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Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!pesnta!wjvax!jeff
From: jeff@wjvax.UUCP (Jeff Albom)
Newsgroups: net.legal,net.politics
Subject: Victim liability - Assembly bill AB 200
Message-ID: <440@wjvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-May-85 13:45:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: wjvax.440
Posted: Mon May  6 13:45:21 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 7-May-85 08:55:44 EDT
References: <5225@fortune.UUCP>, <2160@sun.uucp>
Organization: Watkins Johnson, San Jose, Calif.
Lines: 34
Xref: utcs net.legal:1657 net.politics:8631

This item was found in the editorial section of the San Jose Mercury News
on Monday May 6.  It speaks for itself although I am not positive of the
validity of the statements or the incidental consequences of the bill
AB 200.
  
   

>Current state law permits a criminal - trespassing on private or public
>property to commit murder,rape,burglary or some other felony - to sue the
>owner of the property for damages if he, the criminal injures himself.
> 
>That's the law, and it's being used to extort hundreds of thousands of 
>dollars from innocent property owners to compensate criminals who injure
>themselves while in the process of committing a crime!
> 
>Even more outrageous has been the behavior of the legislators of the   
>Assembly's Judiciary Committee.  Almost every year since 1979, this 
>committee has killed proposals to put an end to this "welfare for criminals."
>  
>Why?  Perhaps because the California Trial Lawyers' Association has poured
>more than $300,000 a year into legislator's war chests.  And CTLA members
>make huge profits on lawsuits.
>   
>Assemblyman Alister McAlister is trying again, this year, with a bill
>(AB 200) sponsored by the California Farm Bureau Federation and ACTIV
>(Alliance of California Taxpayers & Invovled Voters) to end property
>owner liability to criminals.
> 
>Readers who believe innocent bystanders should not have to pay to be 
>victims of criminals should write their legislators and urge them to get
>behind AB 200 and make sure it passes this year.
  
*** The standard disclaimer applies to this article, myself, my company
    and my pet dog Spot.***