Judge: Airplane noise plaintiffs owe Mile-Hi Skydiving $48K in attorney's fees

http://www.timescall.com/longmont-local ... ile-hi-48k

Nice!

Excellent to see some sense out there - that's certainly sticking it to them [emoji106]

So, this $48k is in addition to the $68k of damages previously awarded? Wow.

People should think twice about frivolous lawsuits

Nice if they ever see it. Often a very long road between a court ordered payment and real $$$

Excellent! From my years of experience, I can say that it's pretty rare for a Judge to grant attorney fees. Kudos to Judge LaBuda for her recognition that frivolous pleadings must be penalized, because they cost the defendants unnecessary attorney fees.

Cary

OregonMaule wrote:People should think twice about frivolous lawsuits

Oh she is.... she is! CQS is doubling down and going to appellate court. The bar tab is now up to $120k.

http://www.dailycamera.com/top-stories/ci_29638588/gibbs-quiet-skies-take-mile-hi-skydiving-lawsuit-appeals

I've seen it before. Some people just get the idea that they MUST be right and don't know when to quit.

There was a local case of a couple that ended up losing their condo to pay for legal fees against their housing strata over a dispute about a parking spot.

Some people just don't get it... buy a house then start complaining about noise from an operation that was there long before you

albravo wrote:I've seen it before. Some people just get the idea that they MUST be right and don't know when to quit.

There was a local case of a couple that ended up losing their condo to pay for legal fees against their housing strata over a dispute about a parking spot.

I'm not surprised. I've seen others when I was in practice who "just couldn't get it" that they were wrong. Some were my own clients; some opposed my clients. Some of the latter took their wrong positions because they had been misinformed by their attorneys, but often enough they had bowed to some outside pressures--parents, siblings, co-workers, neighbors.

In this case, although Ms. Kim appears to be the leader of her group, I'm guessing that with so many others appearing to agree with her, she has become more and more resolute, sort of a pack mentality thing. It makes all of them believe that they must be right, because they agree with each other, and pretty soon they've thrown so much money at the issue that they just can't back off and save face. Better to have the Court of Appeals agree with the District Judge and tell them that they're wrong, too; then they can blame all those wrong-headed judges and the legal system for screwing them, "...because no matter what, and as God as our witness, we're still right".

Cary

It's also possible she has so much money that a hundred grand just isn't a big deal. A buddy of mine spent $5k on a bicycle after thinking about it for all of ten minutes... Seems crazy, but financially it's about the same as me impulse-buying a novelty fly swatter.

Not likely. Her house is decidedly "middle class" - not that there's anything wrong with that - but if one belongs in a socioeconomic class that you can do what you suggest - you're probably owning airplanes to jet back and forth to/fro your quiet ranch in Jackson Hole and are not bothered by the sound of planes.

Hammer wrote:It's also possible she has so much money that a hundred grand just isn't a big deal. A buddy of mine spent $5k on a bicycle after thinking about it for all of ten minutes... Seems crazy, but financially it's about the same as me impulse-buying a novelty fly swatter.

I'm under contract on a property close to Hygiene Colorado, which is under the L downwind to base turn for runway 11. During inspections the jump plane used Rwy 29 a few times and the wind shifted to favor Rwy11 a couple of times. The noise is so low it's hard to believe a person would spend any money to fight it. From where I was, it was comparable to suburban street noise a quarter mile away.

Mark Twain said it best: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it"

Welcome to the hood!

handsrdirty wrote:The noise is so low it's hard to believe a person would spend any money to fight it. From where I was, it was comparable to suburban street noise a quarter mile away.

You are my new neighbor. Welcome. it makes three of us within a mile of the airport.

The persons doing this make regular rounds to hearings at the county to complain about absolutely every piece of County business they can. This will go away soon.

The persons doing this make regular rounds to hearings at the county to complain about absolutely every piece of County business they can.

CAVE-people. Citizens Against Virtually Everything

Trim Tab wrote:The persons doing this make regular rounds to hearings at the county to complain about absolutely every piece of County business they can. This will go away soon.

Don't count on it. There is a certain segment of society which seems to have "bitching disease". Some unfortunately also have sufficient finances to feed the disease.

When I chaired the Laramie airport board years ago, there were a couple of people who came to every meeting, to complain about one thing or another. Although we had open meetings, we didn't have a scheduled public comment period in the agenda, but we did allow limited comments about agenda items. One particular complainer would invariably want to comment about an agenda item, but within a sentence or two, he'd changed the subject to his favorite topic, mechanics who worked out of their car trunks. What was curious was that he was not a mechanic, he didn't work for any of the businesses on the airport, and he didn't own an airplane--he just liked to complain. Fortunately, he also didn't have the income or other wherewithal to file a lawsuit, or I suppose he would have tried that, too.

Then about 20 years ago, I married a woman who fit into that category, too. Why I missed that during our dating and engagement, I don't know, but less than 2 years of marriage was all I could take.

Why some people go through life, hating, complaining, filing spurious lawsuits, cheating others, I'll never know, but one of my lawschool professors had an explanation. He used to say that there was a percentage of society which live by their own rules, not society's rules. Lifelong criminals belong in that category, but so do many others, including the chronic complainers and haters and sneaky business people. Fortunately it's a relatively small percentage. He was right.

Cary

Unfortunately, 499 new houses are going to be built right under the downwind at Longmont (where Mile Hi operates). Santa Monica all over again. Would be nice if AOPA, EAA, FAA would put together a presentation on how not to plan city growth around airports and show the history of Santa Monica and then go on a road show.