Stupid Human Tricks

Okay - the Supreme court has some interesting cases coming before them this week ... two popped out to me, one in favor of the plantiff, one in favor of the defendant.

The first involves a couple of police officers in Ontario, CA (yeah, it threw me too) ... the lower courts ruled in the officers favor when it ruled that even though a company supplies a person with a computer, email acct, pager, blackberry, or other simular device - then the employee has the 'right to privacy' and the company has no right to fire over content of those messages.

Excuse me?? I think it is pretty clear that if your employer supplies devices they are still the property of the company -- you don't get to take them with you -- and the company can be held liable for anything that you send via your device ... if you are sexually harrassing a co-worker or a ex-(insert relationship here) then the company could be sued under the guise that they allowed the harrassment to go thru their lines of communications.

either way -- the Courts have screwed over the employer. Best thing they can do is say -- "you want it, supply it yourself" or "you need one of these, but you need to supply it yourself".

The other case, ruled in favor of the defendant.

While on a cruise a woman tripped over a camera cable, and she filed suit against the Travel Agent who booked the cruise for her ... well that case was dismissed because she was told she would have to file against the cruise line itself (makes sense to me) ... but the cruise line won because of a technicallity.

see -- she had a 1 yr statute of limitations - but the way the courts are backed up, her orignal case didn't come to the courts until just before the 1 yr mark, and by the time the papers were served against the cruise line the 1 yr limit was passed.

Okay I over simplified that I'm sure -- I make it sound like it was like "you have time" and the next day "oops you don't" ... I'm not sure what the time line was ---
but I feel really bad for this lady.
But I can totally understand -- the courts have to have limits on how long you have to file ... it helps to ensure witness recounts, paperwork not being lost, and surprises springing up decades down the road (like me going after the kid that was driving when we hit that brick wall because I have a fear of riding in cars now 30 yrs later)

These are the two that stood out ...