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#10 Christy Bros. Circus v. Turnage
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In this episode we step down from the U.S. Supreme Court to visit the Georgia Court of Appeals. Here, we re-argue the case Christy Brothers Circus v. Turnage.
An evening at the circus suddenly turned an unsuspecting audience member into part of the show.
The question before the court: can a victim collect damages for emotional distress without physical injury?
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Relitigated'
00:00:00
Speaker
thank Hi, I'm Nikki. Welcome to Relitigated, the show where five friends who are absolutely not lawyers attempt to retry a real Supreme Court case. This is our 10th episode and season finale, Christie Brothers Circus v. Turnage. This case actually comes to us from the Georgia Court of Appeals, not SCOTUS.
00:00:25
Speaker
A few quick notes before we get started. First, as always, we try our best to represent the facts and decisions in the case as accurately as possible, but we're not lawyers and nothing in this episode should be taken as legal advice. Case in point, my calling the plaintiff VN instead of VT. Oops.
00:00:46
Speaker
Last, if you enjoy the podcast, please support us by subscribing, rating, leaving us a comment, and telling your friends. Help us get the word out.
Support and Social Media
00:00:55
Speaker
If you like, you can also find us on YouTube, Instagram, and Blue Sky. Our handle is relitigatedpodcast. Thank you so much for your help. With that out of the way, let's start the show.
00:01:11
Speaker
but you Just getting started. Didn't even get to the climax. Oh my goodness. So anyway, hi there. Welcome to the Relitigated Podcast. I'm your host, Nikki, and I'm joined by my co-host, Jarrett. Hello, Jarrett. Hello. We also have with us three friends who will be role playing as our justices. First, we have Associate Justice Adam. Hello, folks. I'm not a lawyer and I'm not a horse.
00:01:43
Speaker
Next, we have Associate Justice Mike. Hark. And lastly, we have our Chief Justice, Sarah. Hello. I am not a lawyer as well. ah However, I might be a horse to be determined. I knew it. We've been suspecting all along.
Show Structure and Supreme Court Reflection
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:04
Speaker
So if you're new to the show, here's how this works. Jarrett and I have selected a real Supreme Court case and our justices do not know what case we have selected. Jarrett will introduce the case to us and walk us through the facts so we can all get familiar with the details. The justices are free to ask factual questions during this time and we will answer as best we can.
00:02:27
Speaker
Next, we'll move into oral arguments where Jarrett will role play as the petitioner, ah the party that appealed, and I will role play as the respondent, ah which for our purposes will be the other party involved in the case. We each get seven minutes to make our case, during which the justices can interrupt us and ask probing questions. When the arguments are over, the justices will deliberate and deliver their own opinions.
00:02:54
Speaker
The final rulings do not need to be unanimous. Majority opinion wins. Even if two or more justices agree in principle, they can disagree as to why. Once we've had our fun with our mock hearing, Jarrett and I will reveal what the Supreme Court actually decided and talk about how we feel about the actual results and why this case matters. All right, sound good to everyone? Let go. See. Boy, I sure hope this case matters.
00:03:22
Speaker
Oh yeah. ah Well, in that case, I'll turn it over to Jared. Awesome. All right, here we go.
Christie Brothers Circus v. Turnage Case
00:03:30
Speaker
Our case for this episode of Re-litigated is Christie Brothers Circus v. Turnage. And it is the first case in this show's history that is actually not a Supreme Court case. The real Supreme Court actually turned down hearing this case, but our fake Supreme Court does not get that option. So here we go.
00:03:50
Speaker
What? You can't bring a circus to the Supreme Court. It's out of order. One fine day in Georgia, or night, we're actually not sure, VT decided to go see the performances of Christie Brothers Circus, which was in town putting on shows. As luck would have it, she got a front row seat. At some point during the show, there was a performance of Dancing Horses.
00:04:14
Speaker
I'm not sure if all the horses had riders controlling them, but the horse of consequence in this case did have a rider that was an employee of the circus on its back giving it commands. At some point during the choreography, the rider issued a command to the horse that caused it to back up with its hindquarters facing VT in the front row. Then suddenly the horse evacuated its bowels directly into VT's lap.
00:04:43
Speaker
no please tell me that's not true oh yes the horse pooped right on vt's lap as she sat there in the front row i hate this case already okay this is amazing as you could probably imagine this scene caused considerable laughter My understanding is that both the crowd and the staff were laughing at the situation. According to the case itself, quote, this occurred in full view of many people, some of whom were the defendant's employees and all of whom laughed at the occurrence, end quote. Holy shit. Did the horse laugh? How often in your life do you have circumstance that's so embarrassing that somebody puts on a permanent record and everybody laughed at you?
00:05:31
Speaker
but Just as a matter of court record. For this woman at least once. Why would the Supreme Court not take this on? Okay continue. Let it be known that this lady is a laughingstock of the entire court and should be continued to be considered as such for the rest of her natural life.
00:05:51
Speaker
Perhaps unsurprisingly, V.T. sued the circus for damages. She claimed that she had suffered, quote, mortification and mental pain, end quote, as a direct result of the embarrassment and shame of the horses pooping impacting her. Can you imagine how bad it would be if people had smartphones back then? Imagine taking a horse to court. is This is the first case where we tried to put a horse to death.
00:06:18
Speaker
This is the United States v. Mr. Ed. All right, at trial, a jury found in favor of VT and awarded her a sum of money that we will reveal to you later. Because you don't know what year this is, the amount of money doesn't really help you anyway.
Legal Precedents on Emotional Distress
00:06:36
Speaker
But following the loss at trial, Christie Brothers Circus appealed the result to the Georgia Appeals Court, and it's this appeal that we're going to take up in this episode. So you are the Georgia Appeals Court.
00:06:48
Speaker
Before we get to the specific question that's before us, just a quick note on some precedents that was ah ah around at the time of this case. There was an understanding in common law, which is the the law that's built from judicial precedent and ah goes back to you know old English law, ah that compensation for damages is to be awarded in the case where there is a physical injury that is caused by a physical impact. So that's the how precedent that was around at the time. So the question before our court, this episode is, can a plaintiff collect damage for emotional distress when there is no corresponding physical injury caused by physical impact? Yes.
00:07:43
Speaker
What if she gets like worms from getting pooped on?
00:07:48
Speaker
I don't think Sarah's going to make it. It might be too early to ask this, but. Like, did the rider make the horse poop? Was this targeted or was this just the horse was right place, wrong time and just had to let it go? Was this malicious or did God do this? Or wrong place, right time, whichever way you want to look at it. You cannot just command a horse to poop. That's not how horses work. This is a very unfortunate circumstance for this poor person. I mean, I feel like I feel like intent is important.
00:08:23
Speaker
Did the horse do it on purpose? it um was i guess What was the mens rea of the horse?
00:08:33
Speaker
so All right, so who's arguing for the horse? I am. so Me, your honor. Well, I don't think it's so much the horse as it is the horse's ass. Oh, that's even better for Jared.
00:08:52
Speaker
Wow, they don't like you. I've not gotten a fair shake in a long time. I know what I'm about. Are we? All right. We we. Yeah, I'm ready to hear my cogent, well-reasoned arguments. I mean, we're not good, but we are probably in my system. Yeah, I've never been more ready to learn about something law related to do this.
