CaptainHook

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Did anyone catch the the Judge Judy episode on 1/28/04? I missed it and wanted to know what it was all about. Apparently he was sued for property damage and lost the case. If so, why did the AMA insurance not kick in? Any info guys?

Hubb

My Feedback: (1)

I only caught about 5 minutes of it on the way out the door. I never heard one mention of the AMA although he did have a letter from the club president. the club sits on a landfill I guess and is leased to the club by the city. the poor guy was getting slaughtered from the few minutes that I watched. I too would like to know the outcome and if there was any support from the AMA in this matter.

Hubb

Roll On 60

The club is located in Decatur, Alabama.
The plaintiff sued to get his plane back since the land owner where he crashed would not return it. The plantiff's case was dismissed and the counter suit (defendant) was awarded $2500.00 due to constant nosie, harassment etc. The plaintiff got the plane back when it was ruled the defendant had no legal authority to hold the plane.

CaptainHook

My Feedback: (80)

So the way I understand this is this guy had to pay to get his model back? I just talked to a friend who watched and the judge told him "that the reason he flew on a county landfill was so he couldn't crash his toy into someones house". [:@] Nice one Judge!

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

DARN, I flew at that site a couple of times....and I bet I 'know' the neighbor in question....one day the club was on the front page of the local newspaper about him.....he was shooting AT the planes. When I attended a couple of contests there, the neighbor would set out some huge speakers and blast away with some 'music'.....whataguy.....

Jerry

jonkoppisch

My Feedback: (162)

I just saw the episode. Judge Judy was not a fan of model airplanes at all. When she saw the pic of the damage it caused to the guys yard (a hole about 6 inches wide by 3 inches deep) she said that the planes are very dangerous and they were lucky no one was killed. The guy told Judy that they club had moved from another club site because of safety reasons and that really set everything off. It really wasn't the guys fault at the way he answered, he was given very limited time to talk and the questions that were asked were tainted. He did extremely well to hold back and not get mad. I couldn't believe that he said he'd pay the $2500 to get his plane back.

Jon

FHHuber

Oh... can believer in a modeler agreeing t pay to recover his model... if the model was an expensive one.

You need to note the text that flashes on the screen at the end of the show though. "All judgements are paid out of a fund...." The TV show paid it. What happens is, the fund is set at some given value. That value is going to be split between the parties in compensation fr (hopefully making fools of themselves) taking thier case to the TV instead of a regular courtroom. The split is biased by the amount of the judgement.

example: if its a $5000 fund and there is a $2000 award... the winner gets $3500, the loser gets $1500 (this may not be thier exact method... but it waill be something similar)

****

BTW... I logged on the Judge Judy website... and wrote in a note that she may be educated a bit about model aviation by looking at the AMA website and actually visiting a flying site. (I tried to be tactful... )

RS2K

My Feedback: (8)

The $2500 plane was a 40 sized Great Planes EASY SPORT!!!! He said it took 8 years to build and he had $800 in it. It had a 2-stroke in it.

FHHuber

[X(][:-]8 YEARS![:-][X(]

LOL He belonged on Judge Judy... (see note about making fool of self)

Dauntae

Well there is law and justice and then there is Judge Judy and ratings. I've seen a few of her shows and dearly feel she know very little about the law but she looks good on TV.

Dauntae

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

IS there a transcript from the show?

FHHuber

No transcript on the show's site... but there is the little "teaser" clip of the case. Where the widget says... "If you can't land the thing Fly somewhere else!"

