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Ok class, please be seated…
Welcome to your first day of Torts. Today we’ll be talking about the case of Klein v. Amtrak. The fact pattern is very simple. Two bored seventeen-year old kids, Jeffrey Klein and Bret Birdwell, decided to kill some time one night in 2002 by trespassing onto an Amtrak lot. With no plan in place, they then decided to climb up one of the rail cars, because they figured there would be a kick-ass view from up top.
Unbeknownst to our teenage friends, there were some dangerous electrical wires up there - you know, the kind that feed power to trains. While atop the rail car, Klein was shocked by one of these wires, allegedly without even touching it, and Birdwell was zapped as well when he tried to help Klein. As a result, they both ended up burnt real toasty-like - Klein had second- and third-degree burns over 75% of his body, and Bidwell had burns over 18% of his body.
Since there were no signs warning about the danger of the wires, Klein and Bidwell sued. So I ask you, class, should they win?
Well, the defense lawyers argued that these kids, seventeen-years old, were old enough to really know better. Their lawyer made the counter-argument that just because the kids were trespassing doesn’t mean that there’s “blanket immunity” protecting a landowner from any possible dangers on their property. The Philadelphia jury apparently bought this argument, to the tune of almost $25 million (split about evenly between compensatory damages and punitive damages).
Now what should we take away from this case, class?
That’s right - this is a new America, and stupidity can pay.
