At Least He's Honest. Would This Attitude Have 'Saved' Light Airplane Business??

The following is one (high end audio) manufacturer's warning
boilerplate:


OK, You've been warned. This is a special experimental and/or
developmental product that does not belong in the hands of an ordinary
consumer. If you incur damage by ignoring this advice, just remember
that
you're dealing with Nevada corporations with no assets and no
insurance.

Love it!... Yes, if more businesses structured this way ATLA would have
to lower it's annual membership dues to stay in business...

True story:
Stanley, is a person I know well enough to be privy to the inside
information... He manufactures and markets custom audio products
(primarily stereo amps, CB audio equipment, etc.) for retailers to sell
under private labels... Got served with a subpoena with a claim for
damages: severe injury, defective design, can't get it up anymore, loss
of consortium, yadda, yadda, etc... Stanley advised the attorney and
the judge that the product could not cause any injury unless horribly
misused, that the offshore corporation which actually owned the product
(legally he was merely an employee) had no insurance and no assets, and
did not intend to appear for deposition or court... Got served
multiple notices to court which 'the corporation' ignored... The judge
awarded a default judgement of many hundreds of thousands of dollars
(Stanley was told later that judge was literally in a rage over being
ignored - no sense of humor, tsk, tsk).. At this point the plaintiff
must have seen the handwriting on the wall because he bailed out,
signing over his part of the 'windfall' to the attorney as payment of
his fee... When the attorney tried to collect he was again informed
that there were no assets... The attorney marched into the factory
with a squad of deputy sheriffs and a paper stating that he owned the
company...

Fine, the production foreman said, smiled, put on his coat, and walked
out... The majority of the workers took one look at the big city,
weasel, lawyer - who was standing on a crate and yelling that they now
worked for him - put on their coats and followed the foreman...
Within hours the attorney found that the building was leased on a
monthly basis (8 days left to the next lease payment, bubba!) - the
machinery was leased (ditto) - the employees were from a national
temp-labor company (ditto)... There was not a scrap of paper, blue
print, production manual, order sheet, customer list, bills, etc., in
the factory - all this was performed by a separate corporation and
transmitted to work stations in the factory... When the foreman made
a single phone call from his car as he left (computers were also
leased), the internet connection hung up and the attorney was left with
nothing but blank screens.. The machined/molded/stamped parts and
circuit boards were made in Taiwan under an exclusive contract to a
Bahamian Corporation and not available to anyone else... In the end
all the plaintiff's attorney got was a bunch of bills and and a few
dozen completed amplifiers; as the new owner under the law (heh heh) he
inherited the assets (essentially zero) and the liabilities (lease and
labor bills now due), and no way to manufacture new product...

Within weeks Stanley had another factory up and running under another
corporation, producing an identical line of amplifiers for his private
label customers...

Denny

Denny wrote:

Love it!... Yes, if more businesses structured this way ATLA would have
to lower it's annual membership dues to stay in business...

True story:
(SNIP)

Within weeks Stanley had another factory up and running under another
corporation, producing an identical line of amplifiers for his private
label customers...

Denny


Yea... its a shame that Cessna, Piper and Grumman dont operate that way,
eh? (sardonic grin)

Dave

Of course, a big ticket manufacturer is in a different ball game... Non
the less, if more businesse in the Untied States were structured so
that there are no deep pockets to go after, there would be a marked
diminishment in frivolous suits, including against the big guys...
There are attorneys who make a career out of looking for deep pockets
to sue - for a huge chunk of the judgement of course - knowing that
they will lose 9 suits out of every 10... But, that tenth suit is like
winning the lottery, Christmas, and having your rich uncle leave you
everything, all rolled into one... If the first nine deep pockets
aren't there the tenth suit is going to be fewer and farther between...
Grin right back at ya... Denny

Denny wrote:

Of course, a big ticket manufacturer is in a different ball game... Non
the less, if more businesse in the Untied States were structured so
that there are no deep pockets to go after, there would be a marked
diminishment in frivolous suits, including against the big guys...

We're working on it. It's called "offshoring."

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

In the real world, Stanley would have lost all his private label customers as
soon as I filed a motion-under any of half a dozen pretexts-that allowed me to
deposition his customers' employees. Once he (and more importantly, they)
learned that the customers of any enterprise vaguely related to his previous
business were going to have their employees subjected to interrogatories and
depositions, he'd have to go to work at McDonalds.

Judges really, really, really hate being ignored.

