Don't Let Liability Be A Victim Also

This is a bit uncomfortable to say, but I think it needs to be said anyway.

This story notes that Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer who administered the compensation program for the 9/11 victims, will do the same thing for the $7.1 million fund for the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings earlier this year.

With this in mind, here is a link to a Findlaw column by Anthony J, Sebok that makes the following point about a condition of the distribution of the 9/11 funds…

The federal government did not prohibit suits against the airlines (although it did cap their liability at a sum equal to their insurance coverage). Instead, it has offered the families of the victims a deal: if they elect not to sue the airlines (for negligence – my note), the government—meaning the U.S. taxpayer—will pay for the tort damages that the families would have otherwise attempted to win through litigation.

Now I realize that there are some important differences between the circumstances surrounding 9/11 and the Virginia Tech shootings. With 9/11, a secondary consideration was helping to get the airline industry back on its feet, and that appears to have happened given the typical free market shakeout of some carriers prospering while some remain hand strung by difficulties which, in many cases, existed before the attacks anyway. Also, the compensation paid to the 9/11 victims came from taxpayers, while the fund for the Virginia Tech shooting victims is composed of charitable donations.

However, a condition of receiving a distribution from the VA Tech Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund should not be waiving any claims for future liability against the school (I have no evidence that Feinberg or the school would make any such stipulation, I should hasten to add).

After all, I will always wonder about the two-hour gap between the shootings at the dormitory and Norris Hall. If one day a court decides that there was liability on the part of the school or anyone else for that and other occurrences, then the victims should be compensated to some degree (it would seem that this would go without saying, but still…).