In certain localities, it’s legal to shoot someone who’s broken into your home, but not legal to shoot the same person if he’s still on the outside trying to break in. Waiting for a would-be intruder (and likely assailant) to gain entry before filling him full of lead doesn’t seem like the surest method of self-defense, however, and dialing 9-1-1 could be the last phone call you ever make.
So, in such communities, the wry advice given to homeowners (occasionally by policemen) is to ice the perp while he’s still outside and then drag the body inside to comply with legal niceties.
One wonders if a twisted version of that otherwise sage advice isn’t sometimes given to spouses of the elderly, or thought up on their own. After all, if an aging husband or wife falls and is injured in the couple’s own home or driveway or place of business, there’s no one to blame and nothing to be gained from it. But if the same fall and injury occurred on someone else’s property, that second party can be alleged to be liable for any adverse outcome.
Call us skeptical, if you must, but consider this: If you reported on personal injury cases by the cartful the way we do, you might be skeptical, too.
Speaking of carts, an employee steering an unwieldy string of them at the Target store on Cabela Drive in Triadelphia accidentally bumped into 80-year-old William Henry Zink Jr last August and knocked him down. Zink sustained injuries from the fall and died two weeks later.
Last month, his widow, Mary Jean, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Target in Ohio Circuit Court.
We mourn the passing of Mr. Zink, sympathize with Mrs. Zink, and believe that Target should not be blamed for a death that probably would not have occurred if Zink had been young and healthy.