DocYates

My Feedback: (102)

I heard a few weeks ago, thru the rumor mill no less, that problems are still occuring at that site, with even more trouble with the adjacent landowner. Supposedly a representative from the AMA came down to talk to the landowner, and while he supposedly shut down the field (pulled their insurance or something like that). I am hoping to get to talk to some of their club members this weekend get the real story, but sounds like even after Judge Judy things did not go well and eventually they may have ended up losing their field. I certainly hope that is not the case.
Tommy

jonkoppisch

My Feedback: (162)

The main thing that I didn't like is that they portrayed model airplanes as being extremely dangerous, that they just fall out of the sky all of the time and hardly ever really fly! Judy asked the guy if they had had another flying site and if the city had moved them from there for safety reasons (not whether the land was being developed etc but just for safety reasons which is valid if it was located close to the city which he agreed with). Once the safety issue was brought up that was 'all she wrote'. She asked if there was other people's land, houses around and he said yes, that they didn't fly over them for safety reasons. Any mention of safety was avoided and also that they were flying on a landfill provided by the city and that the city.



The guy brought in a video tape that showed 1 plane flying by (looked like a sig cougar), you couldn't tell from the tape if the plane was flying over his property or not, then the tape showed the persons plane crashed in his yard and the divet. Judy seemed disapointed that she couldn't do anything about the guy keeping the plane. She told him that if a car crashed on his property that he wouldn't have the right to keep the persons car (if a persons car crashed on his land the person would have to pay for damages which in this case would have been someone to put 1 piece of sod in which would have been considerably less than $2500). He had counter sued though and that is where she awarded him the $2500 if the person wanted his plane back.



Jon

airega1

My Feedback: (204)

If you ask me the member was a total idiot for even thinking about going in front of Judge Judy with this. I guess he wanted to get on TV or something. I would've taken the loss of the plane before all that negative press on model airplanes. With every effort that was made to promote model airplanes, something like this circus act on Judge Judy is what people will remember. Judge Judy is not a decent minded judge, she's obnoxious and just loves to wing her authority at you. He at least should have tried in front of Judge Joe Brown. or not tried at all.

Zpat

My Feedback: (2)

The bottom line is, this guy took his 40 size trainer looking airplane, that took him 8 years to build and bored it into the yard of a house that is close to the flying site. What's he doing flying close to the house much less over the heads of the people out in the yard.
This is just another episode of a flyer that has minimum control of his airplane.

scottrc

Yup, he should have went over and offered to pay damages and then filed the insurance claim. But, he got $1500.00 bucks and a chance to be on TV at the expense of the hobby.

BTW, I heard Judge Judy is the second highest paid day time celebrity behind Opra.

airega1

My Feedback: (204)

Yes Zpat, this is exactly what I mean, for this is what gets remembered, some guy with an 8 year built sport plane losing control and possibly killing someone. 8 YEARS? I guess it's possible if you worked on it 0ne week a year.

FHHuber

don't take my "example" and quote it as being for cetrtain that he got ANYTHING. THe guy who got the award of $2500 got something... but the guy who lost may have walked win $000.00

mongo

My Feedback: (15)

all this bad publicty and negative image making, and it wasn'e even a evil turbine that did the deed. just a sport/trainer type.
amazing

iflynething

Golly.....and I thought that Judge Judy was all fake crap........



Thought to self: I NEED TO WATCH MORE OF JUDGE JUDY......!!!!!! LOL

FHHuber

The court shows such as Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown.. People's court. All are based on 2 things:

1) Real people with cases that could really make it to your local courtroom. (go watch the small claims courtroom sometime... then watch a Judge Judy case... darn near the same!)

2) The hope on the part of the producers that the case will be so STUPID that it will be entertaining.

mAvRiCk-inactive

Theres some guy in my club that buiolt an AT6 texan and he built in from scratch using 250 screws to add realism and landing lights I mean the whole nine yardsa and it took him 6 months to build it. THts not an everyday joby either. He took time off. Unbelievable. Thats a big hole to make in someones field though

Dan

pete913

I don't know this for a fact, but I've heard that both parties have to sign an agreement before appearing on most of these shows to forgo the possibility of an appeal in the regular court system. Not that the regular system would pay much attention to judge Judy's rulings anyhow I'm sure. That woman is living breathing proof that there is something very wrong with the legal system in this country, at least if she was ever an actual real life judge.

FHHuber

Yes she was (is?) a real life judge.

My opinion of the average lawyer is about like most people think of the brown stuff they flush down the porcelain throne.