Another lawsuit gone crazy

The case of a man who sued himself was the overwhelming choice of citizens throughout Los Angeles County who recently voted in the L.A. Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. The purpose was to cite the most outrageous lawsuits of the year. The contest highlighted CALA's "Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week" a nationally recognized event in October. CALA groups inform consumers of the human and financial costs of lawsuit abuse, encourage legislators to enact common-sense reforms to the legal system, publicize the importance of serving on juries and help ensure the legal system is used for justice, not greed.

In the case of the Lodi man who sued himself, according to an article in The Lodi News-Sentinel, Curtis Gokey decided to sue the city of Lodi for damages when a dump truck backed into his car.

Gokey, a Lodi city employee, was driving the dump truck. Even admitting the accident was his fault, Gokey filed a claim for damages to his car. The city denied Gokey's claim because, in essence, he was suing himself.

That still didn't stop Gokey.

He and his wife decided to file a new claim under her name. The city attorney said this claim also lacked merit because she couldn't legally sue her own husband.

According to Gokey's wife, she had the right to sue the city because it was a city vehicle that damaged her private vehicle. As a result of negative publicity and the city's reaction, the Gokeys eventually dropped their suit. Other outrageous lawsuits included the infamous case of the Portland man who sued Nike because he looked like Michael Jordan, the case of the couple who sued for "reckless and negligent use of a bathtub," a case in which attorneys sued apartment owners for failing to warn tenants of dangers of car exhaust and cigarette smoke from parking lots, the case of a man who trespassed onto subway tracks after a night of drinking and sued the city when he got hit by a train, and the case of the widow who sued a Japanese-food restaurant chain on grounds that her husband died from dodging a shrimp tossed at him by a chef.

Los Angeles Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse is a nonprofit, grassroots public education organization dedicated to serving as a watchdog over the legal system and those who would seek to abuse it for undeserved gain.

For more information, visit www.losangelescala.org.