It all began with an auto accident after Alicia Thompson, who is white rear-ended a car driven by Janelle Henderson, who is Black.
Henderson and her lawyer sued for $3.5 million dollars, claiming that the accident made tics and pain connected to her existing Tourette’s Syndrome were made worse by the accident.
But, during the trial, the eyewitnesses at the accident scene described Henderson as “combative” and “confrontational.” Three of Henderson’s friends described her as “the life of the party.”
As a result, the jury tossed out the sought-after $3.5 million and awarded her only $9,200 dollars. That did not sit well with Henderson’s lawyer, so he sued again claiming, what else? Racism. ” He claimed that the terms “combative” and “confrontational” were racist terms.
Those terms are commonly used on “Cops” and law and order programs. In fact, in most cases, the ones being described by those two terms are skinny white men. Of course, that is not how the liberal Washington State Supreme Court saw it.
Hans Bader said:
I have called opposing litigants and counsel confrontational and combative in the past, because in those cases, they were. Race had nothing to do with it — most of those combative people were white!
In response to the request for a new trial, the trial judge did what trial courts would do in most of the country in this situation: it refused to do so. The Washington State Supreme Court reversed that ruling, saying that the burden was on the defendant — a white woman — to prove the judgment was not affected by racism. If the white woman can’t prove that, the plaintiff can have a new trial, and sue her all over again.
The Washington Supreme Court in a powerful, unanimous opinion Thursday ruled that a new trial is the only adequate remedy in civil cases where racial bias was a factor in court, finding that “race-based” misconduct can “never be a harmless error.”
The opinion is the latest issued by the justices aimed at addressing and removing racism from the state court system.
The court, ruling in a personal injury case resulting from a car crash, concluded that the trial court should have held a hearing to explore the allegations of racial bias raised by the defense, and ordered it back to King County Superior Court for such a hearing and almost certainly a new trial.
The opinion states an evidentiary hearing about racial bias must be held if the court is presented with evidence that an “objective observer” — defined by the justices as “someone who is aware that implicit, institutional, and unconscious biases, in addition to purposeful discrimination, have influenced jury verdicts in Washington State” — could conclude racial bias was a factor in a verdict.
The court actually ruled that the defendant had to prove there was no racism involved in the decision and not the plaintiff. If you claim racism, it should be you to prove your case. How do you prove no racism? It’s impossible to prove a negative.
Attorney Mark Lamb told Seattle KIRO radio host Dori Monson…
…“The presumption is going to be that you are biased, you are racist,” Lamb explained to Dori’s listeners. “The burden is on the party that effectively won at trial.”
“It is trying to imbue race consciousness into our system in a way that is not remedial but is insidious and will have very disastrous consequences to bring our country together. It’s going to heighten racial consciousness and identity and that is not going to be good for our state.”
Comments 8
Mmmn suppose you need video of what happened or else, only in sick democrat minds does this crap happen!!!!
Always have anyone thinks deferentially are just lying to their self it is our fault for not having them stand on their own get a job do the job show up everyday like all others have to quit giving welfare to able bodied people, women with small children need extra help and that needs to come from the Fathers of these kids, they are just as responsible as the Mother do think Mothers need to be with the children till in school full time then get a job that they are home when the children get home, and teens need to get a after school job, we had much better children when Mom was home and that is a fact, but if a woman is on welfare because of children. They should not be allowed to have anymore children till they are capable of taking care of them on their own, and the Fathers have to help out, No welfare of any kind to illegals. Only Americans that have paid into these programs are entitled to use them and the government needs to stop using Our Money on non Americans , illegals, refugees, get them back to their own countries banned from ever coming here
If the plaintiff were to win in a retrial, what’s to keep anyone else, going forward, from over burdening the courts with arbitrary appeals like this and suing for outrageous amounts of money? No doubt, if she does get a new trial, her lawyers will probably also add monetary compensation for having to endure the “racist” trial to the amount of the lawsuit. There is no way that a precedent like this would not pave the way for more abuse of the judicial system by anyone who just feels like tossing about such accusations, in order to scam more money from a defendant. Something like this could be used as a back door for reparations.
Momma needs to learn to keep her legs together.
Problem solved !
I live in Washington state and what is allowed to happen in Seattle is getting worse daily. A bystander made the statement not the defendant correct? If this is used once and ends with a new trial that ends with the plantiff winning there will be to many cases that will try this. The word racist is thrown around like dirt in a dust storm and it’s true meaning isn’t what’s happening
EXACTLY!
When accidents are described in police reports and evaluated by insurance companies, color is important. For example, was there a red light or stop sign. Now, in Washington, skin color is being added. That should objectively result in insurance companies having to raise rates for white drivers, since their legal responsibility has been increased. This ruling should make highway pileups very complex.
Remember: black LIES matter ! The Negros, are just being Negros. What other RACE, acts this Uncivilized in 2022 ? What Race, that are 12% of the population, causes the MOST Crimes ? Crimes against Whites / Asians / Hispanics ? What Race, contributes LITTLE but demands MORE ? Where ever the Negro in an area are a Majority, there is CRIMES. No ?Detroit/Chicago/Philadelphia/New York/Portland/New Jersey/California.. on and on.. The MOST RACIST with the most LIES, making up FALSE Race Crimes?>>>Negros..>>Smollett, Sharpton/Tawana Brawley/Bubba/The LACROSS PLAYERS Accuser-Liar/ The Volley Ball Player Accuser-Liar.. Racists Joy Reid/Whoopi/Stephen a Smith Waters on and on. What is it, these POS have in Common?>>Negros.