Vermont Crash Victim’s $21 Million Award Among Largest Ever in State

September 4, 2007

  • September 4, 2007 at 9:14 am
    Anon says:
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    Currier filed suit against Quinn’s mother, Suzanne Schipper, for “negligent entrustment”…

    I remember a case in Ohio where a woman lent her car to her boyfriend knowing he was drunk, had about 8 DUI convictions, and had a revoked license and they tried her using a similar argument. In that instance I supported the use of this.

    In this instance, unless there’s something we’re not hearing about in the story I fail to see how there was any shared liability on the mother’s part.

    It’s terrible what’s happened to this young man but it’s a darn good thing I wasn’t on that jury… of course, any lawyer worth his salt would exclude me anyway.

  • September 4, 2007 at 1:20 am
    Ohioan says:
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    Agree that application of this theory of negligence is ridiculous. Unfortunately, the pltf. played the four-letter trump card(QUAD). My experience with these cases has shown that juries can’t objectively render a “no liability” decision after seeing ” a day in the life” video of the Quad. The award sounds impressive, but if there’s insufficient coverage to pay it, it’s a token.

  • September 4, 2007 at 1:42 am
    Masonman says:
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    A very sad situation, however this a worthy read for any insured who might ask, why do I need a million dollar excess liability umbrella?

  • September 4, 2007 at 1:46 am
    Cherry Garcia says:
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    Let us all remember, this is VERMONT, home of the tree huggers and speckled foot toads who need two acres of land just to breed. The land where children roam free only to be attacked, and Jessica’s law is not on the books.
    The jury now hands out a $21 MILLION verdict that can’t be paid to the poor victim because Mom “lent her car”.
    The attacker of a young girl gets a 3 month jail term, suspended after that.
    Come on VERMONTERS wake up.

  • September 4, 2007 at 1:47 am
    Mr Obvious says:
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    Perhaps if she had not been talking on the cell phone and putting on her make-up she would not have been doing a 100 and ran into a house.

  • September 4, 2007 at 2:01 am
    Susan B Anthony says:
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    What a chauvinistic comment! Excuse me, Mr. Obvious, who pays more in auto premium – women or men? It’s men, bonehead! And it’s for your worse than average driving habits!

  • September 4, 2007 at 2:18 am
    Boy Named Susan says:
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    You say that Mr Obvious is a chauvinist and then you insinuate that women are better drivers. Who’s the chauvinist here?

  • September 4, 2007 at 2:28 am
    Mr. Obvious says:
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    Many women are like some elderly drivers. they just go around causing accidents but usually are oblivious to this fact and often not actually in the accident.

    However, in this case the excessive amount of speed and the fact she hit a rather immobile object ( a house ) clued her into the fact that she had been in an accident. If she had hit a lesser object such as a car mirror or fender, mailbox, bush or a small animal she probably would not have noticed.

    Susan, for your future edification you might look for signs such as dust clouds behind you, gravel sounds, loud screeching noises, smoke or emergency vehicle sirens. These often indicate a problem and you might want to slow down or stop to see if something has occurred.

  • September 4, 2007 at 3:27 am
    SuziQ says:
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    If I could hear screeching and gravel and sirens, then obviously I didn’t have my stereo loud enough. Duh.

    And, like, who aims their mirror to see out the back?? How am I supposed to see to put mascara on?!

    See? We women can laugh along at the “woman driver” jokes – we can laugh along as we’re paying for our much cheaper auto insurance.

  • September 4, 2007 at 5:44 am
    another woman driver says:
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    I always see people I’ve passed singnaling with 1 finger in my rear view mirror. I always figured they were telling me I’m 1 good driver.

  • September 5, 2007 at 8:06 am
    chrome says:
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    What gets me is if anyone has ever traveled this beautiful portion of Vt you would obviosly see that the roads there are not built for high speed.
    The roads are built for scenic intake.
    The problem is many Vermonters feel that traveling at a high rate of speed is a accepted daily routine.
    I disagree with the ruling of the judge but am pleased for the poor guy who was crippled because of this young ladies actions. The guy could have asked her to let him out of the car but chose to stay in the vehicle and hence not should accept the end result.

  • September 5, 2007 at 8:08 am
    chrome says:
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    That should have read now instead of not.

  • September 5, 2007 at 8:20 am
    Susan B Anthony says:
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    Seriously. I had an incident in high school where I was attending a play and just happended to hitch a ride with a schoolmate and her drunk boyfriend. After riding thirty miles in which this bonehead nearly clipped a tractor trailer, yelled obscenities at any and everybody and then peed on the side of school building – I had had enough.

