What happens when lemmings overpopulate?
they act like lawyahs
The qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act allow private individuals to sue on behalf of the government whenever the government is defrauded, and collect a portion of the money owed to the government. So all one needs to do is find a creative legal hook to claim that the government has been cheated, and all of the sudden one has standing to sue.
with me so far? [me neither, really—but wait:]
[Morgan] Reynolds, a former economist at the Department of Labor, became unhinged sometime after 9/11 and began ranting on the internet about the various conspiracies that brought down the World Trade Center. (Hint: government laser beams from space, not airplanes.)
...He argues that when the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—a government agency—prepared its report on the collapse of the World Trade Center, it paid various companies to consult with it. Since none of those consulting companies mentioned the government laser beams from space, they obviously defrauded the government.
So he sued… well, he sued everyone. To be precise, he sued:
Science Applications International Corp.; Applied Research Associates, Inc.; Boeing; Nustats; Computer Aided Engineering Associates, Inc.; Datasource, Inc.; Geostaats, Inc.; Gilsanz Murray Steficek Llp; Hughes Associates, Inc.; Ajmal Abbasi; Eduardo Kausel; David Parks; David Sharp; Daniele Venezano; Josef Van Dyck; Kaspar William; Rolf Jensen & Associates, Inc; Rosenwasser/Grossman Consulting Engineers, P.c.; Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.; S. K. Ghosh Associates, Inc.; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Llp; Teng & Associates, Inc.; Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.; American Airlines; Silverstein Properties; and United AirlinesThose are engineering firms, airlines, consulting firms, defense contractors, building contractors, and real estate firms. All of which get to deal with his lawsuit. (Will it eventually be dismissed? Yes. Will Reynolds be ordered to pay defendants’ costs? Probably. (Assuming he could afford those costs, which seems unlikely given how many defendants he sued.)... hey, it isn’t that much kookier than the actual 9/11 families who seek to blame the airlines, the World Trade Center, etc. for 9/11.
Mojo
“... a former economist at the Department of Labor...”
The hiring standards must be a bit low over at the D of L. Or maybe they just forgot to ask things like “and do you know about the laser beams from space, and the mind-control rays?”. Or maybe it was staring at all those numbers every day that drove him off the edge.
From the linked article:
“...Reynolds has an actual lawyer...”
... which only goes to prove one of the Well-Known Facts about lawyers. (You can pick your favorite Fact.)
After he wins that case, I’m going to have to find that lawyer and move on with my case that Social Security is unconstitutional, just like the Income Tax.
I have a story about a guy who sues Everybody, figuring that the reason he’s a hopeless failure is that everybody in the country is responsible. Everybody but one, of course. It’s worth several gazillion dollars. The only catch is, the lawyer taking the case would be one of the sued. I don’t know if that counts as a conflict of interest.
Posted by ZZMike on 10/03/07 at 02:04 PM
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