Circus's Argument Against Damages
00:09:24
Speaker
All right. Well, yeah, I've got the timer ready to go. So it'll start when you do.
00:09:30
Speaker
Okay, here we go. Ms. Chief of Justice, and may it please the court, the owners and operators of the circus deeply lament that while attending one of our shows, a young woman had a bad experience. That said, we do not believe that we can be held responsible to pay real money for someone's supposed mental feelings as a result of a horse's bowel movement. It turns out you cannot toilet train a horse and you cannot confirm or measure her feelings.
00:09:57
Speaker
There is a longstanding precedent handed down to us in common law that says that damages can only be paid if there is a physical impact that causes a physical injury. The reason that everything must be physical is because we can actually assess what the damage is. There is a mechanism to the injury, a clear, definable cause, and a measurable effect. If I strike you and I break a bone, there's clear evidence that my strike broke your bone. If you hit my car with your car, there is clear evidence that your car, hitting my car, caused the damage.
00:10:26
Speaker
We can also see that the damage we can see the damage with our own eyes, and we can all agree on what the damage is. Also, since physical damage is MEASURABLE, that means that we can actually assign a dollar value to the damage. We know exactly what it will take to fix your broken bone or to repair my car's fender.
00:10:44
Speaker
in terms of justice, which is what damages are supposed to provide, it is really important that we know what the remedy is. When someone claims that they have mental anguish, there's no way to measure that, and there's no way to quantify what it will actually take to fix it. Come to think of it, there's not even a way to prove that it's real. So how can justices claim to be dolling out justice if they can't be sure that there actually is any damage, and then any amount of money that they come up with is just a guess?
00:11:13
Speaker
Where is the justice in this system for either party? It's a level of subjectivity that has no place in the court system where verifiable facts must rule the day. All we have to go on is this woman's word that she feels worse now. How much worse exactly? $100 worth? $1,000 worth? $10,000 worth? We might as well just ask her. She's the only one that seems to know anything. The rest of us are just guessing or going along with it. This is far too much trust to place into someone who has so much to gain for lying.
00:11:47
Speaker
Now I'm not going to argue that what happened to this woman wasn't embarrassing. Of course it was, but embarrassing things happen to everybody. Can I sue the waiter at a restaurant because when they dropped off my food and said, enjoy, I replied, you too. And it still keeps me up at night. But devastated as I am, my subconscious is not their fault. To say that we even physically, uh, to say that, uh,
00:12:12
Speaker
but she has even that we physically impacted the woman as a stretch. She wasn't impacted by a member of my staff by having poop land on her any more than another patron was impacted by stepping at it outside, yes. Did any members of your staff attempt to assist this poor woman after the incident?
00:12:32
Speaker
ah There's no, but this' unfortunately it's just not in the historical record. So I'm going to say yes. As they point and laugh and say absolutely. Sounds like they were too busy laughing to help. Yeah, it sounds like they were they were making fun of her and not taking action. The horse didn't touch her and as it turns out the poop doesn't work for our circus and we don't own it. We leave it behind for the farmers.
00:12:54
Speaker
Also, you can't forget that the woman bears some accountability for voluntarily taking a seat than any rational person could see would carry some risk. She placed herself in the front row of a show that includes all manner of beasts and feats of strength and agility. this zone She rolled her dice, hidinging just like everybody else, with full knowledge of what she was sitting front row for. holding usonibing Holding us responsible absolves her of any responsibility for choosing a seat so close to the action. It was a high-risk, high-reward option and she knew it. Welcome to Guam.
00:13:34
Speaker
Lastly, I just want to comment again on this so-called anguish. Someone who is truly traumatized as she claims would hide away. Not this woman, no. She's put her full legal name down on legal documents, filed them with the government as a record forever.
00:13:50
Speaker
at the circus, an isolated group of people saw what happened. and They probably couldn't even pick her out of a lineup later that day. But now the whole county knows exactly who she is. And now thats that we've appealed it, the whole state knows it's in the papers.
00:14:07
Speaker
Is this the behavior of someone so damaged mentally by shame that she can't show her face anywhere anymore? Or does it sound more like someone who's claiming something that she knows you can't prove or disprove in order to get a settlement? Again, I remind you, you have no idea that any damage is done and you have no idea what the damages would cost even if you knew. So I implore you, throw this case out. I yield to questions.
00:14:33
Speaker
I mean, like, did, like, did anybody, like, a apologize? so Like, offer her, like, a towel? I wanted so badly to yell objection when you said horses don't have feelings.
00:14:47
Speaker
I feel eggs, but they're pretty sure that's what you said. You also said that. But yes, you missed a chance here instead of throw this case out, you could have gone with flush this case away or any number of shoveling shovel it away. Yeah. um But yeah, no, at at the whole thing, the whole thing's ridiculous. The woman's put herself in a position to be ostracized forever.
00:15:15
Speaker
because she felt like she was gonna be ostracized forever. It doesn't make any sense. This is Jared, I just gotta say, this is expert gas lighting. Yeah, I do think that she's an expert gas lighter.
00:15:29
Speaker
um She has all of us figured out. yeah She has all of us believing that she's somehow, you know, a special snowflake victim mentally anguished and in pain. It doesn't make any sense. The extreme belligerence with which you've argued this case immediately prejudice me against you. Jared, I know we're coming. Oh, go ahead, Michael. I just, I hope that the big surprise here is that this happened in recent enough times that at the end of us,
00:15:57
Speaker
You guys are gonna share a video like a security camera video. I mean, if it did, this woman would put herself, would have who is so much anguish, would have put herself in a position for you to have that tape forever. Okay, I have a legit question. Did this woman sign any sort of waiver on her way into this event?
00:16:19
Speaker
Uh, she, I don't think there are waivers, uh, at circuses at the time that this happened. I don't know the waiver was a thing. To be fair, I'm not sure you signed a waiver going into a circus today. yeah Not really clear how circuses work. And time. Apparently you get pooped on by large animals, which got my attention. I'm never going to go to a circus. yeah don't That is my time.
00:16:49
Speaker
But I don't know, are there any circuses left? Well, we can get to that later. and This would never have happened in The Greatest Showman. All right. ah You let me know when you're good for me to ah to go with my argument. You are good to go. All right. All right.
Support for VN's Emotional Distress Claim
00:17:12
Speaker
i May it please the court Yes, this case involves the circus, some fecal matter, and laughter. It seems the essence of frivolity. So yes, this case may seem ridiculous at first glance, but there's so much that you need to consider in making your decision.
00:17:37
Speaker
ah As was so cleverly pointed out by the court, you can't toilet train a horse. The circus knew, or should have known, that the horse was at risk of evacuating its bowels and taking appropriate care to protect their guests. Harm takes many forms, even beyond the realm of blood and guts.
00:18:00
Speaker
There are many ways a person can be wronged and many ways that people experience the consequences of being so wronged. For one thing, you can consider the financial impact on VN, example for example. ah She went to the effort of leaving the house. She got dressed for an evening out on the town, expecting to have a fun time.
