You can’t make this $hit up… literally! Via the Springfield News-Sun:
Delta Air Lines flight attendant Tina Brock was dozing in a sleep room in the flight attendants’ layover lounge at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport one morning when she and her colleagues heard a loud gushing sound and saw a cascade of liquid suddenly pouring through the ceiling tiles onto the floor.
As Brock got out of a recliner and scrambled to move her suitcase and other personal items from the area she realized it wasn’t water that was flowing down.
It was raw sewage, Brock says in a new lawsuit — urine and feces — and it wasn’t just soaking her things; it was getting all over her, too, splashing on her hair, face and mouth, and then completely dousing her.
Now she’s suing the airport. Why?
Now, Brock and her husband, Joe Phillips, of Orange Beach, Ala., are suing Atlanta Airlines Terminal Corp. in Fulton County state court for damages resulting from the alleged incident on Aug. 1, 2012. AATC is responsible for maintenance of the area under Concourse A where the lounge is located, according to the suit. Prior to the incident, the suit states, a pipe dangled from the ceiling in the sleep room over a large white bucket.
Brock says she has suffered severe psychological harm as a result of the incident, and a loss of quality of life. She suffers from panic and anxiety in small and crowded spaces, requires regular medical attention and counseling, and has been diagnosed with PTSD, according to the suit. She had to quit working as a flight attendant for Delta and has been rendered incapable of performing marital duties including sex, the suit says.
In the days after, the suit says, she became severely depressed, couldn’t sleep and had the sensation that bugs were eating away at her skin.
The suit says that, after 18 years she was forced to stop flying for Delta this spring because the crowded spaces of airports and aircraft were triggers for her symptoms. She is still an employee of the company.
In fairness, that does sound pretty bad. But at the same time I can’t help but feel like she may be taking advantage of how lawsuit-friendly our country is…
@johnB- Well if she saw the pipe hanging from the ceiling why the hell did she take a nap under it? Nutcase.
I've shat on my girl a couple of times (including on the second bed in a hotel room with two beds). She has to be in the right mood, but boy when she is, Jane really gets in a lather over it.
What a sh*tty lawsuit!
If she got that much suffering from getting a bit of sh*t splashed on her, she was UNFIT FOR DUTY even before the incident occurred. As such, I don't see why she'd have any claim whatsoever. She outed herself as being a nutter.
you get the right lawyer in America, and the world is your oyster :)
@DeltaHater I for one wouldn't agree to get doused by feces and sewage for $5k. $50k, now that's a different ball game :D
These kind of lawsuits are sooo US. People (abu)uses the system!
Sorry, I meant to say that's asserted in hundreds of cases every YEAR, not day -- we're litigious, but not that litigious.
The article mentions that the husband is a plaintiff. He wasn't there, obviously. That means he's bringing a "loss of consortium" claim. This is a legal concept that's pretty anachronistic at this point, but it's close to boilerplate in these kinds of cases. The complaint is simply reciting language that the decades or hundred-year-old precedents require to be asserted in these kinds of cases, including the reference to sex. The lawsuit may be silly, I...
The article mentions that the husband is a plaintiff. He wasn't there, obviously. That means he's bringing a "loss of consortium" claim. This is a legal concept that's pretty anachronistic at this point, but it's close to boilerplate in these kinds of cases. The complaint is simply reciting language that the decades or hundred-year-old precedents require to be asserted in these kinds of cases, including the reference to sex. The lawsuit may be silly, I don't know all the facts. But with respect to the salacious allegation, there is just nothing to see here -- this same allegation is made in hundreds of cases across the country every day as a matter of complaint pleading form. It just has traction here because flight attendants and sex is a click-bait worthy combination that is causing this to be reported in this way. Plus, people love stories of other people getting covered in shit. Just nothing to see here.
Wow... People are so fragile now. And sue happy. Take a shower and get on with your life, jeez.
