Nearly $43 million settlement proposed over FEMA trailers
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/30/justice/fema-trailer-settlement/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
This highlights the pointlessness (unless you are a lawyer) of class action suits. The article says that perhaps as many as 60K people are eligible for the settlement, which according to my calculator works out to be $716.67 a person. I feel quite sure that that amount is meaningless to those that suffered and while it might be a nice surprise check in the mail for the non-sufferers, it is also quite meaningless (though a wee bit of stimulus for the economy).
I also have a massive objection (in principal, I didn’t follow the details) that FEMA is not picking up the tab. Unless the materials used were illegal (which, to my knowledge, they were not, just like the whole silicon breast implant debacle), how can the companies be held liable for wrong they didn’t do? I am sure that the company’s insurance companies are just doing a settlement to be done with the issue, but FEMA made the decision to order these units and I have no doubt that the companies involved were simply doing their jobs.
Ain’t America Grand?