00:18:24
Speaker
The circus horse in performing tricks on demand by its trainer ruined her clothing. You can certainly expect that after such an occurrence, the clothing would need to be laundered or replaced entirely, that there is an expense tied to that. Keep in mind the additional harm to her reputation and, as we might say, her brand. Everyone there saw it.
00:18:48
Speaker
everyone there laughed, including the staff. It's not unreasonable to think that the moment think right now went viral and fueled a lot of laughter and gossip after the fact. Imagine a situation in which every member of a crowd around you is suddenly looking at you and laughing uproariously, not with you, but at you. I think I would die.
00:19:15
Speaker
I think that happens to me more often than you'd like to know. They're all going to laugh at you. Imagine going to the local shop the next day or trying to put your head down and go back to work. Who would want to show their face in public after that? Who wants to be remembered as the person who got pooped on? Who wants that to be their legacy? Oh, my God. I'm going to observe someone somewhere who does, but not this lady. Look, a legacy is a legacy. You can't be that picky.
00:19:45
Speaker
I can't believe this is the case. Beyond that, there's also another less immediately visible injury. Some of us are introverts and dread being the center of attention. Some of us have social anxiety causing intense fear of social situations. Some of us have crippling phobic fear and anxiety about crowds, certain objects, animals, or situations.
00:20:15
Speaker
Some of us have difficulties tolerating sensory stimuli, touches, textures, smells, tastes, which could lead to reactions and impacts that others of us could consider extreme. Can you imagine if you were afraid about horses and poop and then this happened to you? Ugh, what a nightmare. Mm-hmm, exactly. I say all of this to say that we don't know what people struggle with or what it takes to live a semblance of a normal life, quote-unquote.
00:20:43
Speaker
Just because someone may look fine by one person's limited perspective does not necessarily mean that they haven't been harmed, and we need to acknowledge that. Even if VN did not come away with a broken leg, there was physical contact between the horse's excretions and her person. Ew.
00:21:06
Speaker
Even if such contact did not result in an injury requiring first aid or other purely physical treatment, there is a clear connection and cause and effect relationship between the physical contact and her emotional suffering. And with that, I think I will yield the ah rest of my time. Oh wait, I will take questions. I really want to see a diagram of the setup for this circus because I've i mean i've i've seen horses poop on a number of occasions.
00:21:35
Speaker
Like it's it's generally more in a downward direction, not like an outward direction, unless something's very wrong. Like I'm imagining a course a horse like running up a quarter ramp. like Was the horse straddling this poor lady? Like I need i need some spatial information. Well, it was the rider, the trainer backed it up so that it was like right in front of her. Like to run her over? i She was sitting in the front row, the hindquarters were facing her. I'm thinking like a basketball court. a barrier or was it just like a... No. This is an old school circus, Mike. Well, some of them might have had barriers in the front row. Clearly not. Christie bro's circus. I guess. I'm just, I mean, like, did it back up to the barrier and then like,
00:22:28
Speaker
Squad over. I mean like. Sarah, I know you have seen a horse poop. I know this. I've watched you watch the horse. Context for like listen listeners, I grew up as a horse girl, so there it is. And so you know that the poop generally goes mostly downward, normally in a thunk thunk thunk kind of a way. Yeah, I mean, it's usually not traveling ah along the horizontal unless the horse is moving.
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah. And then you know it's leaving it behind. So all this to say, i just I'm curious as to how close this horse was to this lady for this to even be happening. The mechanics are mind boggling. Yeah. And then like i mean is the issue really like, should we should we be straddling the guests with horses? All right, folks. New idea. We don't put people in the orchestra pit for the circus.
00:23:21
Speaker
Nikki, I have a question. Yes, of course. um Regarding VT's emotional damages, are there any details on what those emotional damages were? Like, psychologically, what is she suffering from? Yeah, that's a good question. Is there a psychologist that's testifying or something here?
00:23:42
Speaker
So based on what we have of the record, mortification and mental pain, I think there's also mention of humiliation. Yeah, mortification sounds right. I would have a lot of mental pain after something like this. Let me see if there's- I'd also like to thank the court page for delivering us this paper titled, hydrodynamics of defecation. Thank you very much.
00:24:06
Speaker
ah So, let's see, much embarrassment, mortification, and mental pain and suffering. Yeah, all right. Much embarrassment. like My question is, it it did did she come up but with the, like like, is these her and her lawyer's words, or did she go see, like ah Is this there a psychiatric professional in the mix who diagnosed these issues? The record is not clear, but we we know that the lower court made a finding um that there was, you know, there was this mental pain, there was the, you know, all of that that led to the ah the judgment of damages and and that she should be compensated. And that's time.
00:24:55
Speaker
Thank you, Nikki. Any last questions for me? I still just, I just, I still want to see a map. I have a lot of questions, but yeah, not appropriate right now. And like chalk outlines. What was the worst eating in the 36 hours prior? Did the horse have a vendetta against this lady? How big was the horse? How much did it weigh? Was the horse especially acrobatic?
00:25:20
Speaker
I could go on. How much how much poop? at it how much Did we quantify the poop? Right. What's the volume and weight of the defecation? Was it especially moist or dry? Oh my God, I hate this case.
00:25:34
Speaker
we We do not have those details. Unfortunately, just it was whatever the physics of it was, it was into her lap and everyone saw it. Was the horse having an allergic reaction of some kind? Was it a moist stool?
00:25:50
Speaker
yeah Yeah, this is not a Supreme Court case. So, you know, the details are not quite as filled in as if it had you come before the Supreme Court. So unfortunately, there's a lot that we don't know. but But you got basically everything we know now. So we can interpolate. can I still want to see a crime scene with chalk outlines. But anyway, so okay yeah I feel like I feel like these days you can get awarded compensation for emotional damage. So so I know that's like a thing that happens. So here's what I'm thinking. um My gut is telling me that like she should at least get like
00:26:35
Speaker
like free tickets to the next show or something. Like she should be compensated somehow because this is pretty egregious. And the reason why I think- I'm sure that's what she wants to do is go right back to another show. Here's the thing. Here's your front row seats. Lifetime coupon turn. You can come to our circus forever. Okay. Here's the thing though, right? If you ever have gone, I'm going to use like a rodeo as an example because it's not dissimilar to what we're dealing with here. If you go to a rodeo,
00:27:00
Speaker
Typically, like you don't have to sign a waiver or anything. It's not that kind of thing. You just show up, you sit down, you watch the shenanigans. If you die, you die. If you die, you die. But usually, the way that the seating is, it's like spectators of the show and the competition are You know, like a safe distance away from the action, you know? Like, did Christy Bro's circus just not... I mean, like, did they only have horses? What if they had, like, monkeys and tigers and an elephant? Like, that just puts so many people that are at this show at risk of getting trampled by something.
00:27:36
Speaker
but Like, let alone shit on, literally. So, I feel like there's a little bit of fault there from the circus, just in the fact that they didn't seem to have the closest seats be in a safe spot. What if the horse decided to kick? Like, if it's if she's that close to get pooped on, she could have gotten, like, killed by a horse that decided to kick, you know?
