Blame Someone else for Your Damn Pop-Tarts!

RIMSHOT: Pop-Tarts and the law
12/23/2004

ON THE MORNING of June 1, 1998, Clark Seeley rushed out of his Albany, N.Y., home, forgetting that he had left Pop-Tarts heating in the toaster. Fire broke out and did huge damage to the house.

The insurance company paid $145,000 on the claim, but this is America, doggone it. Clearly our Founding Fathers intended that anyone who owned a toaster that set his Pop-Tarts on fire was entitled to relief under the federal court system.

Mr. Seeley and his housemate, Jannine Walton, sued Hamilton Beach-Procter/Silex Inc., the maker of the toaster, for more than $100,000 in additional damages.

Mr. Seeley and Ms. Walton hired Michael Wald, an electrical engineer, who toasted Pop-Tarts and similar pastries in an identical toaster "15 to 20 times" and reported that on three occasions, the frosting melted on the switch that turns the toaster off. Last week, the judge in the case certified Mr. Wald as an expert.

Is this a great country, or what? Not only is it a place where you can blame someone else when you forget the Pop-Tarts in the toaster, but it's also a place where a kid can study hard to get an electrical engineering degree and make a living as an expert at toasting Pop-Tarts.

>> Source [STL Post Dispatch Editorial]