Flier, arrested after incident in air, awarded $27.5M

[WhiteTara]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060412/ts_usatoday/flierarrestedafterincidentinairawarded275m;_ylt=Ao.z0zeNpEpLbWrS0tCfll7aB2YD;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

A Texas jury has awarded $27.5 million to a woman who says Southwest Airlines flight attendants had her arrested in 2003 because they were overly aggressive in enforcing post-9/11 security.

The case against Samantha Carrington, a U.S. citizen born in
Iran, was dropped the day after her arrest when an
FBI agent investigating the matter came to her defense. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles woman says, she is now subjected to heightened security while flying and cannot clear her name from watch lists.

Carrington's lawyer, Enrique Moreno, says the case is an example of how post-Sept. 11 security measures can unfairly target innocent people, especially those with Middle Eastern backgrounds.
snip
FBI Special Agent John Shipley testified that he did not believe the flight attendants' accounts of what happened during the flight. Jurors also saw a letter written to Carrington from Southwest President Colleen Barrett calling the incident "heinous" and offering to donate $8,000 in airline tickets to the hospital where her mother had been treated.

The judgment isn't the first of its type. In 2003, the Transportation Security Administration paid $50,000 to a physician of Indian descent who was detained by air marshals.

I didn't see this last week, and I thought it interesting that other people don't like what's happening in the skies either.

[Neil Lisst]

1. Jury findings do NOT equal money, and they are not the judgment.

No way in hell she gets a judgment for that kind of money.

[WhiteTara]

2. probably not, but it sure gave the airlines`

some pause. And I'm sure Herb didn't sleep as well as he would have liked, and he still has to deal with it on a day to day basis.

[Neil Lisst]

3. she'll probably end up with a million or so

damages that are in excess of the legal limit are not made a part of the judgment, and I don't see any way this case could produce more than a half million of actual damages. add some punitives, and there's a number.

If they get 2.7 mil in settlement, I'll be surprised.

But she'll definitely get paid if she settles now instead of risking a new trial or a judgment that guts her damages.