00:28:00
Speaker
that's That's what I was saying. That's why I was asking how close she was. I had this same thing. like i If a horse is pooping on me, I'm too close to the back end of that horse. Way too close. A horse is up in your lap, like yeah delivering the poop. She didn't sign up for that. I don't think. Maybe the horse was running backwards really fast in her direction specifically. We considered that.
00:28:24
Speaker
It does sound like that. Sarah, is that possible in your experience with horse defecation? Is that a possible configuration? Running back running backwards really fast. I love how Sarah is now an expert on horse defecation. The horse subject matter expert here. i mean Mike would typically be my go-to on animal defecation, but he specifically nominated Sarah as the expert in the room.
00:28:47
Speaker
And it's less of a run backwards and it's more of like a scoot, you know, like, you know, when dogs get the zoomies and they like run so fast that their butts kind of are underneath them, you know, work action. It's like that. But they're going backwards. yeah Horses don't do backwards that well. They're not very smart, I understand. yes Yeah, no, there's not a lot going on and in between the years.
00:29:10
Speaker
um I don't know. My gut my gut instinct here is that the circus owes her something. I don't know how like how much money it should be or what it should be. But I have time tickets, but five rows back. Like an apology, at least. Oh, my God. It's mortifying.
00:29:29
Speaker
On the other hand, I mean, like it's mortifying, but it's it's not like she shat on herself. It's kind of one of those like, oh, my God, I can't believe this happy and then. and Yeah, God, this to me.
00:29:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I just just putting in my place, like, I'd find it funny. I don't know if I'd be mortified. I'd probably laugh about it, but yeah. And if you like dry foam covered in horse poop. This is usually why they make people who are involved with any sort of like horse related activity or something like this, sign waivers that are like, oh, it maybe it maybe if they don't sign waivers, but in a lot of like horse arenas, there's a sign. There's the sign that says, you know, this location, the people who own this place are not liable. If you get hurt by a horse, that's on you.
00:30:17
Speaker
I'm hereby cool to know the horse is due to me. Whatever the horse does to you, that is on you. like You as an individual need to save this thing away. This poor woman, I can't even imagine. all right King Solomon here, she gets to poop on the horse. All is fair. and Everyone has to laugh at the horse. and Everybody laughs at the horse. Then the horse goes to jail.
00:30:43
Speaker
And the lady too. What is she for putting the horse through that? Exactly. Thank you. 4K no los todos. God, we're so fair. All right. Well, guys, I think we wrapped this up. Good job. I feel good about this. Guys, clean bow on that one. Yeah.
00:30:58
Speaker
um Okay. Well, what do we actually think, guys? Oh, that wasn't it? Oh. Oh, was that it? yeah well i was gonna be hold on dead ass She gets lifetime tickets in a bunch of circuit peanuts, like more she can eat and she gets to poop on the horse and we're done. and Like real peanuts, not those gross candy circus peanuts. Oh, like the ones in the shell, you know, they're like lightly salted. Those so like ballpark peanuts. Yeah. Yeah. Good peanuts. Not like those weird orange candy ones that I'm not sure those are food.
00:31:31
Speaker
Were you guys expecting a serious episode out of us? Because if so, you should not have brought this case in front of us. I would say that things have started to devolve, but that started like a half an hour ago. So let's say it's all going to shit. Okay.
Compensation for Emotional Distress
00:31:49
Speaker
Okay. Here's my serious. All right. Grounded centered, focused, ready for jurisprudence order in my fucking court.
00:32:00
Speaker
Here's what I think, an animal pooping on you in pretty much any circumstance has some, you know, zoologic, like infectious disease connotations. You're going to have to go to the doctor after someone poops on you.
00:32:16
Speaker
The bigger the poop, ostensibly, the more urgent the medical attention required. If you get 15 pounds of poop dumped in your lap, you probably want to go to the doctor and just make sure you don't got no worms or nothing. Do you know how much poop 15 pounds of poop is? Listen, man, I've never actually seen a horse in real life. You're going to have to excuse me here. How big is a horse, like 40 feet tall? But you've seen poop.
00:32:42
Speaker
like ah Yeah, it's like I assume horses make a lot like commensurate with their gigantic size, at least 40 or 60 feet tall. So like you got to go to the doctor, right? So she's at least entitled to compensation for a doctor's visit, like for being pooped on. And then you know the whole embarrassment and ah mental scarring aspect is unquantifiable. So I don't know. like Give her the doctor's bill times two. That's fair. And she gets to poop on the horse.
00:33:13
Speaker
And to what Nikki said, I'm sure she wasn't able to keep that outfit, right? So I don't know what she was wearing to the circus. That's damages, too. That's very good. And her sheer shoes, most likely, are probably a total loss cause. All the shoes are done for, like, there's no way. Purse fucked. Absolutely no way. Yeah, what if she had, like, a nice handbag in her lap or something? Sorry, let me say that again for the podcast. Her purse, absolutely total loss. No way. Full of kootenail.
00:33:42
Speaker
What if she brought her Birkin to the circus? You know what I mean? Like, come on. They would absolutely have to pay for that. But then, okay, to Jared's point, I guess, like, it how would you even quantify what the damages would be psychologically? Like, what type of losses is she taking emotionally from this horrible situation. Like, how much it took for her to replace her clothes and go to the doctor is one thing. But so I think like, so' so physical, right? If she if she has to see like, professional care to get over this, I guess there's the bills associated with that. If this infects her way to her, but excuse me, like, ah if she can't work, or this affects her ability to work, I guess there's lost wages or revenue there is that we have any indication of
00:34:39
Speaker
Is she like a agoraphobic now? like She can't possibly go back to work on the horse ranch. hortifying That's done. yeah Unfortunately, the ah the record is not tremendously ah complete, so we do not know. We have to assume she died of shame shortly thereafter. To be fair, if she is somebody that had a career in equine sciences, she probably wouldn't have even cared about this and wouldn't have sued anyway.
00:35:06
Speaker
so I mean, also, if you're really not into horse poop, front row at the circus is a brave choice. But to your point earlier, the mechanics of this are still mind boggling. How did the horse get in a position to defecate directly on a front row audience member? Was it like standing on its front legs? Like what's going on here? It just seems- Yeah, also like did it poop in her lap or did it just hit her legs? It did. No, that's what they said, the lap. It pooped in her lap. Yeah. That's amazing. The only way that that can happen is if it's like a front row seat, like courtside basketball seats, but it's the circus. You are eye level with horse ass.
00:35:43
Speaker
like, and and that is the world you are seeing it coming like, you not what you're paying for with those seats. Maybe that's yeah that's why they cost extra people are into that. Okay, and besides the fact that it's just like, that she literally got chat on like, that is a really dangerous place for any like viewer of the circus to be in because like horses that's like the literally they tell you horse 101 do not stand directly behind a horse because they can't see you their eyes are on the sides of their head and they cannot see right back where their tail is right and yeah and they got that habit of like you know kicking yes like the circus shouldn't have even
00:36:24
Speaker
put their guests in a situation where they can be that close to a horse's ass. Like, this kind of feels like we could have rejected it. The important thing here is that two people are eaten by a lion like 15 minutes later. Is there a record as to how many patrons have died in these circuses? Kind of, but we will get into that later. Oh, I got it. Oh, exciting. Okay, let's go. Do you have stats on how many people have been shat upon in the front row?
