave late, having Ima ride the horse that Polly chose, using an ill-fitting saddle, and Polly’s failure to turn back or advise a dismount at the first sign of seriously odd behavior. In other words, Ima is claiming that, since you were clearly in charge, she reasonably relied on you to make sure that the ride was safe. Since your actions and decisions put her in harm’s way and since she did get hurt then, you should be held liable for her damages. Polly, who was beginning to understand just how she did contribute to the accident commented “I’m usually very focused on the horse’s behavior - this time I was too focused on getting going. I won’t ever let that happen again”. “Good idea, and don’t ever let someone else ride a horse that you are not completely familiar with” I added. Polly then asked “what about Ima’s riding experience, how come she isn’t at fault? She never questioned me or said she wanted to stop”? Excellent point I responded, Ima may bear some responsibility for her actions and a jury will have the burden of deciding how much responsibility will be divided between the two of you for this accident. But, I’ll need to explore the facts in much greater detail before I’ll have a better idea of how much responsibility she will bear. Meanwhile, since Polly had been sued, she had no choice but to participate in the process. Thus began the time intensive, detail-oriented, grindingly slow, painful and expensive process (despite Hollywood’s portrayal to the contrary) of trial preparation. Happily, during the process, I discovered some facts that were tremendously helpful to Polly. A reasonable settlement was negotiated allowing both Polly and Ima to avoid both the costs and emotional stress of a trial. As for the nastygram that Polly received from her now ex boarding facility concerning the “borrowing” of what turned out to be a prize stud named “Freak”, well, a wiser Polly brought that issue to my attention much earlier. I was able to resolve the situation without even a hint of litigation, but that’s a story for another time.
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