The bit about her "inability to perform marital duties" arises out of an old common law cause of action originally called per quod servitium et consortium amisit, but is now more commonly known as loss of consortium. Traditionally (think 1800s England, where most of the common law is grounded) a man could bring an action in common law for loss of consortium if his wife were to be injured and was unable to cook, clean,...
The bit about her "inability to perform marital duties" arises out of an old common law cause of action originally called per quod servitium et consortium amisit, but is now more commonly known as loss of consortium. Traditionally (think 1800s England, where most of the common law is grounded) a man could bring an action in common law for loss of consortium if his wife were to be injured and was unable to cook, clean, reproduce, etc. As the legal system and our country became less patriarchal, the cause of action was amended or foreclosed by statutes in most jurisdictions but the remnants have been rolled into what can be most rudimentarily understood as something akin to a loss of support or pecuniary damages action. In this situation though, she will likely approach it as evidence that the incident has negatively impacted her quality of life.
I only wonder why it took her so long to file the lawsuit. The incident happened in August 2012.
I don't think her complaint is outrageous at all. Imagine yourself showered in sewage! From the description of this pipe hanging out of ceiling, it appears that the airport already knew of a problem. If the airport didn't fix the problem in a reasonable period of time, then the airport is negligent. Plain and simple! And I have plenty of nurses in my family and if they are handling patients and their waste, they use...
I don't think her complaint is outrageous at all. Imagine yourself showered in sewage! From the description of this pipe hanging out of ceiling, it appears that the airport already knew of a problem. If the airport didn't fix the problem in a reasonable period of time, then the airport is negligent. Plain and simple! And I have plenty of nurses in my family and if they are handling patients and their waste, they use personal protective gear. So, that is just poor analogy!
"suffers from panic and anxiety in small and crowded spaces", like bathrooms, especially, I suspect.
@James - WTF is your problem? Keep your petty, intolerant BS trolls to that side of the ocean. Arse.
I know you like having your dick in someone's arse covered in shit but most people don't like having someone else's shit touching them. I think she deserves a LOT of compensation for this.
Well said Dave!
She's not taking advantage of the "law friendly country". If anyone was covered in crap due to a broken pipe, being psychology impaired is perfectly reasonable.
I always wondered what Nick meant when he said Delta was 'stylish' , now I know.
A lot of nurses get splashed with urine and feces for a lot less than $5,000!
It is certainly a bad experience and very, very disgusting. But, if being splashed with feces forces a mature adult to abandon a career, can't handle crowded spaces or can have sex anymore, then that person has had mental issues before.
It is not a pleasant experience but nothing that a shower, new clothes and a check for $5,000 can't fix.
I think she had a bad experience and she should be compensated....
It is certainly a bad experience and very, very disgusting. But, if being splashed with feces forces a mature adult to abandon a career, can't handle crowded spaces or can have sex anymore, then that person has had mental issues before.
It is not a pleasant experience but nothing that a shower, new clothes and a check for $5,000 can't fix.
I think she had a bad experience and she should be compensated. Fairly. Not outrageously.
Come on now, who on here would not be splashed with a bit of feces for $5,000. We do a lot worse just to maintain status.
If I were the judge, I'd throw that lawsuit out in a hurry.
Claims like that are commonly included in lawsuits; not particularly newsworthy. And quite often, the claim is abandoned once the attorney starts questioning the plaintiff about it at deposition -- some people just don't like having to testify under oath regarding the details of their sex life.
Agree with Ivan Y. This is definitely a minor part of the lawsuit, and somewhat standard for emotional distress-type complaints. It sounds funny out of context, but if you take a look at all similar complaints you'll see that this is actually a pretty normal claim.
I think the marital duties part is just a small part of the lawsuit so it's not wise to trivialize this. I definitely think she's owed some compensation for what happened, especially since it forced her to abandon her FA career.
To be fair to the rest of us - we all get that EXACT same feeling when we go to spend out $kyRubles now-a-days so should be get $$$ too? (sigh)