00:36:51
Speaker
by horses or otherwise. no No less than one. I feel like she might have just got off easy getting shat on. Mm-hmm. Right? Like when the man-eating clowns come out, anyone's bets are off. Yeah, maybe she should have stopped complaining. It's like the person that survived saw. Right. Oh, boo-hoo. You had to cut your leg off. You're the only one who survived.
00:37:18
Speaker
ah Okay, I think I think I'm pretty firm that Christy Bro's circus owes this woman
Circus's Negligence and Setup Issues
00:37:25
Speaker
something. I don't know what it is. And I think also that more, so I mean, yeah, okay. Yeah, she's suing for emotional damages. I hope she, she feels better soon about it. But I'm more just thinking as an overall safety precaution, like if you're going to be running a circus, which is already dubious, like you need to make sure that your guests are not in harm's way, unless, you know, you force them to sign a waiver that's like, Hey, we're going to put you in harm's way. If you get hurt, it's not our fault.
00:37:51
Speaker
Like, we need to make sure that these circus freaks treat their guests better. It is telling that the Christie Brothers circus is no longer an operation in our modern day. Suspicious, right? Yeah. What happened to them? Is this Chris Christie? like Like, Chris Christie's ancestors? Is this? ah I've seen no indication of that whatsoever. No, it's the luxury property brokers, Christie Brothers.
00:38:22
Speaker
Anyway, i'm I'm in complete agreement with our Chief Justice actually here. I don't know exact i don't know exactly what the compensation should be, but ah she deserved something and also we should really look at the safety setup of this operation.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah, and I feel like even, again, even though there were no physical damages to this woman in this instance incident, I do still think that like the fact that she was made a laughingstock of the whole situation and that it seems like there's no record of anybody from the circus assisting her helping her clean up apologizing offering any sort of like free peanuts or whatnot like they they absolutely owe her something that just feels crazy like what if another person like what if
00:39:14
Speaker
Like what if a guy just like threw shit at you? You know what I mean? Like you would sue. I feel like that's assault. I mean a horse is not a man so it's different. I mean to be fair in that case if it's just a random guy throwing shit at you, it's very unlikely you're gonna actually get any damages out of it. Yeah, you're not gonna get anything from that probably. The guy throwing poop is not of means.
00:39:33
Speaker
But if he's a rich guy, it could be a rich guy. It might be. You don't know that. It might strike goals. Big assumption there. yeah i but be This horse could be like a billionaire horse, you know? um Yeah, no. I found the most egregious part when they brought out all 40 clowns to to stand and laugh and point at the lady and and call her poopy pants. And they turned it turned into a recurring part of the act. That was egregious. That was that violated her. ah at least some of her amendment rights are not clear on which ones. so Probably most of them. So think about the question, going back to the question. It's two to one at this point. I mean, you guys have already decided this lady deserves compensation and now it's just up to me how much flesh we extract from the Christie Brothers Circus. That's how this works, right?
00:40:20
Speaker
Just to go back to the question so can the point to collect damages for emotional distress when there's no corresponding physical injury yes i'm in love being that i said to us right images are awarded for injury injuries must be physical injuries i think.
00:40:36
Speaker
I think emotional injury is absolutely a real thing. like PTSD is a thing. Yeah, I think it is a type of physical injury. I don't know how you award it, but- This is like an interesting, delicate subject that I feel like does not get discussed openly sometimes, right? Uh-oh. When terrible things befall people, and especially terrible things that are outside the act like active control of any act you know active agent or party,
00:41:01
Speaker
Right? Nobody deliberately went out of their way to harm you in this case. like It's just a horse doing horse stuff. Fine, whatever. The circus may have been negligent in putting the horse too close to you, et cetera, et cetera. All of that notwithstanding, something terrible happens to you and it's nobody's fault in particular. We kind of give a lot of leniency to those people, right? And if that woman decides like, you know what? I'm so traumatized by the horse poop thing, I'm not working for the next year because everybody calls me poopy pants.
00:41:30
Speaker
Like, we just kind of have to roll with that and be like, yeah, you know what? That sucks. We should compensate you for that. And I feel like it's commensurate with how severe the trauma that's been dealt to you is, like how much lean see you get. But ah there's definitely an unspoken equation there. There's a a social ah ah value equation there based on how badly you've been wronged. Yeah.
00:41:55
Speaker
And yeah, exactly. Like the Christie bro circus, I didn't intend for this to happen. And it's not like, again, the horse was toilet trained and the rider was like, okay, do it right now. It would be a different story if the horse was specifically purposefully trained to poop on the audience. That would be egregious. It would be very different in that case. The horse would be in jail at that point. The horse should go to jail for that. Yes. But that, but that has happened at all.
00:42:22
Speaker
leads me to believe they certainly did not put any stop gaps in place that would have made this a like thing that would not have normally happened. like It doesn't think they're in an extenuating situation here. The horse was able to back its butt up over this lady. Well, and I also think it's important to note that even though- It was a horse with a rider on it. Yeah. I had even more control.
00:42:44
Speaker
it Yeah, I think it's negligent on the rider exactly for letting the horse get that close to a patron well and also like people like collect damages for things that are an accident all the time like that's why we have like laws in place and that's why we can do all of this because even if something is an accident if you still were inflicted, if you still inflicted harm upon somebody, whether it's emotional or physical, like there should be a way to kind of balance the scales of justice, you know? I've been waiting all season to say that. Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah. ah so So yeah, I'm saying we we overrule this bit of common law and say that you can be awarded for emotional damages. That's that's my ruling. But we need a metric for that, right? At at that point, we need some sort of
00:43:35
Speaker
some sort of way to determine quantifiably how much damage is it we're talking about. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I also agree with that, but that could be wrong. Do we do that? Where's my law clerk? Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking like that stuff.
00:43:50
Speaker
Um, I think, and well, I mean, I'm just looking to like, just the question. I think at this point it's, you know, just the base question and you can go into it. Please, please stay inside your purview. Um, but then you can do as much or as, like you know, as, as, uh, little as you feel like is necessary and within your, your role. I think we should let dogs vote. What do you think court?
00:44:17
Speaker
ah Dogs, no. Chickens, yes. Horses, absolutely not. They're malicious agents of Satan. We cannot let horses have a say. I agree. Did the horse have a warrant? Does the horse have a lawyer? Order. We're going to put him in jail. Okay. Okay. All right. We got to get serious. All right. I think in terms of awarding, if we do want to go down that path, I think there's ways that if the emotional damage is sufficient that it leads to physical loss of income of liberty, some of those things could be quantified and I think then you could award money. but and thats That's rough, right? Is is our standard that let you know emotional damage is the threshold for emotional damage is that you can't go to work anymore. like that's That's a pretty steep. Welcome to America, Adam. I'm sure. i've've granted like Welcome to Georgia. That is the end all be all measure of American worth, how hard you can work and for how much longer. But
00:45:18
Speaker
Yeah, I'm wondering like do we need a softer standard for emotional damage here? I think we do because I think we all agree. This is awful. This lady should never should have been pooped on. We need to make this right. I would say this this lady probably shouldn't have sat in the front row, but.
