Cold Virus Etc.

My doctor told me to wash my hands throughly and avoid close contact with those who have colds . . . especially fresh colds.

I had just come off a "lopaloozer". . . a cold that really knocked me off my feet. I implored the doctor to let me go back to the office and the above was the advice he gave me.

So I went back to the office and worked a couple of hours. I thought I would avoid client contact today, because I was more vulnerable to other peoples germs.

So what happened . . . I was exposed to whatever my receptionist had. I didn’t know it, but she had been out the previous day because of a fresh cold . . .bad news. Then I got a call from one of my old time buddies wanting to take me to lunch. I asked my friend to make it next week to give me time to recover from a bad cold he said . . . "Its funny you said that. I’m taking this medication that is helping clear up this bad cold I have." If I hadn’t mentioned my cold I’m sure he wouldn’t have mentioned his bad cold. We agreed on next week . . . a close call. Then I saw my only appointment of the day . . . my advertising representative. You already know what happened, don’t you? Well . . .so much for precautions. We’ll have to see if the hybird cold germ that comes about from the mixture of my receptionist’s and advertising agent’s germs will put me back where I started . . . flat on my back.

What the heck does that have to do with the law? This will be a toughie but here goes . . . Question . . . If some rich (very rich person who had ample seizable assets) deliberately or through gross misconduct infected you with their disease would you be able to sue them and recover damages? Answer: Yes. The most common types of these cases are the ones where people infect others with diseases like AIDS or other sexual diseases. Akin to these are the environmental cases where negligent companies poison the air and cause diseases and conditions. You can ride it on down to cases of disease and conditions caused by defective drugs, like Vioxx. So there you have it.

What it boils down to . . . if someone negligently hurts you, so far you can sue them and make them pay. I have to admit that I don’t know of any case where a person who caught a cold has recovered damages.

If you have the inclination to file a suit for something like that catching a cold come see me . . .I’ve got some lawyer friends I don’t like that I’ll refer you to.