America has long been plagued by the litigious curse, the curse is caused by an entitlement mentality and one of its symptoms is frivolous lawsuits. Most recently we here the story of several Walgreens customers. These individuals are suing the drug store chain essentially because they were insulted. These customers are suing the company because its pharmacies included less than flattering descriptions of their customers in their internal database. According to the suits, one woman was labeled: “CrAzY!!” and “psycho” another was described as “SHADY.”
“It hurt my feelings so bad,” said one disgruntled customer who is among the litigants suing the drug store chain, it is unclear what monetary damages they are seeking.
On what grounds are these “plaintiffs” suing? According to the suit one woman is suing on allegations of “negligence” and “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Are these legitimate grounds for a lawsuit? In certain cases negligence certainly is a legitimate grievance. To win a case on the grounds of negligence, however, there must be actual damages, which are the result of said negligence. So what’s the damage? Hurt feelings? Are we now free to sue anytime our feelings are hurt?
While those Walgreens employees should be held accountable for their actions, the offended parties are deserving of nothing more than a heartfelt apology, if that, assuming the slurs were inaccurate and even under such circumstances the employees should not be compelled to apologize.
Perhaps those Phalanx visitors with legal expertise will provide insight into this latest experiment in frivolity.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pwalgreens23mar23,0,5994094.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
