American’s have been known to be lawsuit happy and I’ve seen some ridiculous lawsuits over the years, but this case has got to be up there with the worst of the worst.
It all started when 18 year old Hiroyuki Joho was running to catch a train in Chicago. Joho ran across several train tracks to catch the right train. Evidently he didn’t see an approaching Amtrak train which struck the teen at 70 mph. The impact carried such force that the teen’s body was instantly ripped to pieces and flung in all directions.
Fifty-eight year old Gayane Zokhrabov was standing on a train platform over 100 feet away from where Joho was hit by the train. A large section of the teen’s torso was flung through the air and struck Zokhrabov, shattering her leg and breaking her wrist.
Rather than extend her condolences to the teen’s family, Zokhrabov filed a lawsuit against the dead teen’s estate for pain and suffering and against the two railroads for negligence. Originally, a Cook County judge ruled that damages sustained by being struck by a dismembered corpse were not recoverable since the incident was an accident. In the second part of the suit the judge ruled that the two railroad companies were not negligent or responsible for warning pedestrians about the obvious danger of moving trains.
This was not enough to satisfy the injured woman who filed an appeal as she continued to pursue suing the dead teen’s estate and putting his family through more grief over his horrible death. Zakhrabov’s attorney argued that Joho’s actions were clearly negligent on his part, despite his gory death, and he still should be held responsible for doing something so stupid.
Surprisingly, an Illinois state appeals court overturned the first part of the Cook County judge and ruled that the death of the teen was not an accident. They said it was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ that crossing the train tracks in front of an approaching train could result in injuries to the person crossing the tracks and to those standing nearby.
However, the appeals court did uphold the lower court’s ruling that cleared the railroads of any responsibility in the incident.
Sorry folks, but I think Gayane Zokhrabov is one of the most insensitive and greediest people I’ve ever heard of. How would she feel if her son had died in such a horrific fashion, having his body ripped to pieces? I would also like to ask her if she ever did anything that others would consider stupid while trying to rush here or there? And how can a judge not consider it a tragic accident?
To be truthful, this lawsuit should have been tossed in the beginning on the grounds of being so insensitive and absurd and Zokhrabov should be thoroughly embarrassed by her actions.
