Now Wal-Mart LIKES trial lawyers, sues own hirees for its own greedy mistake (Route 65 landslide)

[brentspeak]

Back in 2004, Wal-Mart and the officials of Kilbuck, PA (near Pittsburgh) ignored Allegheny Office of Economic Development's repeated warnings not to build a new Wal-Mart supercenter along a particular landslide-prone section of Route 65.

Wal-Mart nevertheless lobbied the Kilbuck officials hard enough to convince them to waive township ordinance regulations and allow construction on a new supercenter anyway -- this despite there already being another Wal-Mart supercenter located in nearby Cranberry.

The result? In 2006, during construction, the predicted landslide finally occurred: 500,000 cubic yards of dirt and debris were dumped onto Route 65 and the nearby railroad tracks, the biggest and most devastating Pittsburgh-area landslide in the past 40 years. They're still trying to clean the mess up and de-congest the highway. (read about it here: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_528190.html and here: http://www.yoursewickley.com/blog-entry/kilbuck-landslide-one-year-later)

This week, Mall-Wart decided to assume responsibility for its own greed and stupidity in the only way it knows how: by suing everybody else involved -- i.e., all the people it hired to build the supercenter (see http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/08/11/daily3.html).

[TomInTib]

1. Another line item on my List of Reasons to Never Set Foot in a WalMart.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would patronize one of those places.

Here in Marin, we won't even let WalMart into the County.

[DarthDem]

2. Ahhhh, Those Rethuglicans

Trial lawyers bad!

Government bad!

Interfering in people's private affairs bad!

Oh, unless, of course, you're a Republican. Then all those things are okay, as and when you need them. :rofl:



Edited to add: good call, Tom. I haven't been inside one since 1999. Will not shop there. Ever.

[zbdent]

4. "Rule of law" - good ...

"wait ... what are you doing with those handcuffs? DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM???"

[onethatcares]

3. damn frivilous lawsuits,

glad it's only the liberals that are filing them.:sarcasm:

[unblock]

5. corporations have always loved lawyers and used them as weapons

they're so useful for creating barriers to entry, stomping on the competition, keeping employees from getting compensation they earned, getting out of paying suppliers, ripping of investors, lobbying for loopholes, and helping to keep ill-gotten gains from customers.

it's only OTHER PEOPLES' LAWYERS they despise....

[mrreowwr_kittty]

9. 85% of litigation is businesses suing each other. nt

[bertman]

6. Confession: Last night I went to the WalMart because my inlaws' toilet was broken and I was too late

leaving work to get to the other big box stores that I hate almost as much as WalMart (although the Lowe's employees are good people and some of them really know their shit, but I still prefer to shop at the locally-owned hardware stores).

This is my first slip-up in two years, so please have mercy on me because I HATE WalMart and the very idea of WalMart even if it does allow the average working-class American to accumulate more worthless shit than any of us need or can afford.

Whew, I feel better now.

Let's do a DU poll to see how many of us actually shop at WalMart.

Also, everyone please remember that China would not have been able to produce that absolutely insanely astounding opening night for the Olympics if it weren't for WalMart.

[mdmc]

7. to the courts!

[Sheets of Easter]

8. You know what used to be on that property? An abandoned state hospital.

I don't believe in urban legends & curses, but one can dream...


* I grew up not 5 miles from the area in question.