Man Sues McDonalds After Naked Pictures Of His Wife End Up On Internet
On Saturday we had an Around The Web link about a guy who had naked pictures on his cell phone, left that cell phone at McDonalds, and then saw those pictures turn up on the internet.
Today comes news that the guy in question is suing McDonalds for $3 million.
The suit was filed Friday and seeks a jury trial and $3 million in damages for suffering, embarrassment and the cost of having to move to a new home (due to alleged stalkers). The suit says that Phillip Sherman left the phone the Fayetteville store in July and that employees promised to secure it until he returned.
Now, I’ll grant that whoever put the pictures on the internet is probably culpable here, but how in the world does that culpability transfer to McDonalds? I mean, I get that McDonalds has the “deep pockets” in this case and the chance that some jury might be convinced that the corporate giant bears some responsibility here is the only way for this guy to cash in on an embarrassing situation, but let’s think about justice here. McDonalds isn’t responsible for securing this guy’s cell phone. The company certainly isn’t responsible for the nudie pictures of the guys wife on that phone. And it’s hard to argue that McDonalds acted negligently when of its employees accessed these pictures and uploaded them to the internet. That was the employee acting of his/her own volition, and any responsibility for that should lay with the employee only.
Frankly, I think it’s about time we stopped letting people and their vulture lawyers treat situations like this as though they were winning lottery tickets. Just because something bad happens to you doesn’t mean you’re entitled to millions of dollars in settlement money.
