European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 2, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes sunday March 2, 1986 James Kilpatrick Senate Bill would curb windfalls in liability suits there was the Case of the professional gymnast who tried a one and a half Roll out flip from a trampoline and landed badly on a mat. There was also the Case of a Homeowner who stacked some Corning Ware dishes in his Kitchen Cabinet. When one dish fell off and broke the owner suffered a serious Gash. A jury awarded damages of $14.7 Mil lion against the manufacturer of the gym mat. Another jury awarded $804,000 in damages against the Corning company. The theory in the first Case says Ken Tucky s sen. Mitch Mcconnell is that the manufacturer had failed to warn the gymnast of the potential danger involved in doing one and a half Roll out flips onto a mat that was 18 inches thick. The theory in the Case of the broken dish was that Corning failed to warn the owner that the dishes might fall and Shat Ter if stacked five deep with their lids inverted in the Kitchen  Mcconnell cited the two cases last month in introducing the litigation Reform act of 1986. Remarkably the full Senate judiciary committee has scheduled the Bill for immediate hearing. It will face thundering opposition from plaintiffs1 lawyers but the Bill s purpose is admirable and its specific provisions might do a world of Good. The Kentucky Republican could have cited a Hundred cases that have hinged on novel theories of product liability. There was the Case of the Biro manufacturing co. Of Ohio for instance. In 1959 or thereabouts it sold a hamburger grinding machine to the . Air Force. In the course of time the machine was sold As surplus. It passed into private hands and somewhere along the Way it lost its safety guard. Twenty seven years later the company is being sued by a Cook who injured his hand. Such litigation has contributed heavily to the explosive expansion of civil Liti gation in our courts. Some 2 million cases arc filed every year in state courts. Civil filings in Federal courts have grown from 67,700 lawsuits in 1965 to 274,000 in 1985. The 1985 figure is swollen by 57,000 lawsuits brought by the Flora Lewis the joust at the Royal court of malpractice damage claims and contingency fees u i if or Piri at a government to recover defaulted Loans and overpayment but the increase is nonetheless impressive the trend has provided a Bonanza for lawyers who take the risk of launching lawsuits for fees that Are contingent upon their winning. It has meant misery and sometimes bankruptcy for respectable companies that Are thought by juries to have deep pockets. As they used to say in springtime on the farm Frog gigging is fun for the boys but hell on the frogs. Mcconnell s Bill which affects Federal courts Only would require that judgments of More than $100,000 in damages be paid in instalments Over the estimated lifetime of the winning plaintiff. Jury awards would be reduced by offsetting payments from private insurers. Demonstrable economic losses such As lost wages and Hospital Bills would not be limited but damages for pain and suffer ing would be capped at $100,000. Attorneys1 contingent fees could not exceed 35 percent of an award for economic loss. Punitive damages would be paid not to the plaintiff or his lawyer but rather to the registry of the trial court. Plaintiffs would have to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the harm they had suffered was the result of conduct manifesting a conscious disregard for the safety11 of the injured party. Finally in an exceptionally useful Section Mcconnell s Bill would impose court costs fees and expenses on any Law yer who initiated a lawsuit merely for the purpose of dangling a monetary settlement out of court. These Are the Nui Sance lawsuits that Many defendants Wea Rily will Settle rather than face the High costs of prolonged litigation. Insurance companies which have lost their shirts Over the past couple of years will applaud Mcconnell s Effort. Plain tiffs1 lawyers will fight it like bobcats. My own thought is that a person who is injured by a manufacturer s provable negligence of course should recover appropriate awards but punitive damages that provide a Windfall to the plaintiff and a Lush Reward to the lawyer should be stopped. I Hope the Senate agrees. Universal press Syndicate new words Haven t changed soviets old habits there is a curious Point counterpoint both to Mikhail Gorbachev s urgent demand for an overhaul of the faltering soviet Economy and to the Way his communist party is reacting. Without any doubt Gorbachev does want to shake things up move the coun try along climb out of the doldrums. He talks about doubling practically every thing by the year 2000, a year he can confidently expect to celebrate in Power. He will have his 55th birthday sunday but his complaint about the Stul tidied Leonid Brezhnev Era rings True about his own regime so far. He told the 27th con Gress of the soviet communist party on wednesday that his predecessors had a Peculiar psychology How to improve things without changing anything.1 that is the atmosphere of Moscow now. Gorbachev followed the tradition of delivering a soporific All Day speech divided in four parts. Two parts about the Economy and the party sounded innovative resounding with the new but not yet explained code words about an acceleration of socioeconomic development and scientific technological  the other two parts about the evils of capitalism and foreign policy were full fall the old cliches. Then the Deputy chief of Goslan the state Central planning Agency was sent to explain the economic ideas to foreign correspondents and he sounded As completely wooden As Ever. His idea of Reform evidently went no further than replacing the manager of an Enterprise that has failed and then carry ing on As before. The fashionable official phrase of the moment is turning  there is an energetic rather new Effort to convince everybody that this is really a historic moment a watershed a change in direction and then the direction is de scribed As doing More and better just what has been going on All the time until now. Gorbachev is moving officials around threatening sluggish workers with loss of their usually automatic bonuses talking up a storm. But there is still no evidence of any readiness to change the Way things Are done to give people any real incentive to show initiative work hard and solve problems instead of find ing someone else to blame. The German communist playwright Bertolt Brecht made a biting comment on the system he believed in during the workers uprising in East Berlin in 1953. He said that the government has lost the Confidence of the people so it has to elect a new people.1 somehow the same under tones Echo in Moscow just now. There is a tangible desire to modernize to admit How Many of the inevitable old boasts were empty and How few of the promises have been delivered on but an equally tangible reluctance to say Why or to do very much about it. Seweryn Bialer an astute american soviet Logist has pointed out that the West should not confuse Gorbachev s ideas of Reform with liberalization and he is clearly right. Gorbachev wants to make the soviet system work More efficiently he does t want to improve it because he evidently believes that it is Fine As it is. If it does t work it s the fault of the people who have been trying to work it not the system itself in his View. There Are. Some changes vast compared with the Joseph Stalin Era but noticeable even in comparison with a year or two ago. Moscow looks Well and festive dressed up for the party meeting with sparkling Snow lots of red banners Bright and tastefully designed ornamental Street lighting and far fewer of the trite ideological banners and iconographic por traits than on past occasions. The pictures Are Only of dead men mostly Vladimir Lenin some Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels none of the current leaders. People Are much better dressed than they used to be. The Long queues in the Street Are almost All in front of liquor stores now since Gorbachev put harsh restrictions on alcohol sales and banished the usual Vodka and Cognac from All offi Cial functions. But these things Aren t going to accelerate the socioeconomic development he talks about. He seems to have in mind a vibrant productive society but with its hands still tied and its Mouth still gagged with individuals there to serve the state and to accept what it chooses to give them making no demands. There is a sense of Crossroads Here but it is just being approached tentatively cautiously. The decisive Steps Haven t been taken Don t even seem to be contemplated. So there is not the exhilaration of a real turning Point just new faces new words same old habits. 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