00:45:36
Speaker
Well, but you she should be able to enjoy the circus without fear of this happening. That's true, that's true. Even if she was in the front row, I wouldn't expect to be close enough for a horse to straddle over me and rain down. That's just interior entirely too close. I would maybe expect like a clown to menace me, but not a horse to poop upon me.
00:45:56
Speaker
Yeah, you know, like like like a clown could squirt me with its water, like a little rose thing with with the water, but maybe get mauled by a bear, but not get pooped on by a horse. That's too much ridiculous. That's a step too much. OK, are we going to go down the path of I feel like go trying to go down the path of seeing how much compensation this woman should get could get.
00:46:21
Speaker
I don't know, I feel like it's very, subject we don't know what time, of we don't know what like decade this is in. We're falling into Jared's trap right now. yes like quick Given the lack of any safety restraints, I'm going to say it's probably not too recently. It feels like it was probably a long time ago, but then I'm like, okay, we give her $50. That would be a lot.
00:46:43
Speaker
ah I mean, the case didn't say anything about people like pulling out their phones and like recording the incident, so it is very clearly not within recent times. I think she should get to own the horse. And they live happily ever after. What do you think, guys? I think that's like that feels so fair.
00:47:01
Speaker
ah do you want i mean She's going to go out to the barn every morning and see the face of the horse that pooped on her and made her a laughingstock. That's fair. And then she'll have to clean up after that horse. Yeah, this is awful. Endless circle of violence. That's like extra punishment. Okay, all right, fair. You see me, that's the error of my ways. Okay. Okay, go ahead. She gets a year's salary because she can't go to work being poopy pants. Nobody's going to let her live that down. What if she's a stay-at-home mom?
00:47:34
Speaker
ah Well, then, yeah, no, forget it. No money. Women get no respect in this country. Year past to the circus. How about that? Yeah. Okay. I feel like it's going to be a little bit too too arbitrary for us to figure out exactly what damages this woman should get. I feel like we could probably just, I don't know, maybe once we hear when this case actually was, we could Talk about that. This sounds like a case for the Supreme Court. I don't know if we're qualified for this. We should keep this up. Yeah, this evident body. Again, still so curious why they decided to not. If the Supreme Court didn't pick this up, that means it probably was pretty, like it was either too ridiculous for them or it was pretty cut and dry. So I think i think with that, okay, I'm ready to give our final answers.
00:48:24
Speaker
Even though we've already, I feel like we're all on the same page here. Um, but for the record, it's just a matter of going to punish the horse. yeah so thing We can't agree on the horse and rider. We'll get equal punishment. Actually. Well, I mean, at the end of the day, the horse didn't do anything wrong. Horse was like, I'm so sorry. I got to go, you know, right? We really should just shut the whole circus down and let all these animals free.
00:48:48
Speaker
I'm curious, with everybody laughing, do we have any evidence that the horse was also laughing at her? Yeah. Maybe the horse was also embarrassed. That's embarrassing. Oh, maybe. That's true.
00:49:00
Speaker
We've all pooped in public. We know it's not a good thing. The horse has to take a year off from circus work, and it doesn't get any income that way. Yeah, never in front of people who have like paid tickets, though. Never. They'll have to put a diaper on the horse in public. It's the only one with a diaper on. It's really embarrassed about it.
00:49:17
Speaker
Well, if that horse has to wear diapers, then I think all horses should have to wear diapers. OK, that's a new rule that we've established in this court. Somebody wants to write that down. This is the way this episode was going to go. You had to have known. I mean, this is just so entertaining. This episode could not this episode could not have been this could not have gone better. Jared is furiously taking notes. There are it's got 45 pages of notes.
00:49:46
Speaker
yeah there are so many audiograms that i'm going to make from this episode so much sh strictly for marketing purposes only so I'll be out here. has Is there a final decision? Yes. okay Oh, we're unanimous. It's just a matter of- Yeah, we are unanimous. Okay, so- The only question is like, what is proper recompense for this ridiculous scenario? so Yeah, our question is, how do we figure out what the money is, basically? If it helps. So so the question was just, ah is
00:50:26
Speaker
can you Can you get damages when there hasn't been an actual physical harm? and And you have all said yes. If you don't want to deal with the money question, you can just say, send but whatever yeah whatever the lower court said we agree with. Yeah. What did they say? ah they They gave ah VT a a sum of money for the damages that they felt was was just.
00:50:54
Speaker
Oh, right, right, right. We just didn't learn what the sum was. That's why. And I don't think that's all we have to figure out. I mean, it could be, it could be your guys' job. We'll leave that to you, I guess. I think I'm going to step out of that one.
00:51:09
Speaker
Okay. Um, well for the record, our official decision, at least mine, but I'm pretty sure we're unanimous is that she absolutely deserves some sort of compensation for the emotional damages sustained. And also the horse should go to jail. Huzzah. Or be in charge of the circus. I'm not really clear. Let the horse manage the circus. Yeah. That horse is either the the smartest horse who ever lived or a,
00:51:38
Speaker
uh, irascible criminal who must be stopped. 4k no 4k no low stop. That's the carney. That's the carney spirit.
00:51:51
Speaker
Okay, ah so officially, court is ruling that ah they are up you are upholding the lower court's decision that yes, even though common law says you have to have a physical injury, we're saying no, that doesn't doesn't make sense, certainly not in this case. You can get compensated for a non-physical injury and we are gonna send it back to the lower court to,
00:52:20
Speaker
go ahead with whatever sum of money they've decided on or or reevaluate. But either way, you're not taking that on. That is correct. I mean, if nothing else, there was absolutely some sort of like biohazard component going on here. So, yeah, she deserves something. And we should shut down the circus and free all the animals and release them into the streets. Yeah. 100% agree. Liberate the animals and ensure that no one has ever pooped up on the front row again.
00:52:50
Speaker
Excellent. ah Nikki, I feel like you probably have some information about what really happened.
Court's Decision and Legal Significance
00:52:59
Speaker
So this case was decided ah September 15, 1928. And I believe we did mention this was the Georgia Court of Appeals. Yeah, the Court of Appeals of Georgia. um Their decision, the main decision was one, two, three, four paragraphs in length. So. Oh, my gosh.
00:53:20
Speaker
not really just theyre there was not much of a record, but ah basically they affirmed the trial court's judgment, basically that the circus was negligent for the incident and the audience member is entitled to damages for mental suffering. And their reasoning was that any quote, unlawful touching of a person's body, end quote, can be a physical injury, even if it does not result in physical harm because it's like violating a personal right. So and the touching can also include, quote, any material substance, unquote, striking a person's body.
00:54:01
Speaker
ah Therefore, there may be recovery of damages for mental suffering, humiliation, or embarrassment resulting from physical injury when the two are inseparable. So in this instance, it was very clearly the the woman was hit by the poop, she was super embarrassed, and so because there was this this literal physical impact, she can collect emotional damages. ah But she doesn't have to have you know an injury or a harm you know, that requires medical treatment just just so long as there's like a physical touch. um And the damages can also be limited to mental suffering alone.
