Opinion: Plaintiffs should try being more socially conscious

The cliché is, we’re a litigious society.

Two clearly frivolous lawsuits were in the news recently.

Both should remind everyone that we learn to walk about age 2. As a child, surely your parents admonished you, “Watch where you’re going.”

Yet there are adults still stumbling around who either didn’t learn that toddler lesson or they’re just after a small payday. We suspect the latter.

The first suit stems from an incident outside the Kimo Theater in Albuquerque where a couple was leaving a play and walking to their car. It was night and lighting was poor. The wife tripped after her foot caught an “uneven piece of sidewalk.”

The couple is suing the city of Albuquerque for not maintaining smooth sidewalks. We submit, if you have trouble walking, use a walker or stay home.

To take this from frivolous to ludicrous, the husband, who did not fall, is also claiming damages, stating he suffered emotional and mental duress because he saw his wife in so much pain. Her injuries weren’t reported in the news story.

The second one comes from a woman in Santa Fe who slipped on a green chile in the produce section of a grocery store. She maintains in her lawsuit the store should have known chiles would fall from the display and they should have maintained a clean floor.

We submit since the woman claims the store should know, so should she. Every time you go through a grocery store there is a good chance something has been dropped on the floor and the oaf who dropped it just walked away, thinking his mother works there and will clean up after him.

Attitudes such as these two plaintiffs’ are what lowers us all as a society. We all have responsibilities when we’re out in public. The road is not always smooth. Paths aren’t always lit. Sometimes life puts a green chile in your way. Step around it; better yet, pick it up.

When we are all more conscious of what our duty is to our fellow travelers in life, it will make for a smoother trip.

— Rio Grande Sun