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Tsunami victims file lawsuit
News.com.au ^ | May 5, 2005 | Staff
Posted on 03/05/2005 6:18:51 PM PST by kennedy
SEVERAL dozen European victims of Asia's tsunami disaster have filed a lawsuit demanding that Thai authorities, US forecasters, and a French hotel chain prove that they reacted adequately.
In what is believed to be the first tsunami claim worldwide, US lawyer Edward Fagan and two other lawyers have filed the suit with a New York district court on behalf of more than 60 plaintiffs from Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The suit was filed against the Thai government, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its Tsunami Warning Centre, and the French hotel group Sofitel, said Herwig Hasslacher, one of the group's lawyers.
The plaintiffs accuse Thai authorities of not releasing information about the impending sea surge as soon as they received it, arguing that a more prompt alert would have saved thousands of lives.
They also accuse the NOAA, whose Hawaii-based tsunami warning centre covers only the Pacific, of not informing Indian Ocean states of the tsunami even though they had registered the seaquake.
The French hotel chain Sofitel, part of the group Accor, is accused of knowingly building the Sofitel Khao Lak Beach in the Thai resort of Phuket on a fault line, along with failing to inform parents of the victims and failing to repatriate some of the victims' bodies.
The lawyers said the suit was not, at present, designed to demand compensation but to uncover evidence that would prove negligence.
Mr Fagan asked the US court to ensure the preservation of key documents needed for the case, such as satellite imagery and contacts between the NOAA, Thailand and Indonesia, Mr Hasslacher said.
The court was expected to set a date for a hearing within the next 30 days in which tsunami survivors could be heard, he added.
The number of people believed to have perished in the December 26 tsunami stood at 273,435 today, more than two months after the disaster.
Mr Fagan successfully fought a class action suit against Swiss banks by
Holocaust victims.
Wow! Psychic news report from May 5, 2005.
The answer is simple....LAWYERS!
Oh yeah I want to file a lawsuit against the weather guy because he said we were getting 12 inches of snow and we only got 6.I had to go out and buy extra food and a new shovel all for nothing because of his mistake.I want money from the store as well for selling me things I did not need.I want to sue everybody and I will make up reasons as I go along.I guess this is how it works.
Not only that, but it was also posted a couple of months ago.
Uncanny!
Global parasites!
If they are successful, the precedent could cause problems for the city of
San Francisco.
Because the courts in most countries would throw it out.
Gee, and all this time I thought that tsunami was Bush's fault. At least, that's what the liberals told me. Global warming and all that.
With the successful removal of God from life on the part of the left, every disaster, be it flood, famine, earthquake, tsunami, volcano, or hurricane, is and will forever be the fault of the United States of America.
It's all about the money.
Sue the Vatican cause the Pope phone was discontected.
Can you say "failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted"?
The date should have read March 5, 2005. I can't type, but I know how to use
the search engine.
At least the attorney has a name that suits him.
let those ba**ards sue their own countries......the US funds our own research and NOAA.......we have no legal right to warn others.......we do it cause we damned well care, unlike most other jackass nations that can't predict a fart no less a tsunami.......
Perhaps the U.S based attorneys should get get a non-expense paid tour to "Phuket" by the Thai government and U.S. Courts.
Why is this in a US Court?
The American court system is the only one
in the world so fully developed yet so indiscriminate and unprincipled that it
wouldn't blow lunch all over these bastard lawyers and throw their useless
a&&es out the front door.
"Because the courts in most countries would throw it out."
And
rightly so. Hopefully we will do the same.
"Why is this in a US Court?"
It's not, it's in a NY Court. /sarc off
This is insane, and it's probably the tip of the iceberg that will soon
follow.
Astroid hits earth, lawsuits to follow.
Go cry to the UN ..
Get with the program, will ya? Karl Rove caused the tsunami with his
trademark Perfect Rovian Storm. Bush is just his chimp lackey and is
either too stupid for words or an evil genius (they can't decide which. < /DU
rant>
Only a Lawyer would think tsunami is spelled tSUEnami.
I'm sure they did, and I'm not faulting you for posting it tonight. I haven't
heard anything about this story since it was posted here some time ago. And the
story probably isn't identical--written by the same reporter.
If this wasn't so pathetic it would be funny. My kids laugh and threaten to
become lawyers when they want to get a rise out of me......
Somehow or another, Fagan will probably get paid for his time by the USA taxpayer. Just watch!
Has anyone noticed what Fagan is without the an?
....guess we didn't give them enough money???????????????
Since when is the US government obligated to be omniscient, all-powerful, and to give a damn about anyone but US citizens?
Why are they not suing their own governments for not having the sensor
networks to detect these things on their own? Using their "reasoning", would
that not be gross negligence on the part of the European governments? Feh!
The only meaningful tort reform will be when attorneys have to pay the DEFENDANTS when they file frivolous lawsuits. Until the attorneys have personal and professional consequences for being party to this crap, it will never stop.
Ditto
There wasn't a person with a B.S. in geology or oceanography within 1000 miles that didn't know that a 9.2 earthquake in Indonesia would likely cause a big tsunami.
stupid. like dude, other people are responsible for u?
accor owns
motel 6 + red roof inn, etc.
France has no torts law.
France has no torts law.
Lawyers or (liers) give me a bad taste, sleezy, money grabbers all.
Nothing too unusual there until I asked her where he was from and she said
TEXAS. They flew into SF and drove over to see her yesterday. I am still
in shock...
We should deduct every dollar NOAA spends on this idiocy from the tsunami relief fund and announce this to the world and ask the attorney firm that is sponsoring this crap to match it.
This would be funny if it weren't so sad. Ok, how about "INSANE"? A natural disaster is grounds for a LAWSUIT? I am continually amazed.
either the USA is RESPONSIBLE for the WHOLE world or it ISN'T... i wish they'd make up their minds!!!
f'ing european slobs...i live in thailand and they all trash us americans all the time...they choose to come here to play for holiday...but want to sue in a us court...take to the faciest EU...they are all running here and everywhere else leaving their homelands fearful of the islam millions they have in their countries but still want the depressed dollar in addition to their own overly priced uros...what slobs!
Maybe next time they will buried in an avalanche skiing in the alps.
Shakespeare had it right about Lawyers, that's for sure.
Act of God
in an earthquake/volcanic/tectonically active area?
Maybe, but it's the
United States fault because they deliberately didn't share their voodoo
technology with the rest of the world, because they're trying to kill of all the
poor third world peope, and oh, yes, white Europeans from socialist countries,
and before I forget, terrorist sympathizers in Aceh.
So, ergo, if it's
America's fault, it's Bush's fault yet again!
This is great...Two
Degrees of Separation from George W. Bush, the hot new game lefties and their
ilk just love to play.
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