    I took the liberty of catching a ride home with someone else. This girl even had the nerve to get mad at me because I didn’t tell her what I was doing. I told her that her boyfriend was drunk and I was in fear for my life. I hope she’s still with us.

    We all make stupid mistakes and we should teach kids to tell stupid driving people regardless of gender that we do not intend to ride with them and if in the worse case scenario “tuck and roll” if they have to.

  • September 5, 2007 at 1:08 am
    Casual Observer says:
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    To add to the “it’s not just women” file, we’ve all seen the men who shave while driving, but the most amazing sight ever for me was the guy who opened his door at a red light to pour out the excess milk from his cereal bowl.

  • September 5, 2007 at 2:00 am
    Truly Amazed says:
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    Not only do you appear to be a bit ignorant, but you are also illiterate. If you had actually read the article, you would have noted that it was her son that was driving. She was being sued for allowing him the use of the vehicle.

  • September 5, 2007 at 2:13 am
    Casual Observer says:
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    Taylor Quinn, the driver, is a female. From the local newspaper: “The case was broght against Suzanne Schipper, the mother of driver Taylor Quinn, for “negligent entrustment” of the vehicle to her daughter.”

  • September 5, 2007 at 2:25 am
    Mr. Obvious says:
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    Truly amazed,

    I understand how you could have missed that. After all you were putting on your make up, steering your SUV with your legs and reading and responding to the article on your laptop. Busy people sometimes miss minor details like the gender of the defendant. Perfectly understandable.

  • September 5, 2007 at 2:27 am
    another woman driver says:
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    Blonde?

  • September 5, 2007 at 2:34 am
    Casual Observer says:
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    Article from paper says the victim dropped out of school in the 10th grade…yet he was awarded $1 mil for lifetime earnings that he wouldn’t be able to earn?! Wow, great plaintiff’s attorney! http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070901/NEWS01/709010357/1002/NEWS01

  • September 5, 2007 at 2:35 am
    Bubbles says:
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    How can you pull the sex card for an issue such as this? Very immature- we all have passed the drivers test- maybe the real issue is the DMV’s regulations or the fact that it was a shitty driver. period. I’ve seen BOTH men and women loose it on the road.

  • September 5, 2007 at 3:43 am
    Anonymous says:
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    not much

  • September 5, 2007 at 4:06 am
    Nobody Important says:
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    It used to be that women had much better driving records than men. It’s my understanding that statiscally women are coming much closer to having the same agressive driving habits of men. They sure are in Chicago. Congratulations to the female sex on your declining driving skills.

  • September 5, 2007 at 4:08 am
    Casual Observer says:
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    Thank you very little.

  • September 5, 2007 at 5:28 am
    Nebraskan says:
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    not trying to egg on the debate…and certainly not saying this link will be the end all be all for this discussion…just thought it was a fun article.

    http://money.aol.com/insurancecom/insurance/canvas3/_a/are-men-better-drivers-than-women/20061004101809990001

  • September 5, 2007 at 6:55 am
    Barney says:
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    I always am amazed at the drivers (generally women but not always) that can “multi-task”. In my daily commute I see drivers putting on make-up, clothing themselves, eating, drinking and texting as well as talking on the cell phone. All of this while doing 70mph. They are truly amazing specimens. Normally however they aren’t very good drivers.

    It appears this one should have worked a little more on single tasking.

  • September 6, 2007 at 6:17 am
    Nobody Important says:
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    It wasn’t meant as a compliment to women’s driving skills. They are deteriorating just like most of the male drivers out there. Women are achieving equality in poor driving. Congratulations.

  • September 6, 2007 at 6:29 am
    Mr. Moped says:
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    I ride a motorcyle in most days. The comments on the clowns multi-tasking is 100% on the money. It never ceases to amaze me even with bright colored clothing and running lights on how many idiots “don’t see me”.

    Mr obvious is correct in that it is ussually women and most are in SUV’s or Vans. They are so busy messing with their kids, talking on cell phones, putting on make up and clothing that they forget they are driving a 4000 pound weapon. I have noticed more men than women reading while driving which is just incomprehensible to me. There is also not much difference between the agression levels of females and males anymore.

    Cell phones and texts need to be banned in all 50 states while driving. Dressing and putting on makeup and turning around and not looking out the windshield should be automatic reckless driving tickets with mandatory driver training classes after each offense.

    The insurance companies are so obsessed with there speed limit obsession and drunk driving that they overlook what is causing the large majority of claims.

  • September 7, 2007 at 12:17 pm
    SuziQ says:
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    You wouldn’t catch a woman shaving while driving. Its too hard getting your left leg up on the dash.



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