"LGHarlan" wrote in message
...
In the real world, Stanley would have lost all his private label customers
as
soon as I filed a motion-under any of half a dozen pretexts-that allowed
me to
deposition his customers' employees. Once he (and more importantly, they)
learned that the customers of any enterprise vaguely related to his
previous
business were going to have their employees subjected to interrogatories
and
depositions, he'd have to go to work at McDonalds.

Judges really, really, really hate being ignored.

In the real world you wouldn't file a motion since the likelihood of
recovery from Stanley isn't high enough.

In the real world you might soon have to learn how to file motions in
Bangalore or Shanghai.

In the real world your grandchildren probably will work in a "service"
industry (hospitality, medicine. law, financial or government) to purchase
hard goods from Asia and Latin America.

In the real world the next generation of lawyers won't be flying airplanes
because either effective tort reform will happen or the only Americans left
with enough assets remaining to be targets of suits will be other lawyers.

Howard
C182
"The best is the enemy of the good"


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.818 / Virus Database: 556 - Release Date: 12/17/2004

LGHarlan wrote:

In the real world, Stanley would have lost all his private label customers as
soon as I filed a motion-under any of half a dozen pretexts-that allowed me to
deposition his customers' employees.

Bull****.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

"Denny" wrote in message
oups.com...
Love it!... Yes, if more businesses structured this way ATLA would have
to lower it's annual membership dues to stay in business...

True story:
Stanley, is a person I know well enough to be privy to the inside
information... He manufactures and markets custom audio products
(primarily stereo amps, CB audio equipment, etc.) for retailers to sell
under private labels... Got served with a subpoena with a claim for
damages: severe injury, defective design, can't get it up anymore, loss
of consortium, yadda, yadda, etc... Stanley advised the attorney and
the judge that the product could not cause any injury unless horribly
misused, that the offshore corporation which actually owned the product
(legally he was merely an employee) had no insurance and no assets, and
did not intend to appear for deposition or court... Got served
multiple notices to court which 'the corporation' ignored... The judge
awarded a default judgement of many hundreds of thousands of dollars
(Stanley was told later that judge was literally in a rage over being
ignored - no sense of humor, tsk, tsk).. At this point the plaintiff
must have seen the handwriting on the wall because he bailed out,
signing over his part of the 'windfall' to the attorney as payment of
his fee... When the attorney tried to collect he was again informed
that there were no assets... The attorney marched into the factory
with a squad of deputy sheriffs and a paper stating that he owned the
company...

Fine, the production foreman said, smiled, put on his coat, and walked
out... The majority of the workers took one look at the big city,
weasel, lawyer - who was standing on a crate and yelling that they now
worked for him - put on their coats and followed the foreman...
Within hours the attorney found that the building was leased on a
monthly basis (8 days left to the next lease payment, bubba!) - the
machinery was leased (ditto) - the employees were from a national
temp-labor company (ditto)... There was not a scrap of paper, blue
print, production manual, order sheet, customer list, bills, etc., in
the factory - all this was performed by a separate corporation and
transmitted to work stations in the factory... When the foreman made
a single phone call from his car as he left (computers were also
leased), the internet connection hung up and the attorney was left with
nothing but blank screens.. The machined/molded/stamped parts and
circuit boards were made in Taiwan under an exclusive contract to a
Bahamian Corporation and not available to anyone else... In the end
all the plaintiff's attorney got was a bunch of bills and and a few
dozen completed amplifiers; as the new owner under the law (heh heh) he
inherited the assets (essentially zero) and the liabilities (lease and
labor bills now due), and no way to manufacture new product...

Within weeks Stanley had another factory up and running under another
corporation, producing an identical line of amplifiers for his private
label customers...

Denny

Another one for Snopes.com although not quite as well-concocted or
believable.

My _grandchildren_? How about me. If I could earn a decent living driving
rivets, I would never have went to law school. Think about it.

Just as outlawing abortion will hapen when Republican legislators no longer
have teenage daughters, effective tort reform will happen when Republican
administrations and legislators can do without highly motivated attorneys-the
kind who play for blood more than money.

If your Stanley ****ed me off collecting from him would be my last worry.
Making him incapable of pursuing his chosen avenue of business in a profitable
fashion is the goal. Make one or two defendants miserable enough and the louder
they squawk...the more future defendants and their insurors will take you
seriously. In the tort business, going to trial means in effect you've already
lost the case in question. It's about settling, out of court, confidentially
and quickly. You have to "make your bones", and the full house hand is the
news coverage of the defendant who goes from CEO to burger flipper or who takes
a Smith and Wesson retirement. Sad, I suppose...but so are the companies who
sell split rim truck wheels, or for that matter, light twins that won't climb
out at full legal gross from Denver to people (with families) they know are not
Chuck Yeager. Are we any worse?