00:54:38
Speaker
ah There was, I believe this was a dissent. The way that this is structured is a little weird. um There's like the main thing and then there's like another few paragraphs after, but ah there was a note, I think in the dissent that, ah let's see, a defendant's negligence does not mean that the plaintiff does not have a duty to, quote, exercise ordinary care to avoid the consequences of the defendant's negligence, unquote. So, ah you know, she, yeah, she she was done dirty, but then also she should have you know, taken care to not get pooped on or something. I don't know. Basically, um don't sit in the splash zone if you don't want to get splashed. Yes. So this case was appealed to the Supreme Court, I believe it was, but they the Supreme Court was like, no, we're we're like, that was they basically did not want to take it up, meaning that the the Court of Appeals
00:55:33
Speaker
decision stands. After the debacle that was the Ocelot scat case, we can't have another poop case in the Supreme Court. It denigrates the noble nobility of this of this institution. Please, one per century. We cannot do this type of case again. We get one animal scat case per century. That's it. We just heard about chickens last week. We can't keep doing this. We could have gone for you know death penalty ah or something, but No, this is better. This is way better. So and then ah there in terms of the money award, she had been awarded $500, which today would have come out to approximately $9,200. Nice. Wow. Actually, like that's worth getting. I was gonna say I would like to get I would get I would allow a horse to shoot on me for $9,000. I would too.
00:56:28
Speaker
I know. No, I would too. OK, so yeah the question, Nikki, how much would it take? Yeah. What's your price? Yeah. How much money would you need? No, I mean, after all the discussion of worms and like I'm sure there's a price. Come on. Oh, no. I mean, are there are herbivores, so it's mostly just like grass. Yeah. Not much not too many worms and horse poop.
00:56:55
Speaker
yeah no i'm I'm all set. I respect your opinion. So this case did expand the what's known as the impact rule, ah which basically in order for someone to get monetary damages can't be serious. Come on, the impact rule. That's that's what it was called. Actually, I think it was it was it was established before that in like 1892 or something. We call this the splatter shot rule for no particular reason.
00:57:25
Speaker
they they broadened it to because normally you had to be like, you know, actually, like medically injured. And in this case, they were like, you don't have to be medically injured, like you just have to be like, there just needs to be physical impact and, and, you know, distress, um you know, caused by negligence, and then that's enough to get monetary damages.
00:57:45
Speaker
um However, Georgia overruled this finding in 1989, and at that point they stated that the impact must result in physical injury. I don't know if they were just tired of all the poop jokes. I don't know.
00:57:58
Speaker
um but So, uh, cause this case is, is cited, you know, with some frequently when they're talking about the history of like, uh, personal injury, emotional impact, this case, uh, comes up a lot. And it's just very interesting cause I actually happened to like skim through some articles that came out in like the fifties. And so there's just like a tone of like, Oh, howlocor has came out of the circus preoccupied with, let's say, Purient activities for far too long.
00:58:29
Speaker
Did they overrule it on the grounds that it was just a bunch of horseshit? Probably. OK. Objection. But like, because there is definitely a lot of like, can you. but So so basically this reflects a very long struggle that the law that courts have had around emotional injury in civil tort cases. So cases where there's liability for harm caused to others. And there's been a lot of difficulty about this because of how, you know, intangible emotions are the difficulty identifying the potential cause of such injury. um And then there are a lot of concerns about flooding the courts with all sorts of complaining and litigation and and fraud and fakery. ah So that was sort of the resistance.
00:59:15
Speaker
um And Mike, you did ask if what if there would be some sort of mental health professional involved, and and sure. i you know And a mental health professional can get involved to ascertain whether there is a mental injury, the relationship between the event and the mental injury, ah the impact of mental injury. And I think a lot of times this gets phrased in terms of like sometimes ability to work, but also like the treatment that would be needed to you know restore somebody to make somebody whole.
00:59:46
Speaker
um and like prognosis, so like what kinds of treatment, ah you know, how much time and that can help sort of calculate money, you know, if if they would need, you know, this many hours of therapy or whatever, you know, this is how much that would cost ah would be considerations. But yeah, it's there in this in this specific case, there just really wasn't any information about the extent of the injury aside from, you know, humiliation or mortification or whatever.
01:00:16
Speaker
Well, I feel mortified. And humiliated. Yeah. My understanding is that this case was huge. It was precedent setting, but also has in a lot of places kind of been overruled since. But it still makes for like a good joke. Like there's so many like law blogs and things where it's like, this chick who got pooped on. um And it's been almost a hundred years.
01:00:47
Speaker
We're still laughing at her. That shows how deep the damage is. Right? Yeah. some So we have some facts about the circus itself and also Mr. Christie, who was the founder and proprietor of the circus. The circus had a bit of a, i'm I don't know if it's necessarily this circus because in the mid 1920s, I don't know how safe Any circus was necessarily these traveling circuses, but ah there was an incident where a they just had let's call it a reputation a bolt of lightning hit a ah power pole.
01:01:32
Speaker
near the the circus and the the line came down off the power pole and I think it killed a man and injured several others and it killed two people killed two people injured several others and it killed uh more than 10 horses I think like 12 horses it was 15 yeah 15 horses and one of those horses is the horse that pooped on god god made his judgment He got divinely smited. That is crazy. Fantastic. And speaking of this circus having some issues. So ah the Gadsden messenger did a write-up about the circus. And so this is a weekly newspaper that covers local news in it um this one county in Alabama. um So they did a write-up of the circus because ah the whole issue with the lightning was in that region, and it was the talk of the town for years afterward.
01:02:28
Speaker
um Also, shortly after the circus opened in 1919, it was a traveling kind of a circus thing. ah So he had, it was like two cars, two train cars. ah They had a wreck in Canada. And so the creator ah just kind of moved people over to a nearby cornfield and just did a performance while they were like clearing the railway of the wreckage.
01:02:56
Speaker
I mean, you got to make that bread somehow. i yeah That's just hustling. Yeah. ah The circus closed up in 1930. This was due to the Great Depression, and you know people weren't paying to go to shows. So afterward, the equipment was sold. The creator kept the horses and elephants, and the elephants helped build Spencer Highway in south Houston, Texas.
01:03:19
Speaker
And, ah the yeah, the owner, the creator of the circus, George Christie, ah ended up, he served as the mayor of South Houston twice. In 1949 to 1951 and in 1960 to 1964. A true showman, if you will. Yeah, they didn't put that in the movie now, did they? He wasn't just ah George Christie, he was George Washington Christie.
01:03:47
Speaker
Yes. Okay. Of course. Do with that information what you will. But yeah, so really important case and a ah consequential circus. There are, I went down some rabbit holes on circuses.
01:04:04
Speaker
from the period and a there's at least one or two websites that are devoted to cataloging various circuses and what they heard and things back in the day and there's a whole entry on this particular circus.
01:04:23
Speaker
I think the timing of this kind of gives us an idea of like maybe why there was a, why there was a seat literally right at the edge of the arena. Oh, absolutely. I've been seeing the animals in living color. Yeah, and the other thing too is, you know, this was a traveling circus, all right? So this was like, they just put up a tent and a bunch of chairs. This wasn't like a, you know, like an arena that was- There wass no eventator yes you know it was It was erected and it was taken down and it was moved someplace else, so. Just looking at the pictures you put in the chat here, um
01:05:01
Speaker
like The second to last one is pretty amazing. There's the cards going by. One of them says, performing African lions. Okay, pretty standard. The one next to it says, Christie Brothers, educated leopards.
