A CultureMap Debate
Hot butt lawsuit burns the Dallas Cowboys, but is the case really frivolous ornot?
Texas sports fans may have already heard the story of Jennelle Carrillo, the Cleburne woman who filed a lawsuit this week against the Dallas Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones over severe buttocks burns.
The Cowboys fan claims to have suffered injury, pain, disfigurement and more after sitting on a black marble bench outside of new Cowboys Stadium before a team scrimmage in August 2010.
As with anything to do with a potentially frivolous lawsuit or butt injuries, the issue sparked lively debate in our morning editorial meeting. Here's some of the debate:
Chris Baldwin, the resident bulldog, believes that we should try to understand the full story.
Chris says: "I just think that we rush to blame people who sue, without knowing everything — I mean, people still blame the McDonald's coffee lady, and if you know the whole story, she obviously had a case."
Joel Luks, arts aficionado, thinks that the lady must have been crazy for sitting so long — but that she ought to get them for all they're worth.
Joel says: "If you get hurt and you fine somebody like the Cowboys, that have a lot of fucking money, why would you not try to get as much money as possible? Because you burned your ass — wait, what did she burn? I'm assuming that she burned her ass.
"I mean, was she just frying there, thinking my legs are hurting, I should get up?"
Sarah Rufca, our foodie, lawsuit expert and pragmatist, doesn't believe in suing for suing's sake.
Sarah says: "If a bench is a liability and not a service, we can't even have benches. And I like benches.
"I had leather seats in my car, and leather is not even stone, and it got really hot and it burned me — but I never sued anyone about that. Maybe I should have.
"I mean, I think the Cowboys could argue that they probably weren't expecting people to sit on marble benches in the heat with a naked butt or with exposed legs (the woman's attorney says she was wearing long pants and still got burned). I just can't believe that she didn't put her hand down first, not only to check the temperature, but to balance and guide herself into seated position . . . Like a plane landing.
This writer would have known long before sitting whether the surface of the bench was too hot.
I say: "I often wipe a chair or a bench just to make sure I'm not sitting on crumbs or something [a quirk which Sarah has apparently noted on multiple occasions]."
Tyler Rudick, a guy who knows his bizarre crime, suggests that we conduct a bench experiment to test the temperatures of different materials.
Tyler says: "The world is a much more dangerous place than you think it is."
