Posted on Nov 15, 2002 | by Kelly Boggs

McMINNVILLE, Ore. (BP)--I would like to be one of the first to suggest that the American Psychological Association add litigat-a-phobia to its list of persistent fears that can dominate a person's life. What, you ask, is litigat-a-phobia? It is the nagging anxiety that if you have not yet been named in a lawsuit, you eventually will be.

A Florida trial that concluded Nov. 14 will surely solidify litigat-a-phobia in the hearts and minds of many. A jury awarded the widow of a teacher who was killed by one of his students $1.2 million from a gun distributor.

The case stems from the May 2000 murder of Barry Grunow by then -- 13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill at a West Palm Beach middle school. On the last day of school, Brazill shot the teacher in a classroom.

The jury found Valor Corporation, the handgun's distributor, 5 percent liable for Grunow's death. The owner of the gun, Brazill's grandfather, was found to be 50 percent at fault for the murder and the jury felt the school was 45 percent to blame.

Adding to this case is the fact that in December 2000 the victim's widow sued a pawnshop that legally sold the gun used to murder her husband more than a decade earlier.

After weighing the cost of a trial, Hypoluxo Pawn Shop paid Pam Grunow $275,000 to settle her civil claim. The shop had lawfully sold the gun to someone, deceased at the time of the murder, in 1987. The person who purchased the gun from Hypoluxo had given or sold the gun to Brazill's grandfather, from whom the boy stole the firearm.

Certainly we all sympathize with the murdered man's widow. Hers is a tragic situation. However, to hold the pawnshop that sold the gun, the company that distributed it, the school and the grandfather fiscally responsible is incredible.

Why not sue the manufacturer of the clothes Brazill wore the day he committed the murder? The case could be made that had he been nude he could not have left the house. At the very least he could not have concealed the murder weapon.

It is cases like this that have helped produce the nagging anxiety that every time someone walks onto your property or each time a sale is made it is a situation ripe for a lawsuit.

I am not sure when litigat-a-phobia first began to appear. The successful suit brought by a woman against McDonald's because she was burned by a cup of coffee purchased at one of the fast-food giant's outlets certainly called attention to the reality that one could be sued for almost any reason.

In her book "The Case Against Lawyers," Catherine Crier cites example after example of lawsuits that have served to propagate litigat-a-phobia. Consider the following:

"In Maine a woman hit an errant golf shot that landed near a set of railroad tracks. Her second shot hit the tracks, and the ball ricocheted back into her face. She sued the country club ... . Her initial reward of $250,000 was later reduced to $40,000 in recognition of her 'partial' fault in the accident."

"In Atlanta, police officer Gordon Garner warned the department's psychologist, Anthony Stone, that he'd had visions of killing his captain, the chief, and several other officials. A lawyer from the Georgia Psychological Association told the doctor that he had a duty to warn those who had been threatened ... . The doctor was hit with a breach of confidentiality suit that netted the cop $280,000."

Crier cites one case that thankfully produced no financial recovery: "... a woman could not be administered much anesthesia at the time of her childbirth because of her hypertension. She filed against her obstetrician -- because the delivery hurt."

Commenting on the litany of ludicrous lawsuits, Crier writes, "While these cases may sound absurd to the intelligent reader, law books are increasingly filled with such nonsense."

If my litigat-a-phobia becomes acute enough, I plan to sue someone. I am not sure who just yet, maybe the woman who was burned at McDonalds! You could join me and we could launch a class-action lawsuit. We might even prevail. After all, we live in America, the land of the free and the home of the frivolous lawsuit!
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Boggs is pastor of Valley Baptist Church, McMinnville, Ore.