01:05:13
Speaker
Oh, yes. Yes, of course. Nice. It's like their leopard education very seriously. anyone goes You wouldn't go see an uneducated leopard. I mean, i yeah, i I'm just curious what they talk that show looks like. get do they Do they debate politics? Do they read Shakespeare? like What are they doing? They probably retried old court cases. Yeah, that sounds rare. For the audience. They cosplayed as Supreme Court judges.
01:05:41
Speaker
i think I think they generally argue um for more decentralization and for getting rid of regulations and corporate taxation. And probably more raw meat for dinner. Yeah, they they want to eat all the faces. Yeah. Including that horse. After it was electrocuted, did someone eat the horse?
01:06:07
Speaker
No. I think they left them behind. Yeah, because I think that, like, yeah, yeah, they did. Yeah, wait at that point. One of these pictures does clearly have fire extinguishers. So there's that. They have one safety measure in place. Wow. Guys, we should go to a circus. We should record this at a circus. Guys, this is a circus. There it is.
01:06:36
Speaker
I mean, this certain well that ah yeah as far as circuses that are about now, I don't know that there's much with with animals being- I was going to say, they don't allow animals anymore, but they certainly have clowns and we got that on lock. For now. Yeah, the only ones I've been to, it was it was just you know people you know doing like flips and stuff.
01:07:02
Speaker
ah So this is nothing for the for the listener, but yes, I sent everyone some pictures of the circus and we'll update the website and and put some links in to these pictures. But ah one of these pictures is just like of some of the folks who are in the circus and they're standing in front of various banners that sort of describe what's going on. And if you if you took the banners away and you know the writing on the picture that tells you what this is, it just looks like a band.
01:07:33
Speaker
like a oh yeah marching band, right? I see a lot of trumpets and trombones and and drums. And then there's a bunch of ladies dressed like 1920s flappers. The only thing that's weird is the dude who's like balancing a sword on his chin, but otherwise it just looks like a bunch of people just kind of hanging out. Yep.
01:07:56
Speaker
Looks like a good time, honestly. It looks like a great time. There's a lot of guys wearing kilts. That looks kind of freeing. It doesn't look like the kind of place where you're going to get pooped on by a horse. yeah do you think Do you think someone in this picture was the rider of the horse? I hope so. Yeah. The original culprit behind this whole ordeal. I think if we look hard enough, maybe the horse is in this picture. ah because I wish there was a picture of the horse. I know, right?
01:08:27
Speaker
Oh, well. Hey, at least you didn't get pooped on by an elephant or something, right? Oh, God. Couldn't have been worse. No, that would have been- Before this podcast, I couldn't imagine being pooped on by a horse. Well, but then there was also the whole thing that Sarah was saying about if the if you're close enough to the horse to get pooped on, then you're close enough for the horse to kill you. I would think, yeah. A genuine question. As I was reading the facts of the case, did you think that's where this was going?
01:08:58
Speaker
Oh, that that she was going to get murdered by the horse kicking her? Yeah. i was't That's kind of, yeah, a little. Yeah, I was like, oh, she's like, ah you know, a tiger is going to have eaten her face off or something. And you're like, no, it's much worse. Just gravely worse. Sounds like she would have rather have just been killed, made a whole federal force act.
01:09:21
Speaker
ah Well, I would say this case felt very educational, but it it more so just felt gross.
01:09:31
Speaker
i feel like if you dot for that I feel like in many more ways than one, if you don't feel like you need a shower after an episode of Relitigated, that Nikki and I did not do our jobs. That goes for you too, listeners. Dirty, dirty legal system.
01:09:49
Speaker
Filthy. Filthy. Yeah, as ah as a judge, you just you see a little bit of everything. Yeah, and and listeners, hit up the socials. Let us know how much would it cost for us to make a horse poop on you? We'll put we'll put some polls out on Spotify and Instagram. ah Blue Sky is now a thing. Bidding is live. Bidding is live. Get a Patreon going, and if we hit a Patreon goal, one lucky listener can shit on my horse.
01:10:20
Speaker
for $9,000.
01:10:25
Speaker
Oh, God. There will be a waiver. Yeah, yeah. We've learned, but. Wear your finest clothes. I mean, you know, if you ever go to a show nowadays, if you actually look at your ticket, if anybody here can actually afford a ticket to a show, you know, the tickets have like all this legalese on them.
01:10:46
Speaker
you know, ademnifying the venue and the performers from anything that happens at the show. That, yeah there's a point where that like runs out. and you know that' so At some point it doesn't, there is no ademnification clause that protects you from from gross negligence, but. Yeah, but you you can't sue the venue because you got your nose broke in the mosh pit. Exactly, yeah. Now if you get shit on by a horse in the mosh pit, that could be different.
01:11:16
Speaker
That's a hell of a show, man. I want to see that concert.
01:11:22
Speaker
So, ah yeah, important landmark law. You guys have done it. It left a stain on the legal world. Yeah, get it I'm going to go take a shower. Yeah, get all the puns out. Let's get it out. You know, you don't want to you don't want to be going to bed later and being like, oh, wait, no, I got a great one.
01:11:46
Speaker
leave Leave it all on the field guys. Like that horse. Get it out of your system. The chat over the next couple of days I expect are just going to keep rolling in. Discord will be interesting. Alright, you gotta to take us out because this is not going to get this. Somebody please release us. This is going to get worse before it gets even worser.
01:12:09
Speaker
I think we should we should give Sarah a break and end things here, but thank you everyone ah for all of your your thoughts and your thinking through this.
01:12:25
Speaker
Just shitty, shitty case. There it is. There it is. I need another one in there. Hello. Yeah, exactly. ah But yeah, I think that'll do us for ah for today. Thank you so much to my co-host, Jared.
01:12:45
Speaker
And to our Justices, ah Mike and Adam and our Chief Justice, Sarah, who is, I assume, going to just cleanse her soul after this. I am. I think she might so i think she might retire. No, it's about time for like an everything shower, so. A power wash by soul. And that'll be it for today. Thanks, everyone.
01:13:13
Speaker
yeah thanks all bye friends so i And there you have it. The Sarah Court upheld the lower court's decision in finding that the plaintiff can be entitled to emotional damages even though she wasn't physically hurt. That's it for season one here at Relitigated. We hope you loved listening to it as much as we loved making it. We're going to take a little break before getting to work on season two in 2025.
01:13:42
Speaker
If you have any ideas for cases you'd like to hear about or have any other feedback, you can connect with us on Blue Sky and Instagram. Thanks again to my co-host and to our Justices. The music in this episode was written by Studio Columna and Toby Smith and provided by Pixabay. Audio mixing and producing was done by Jared.
01:14:05
Speaker
Thanks for listening. Please subscribe, rate, and comment so other people can find us. You can also catch us on YouTube, Instagram, and Blue Sky at Relitigated Podcast. We need help in spreading the word and would really appreciate any assistance you'd care to give