> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: Russell Chapman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Verzonden: zondag 17 maart 2002 23:57 > Aan: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Onderwerp: Re: Class-action law suit (was Re: Question for > ListAdministrators)
> > Now, I do not see a problem for AOL users sueing AOL, even when the > > Commonwealth of Virginia does not allow class-action law suits. The > > only thing AOL users need to do is get themselves organised in > > something like "AOL Users For Free Choice of E-Mail Clients" and then > > let that organisation drag AOL to court. That way, there will be only > > one entity (AUFFCoEMC) sueing AOL instead of a number of individuals, > > thus bypassing the "no class-action law suits" rule. > > Not so simple - the entity AUFFCoEMC has not been wronged by AOL, or > suffered any loss. It's members, owners, trustees, whatever may have > been, but that entity has not suffered. The only remedy AUFFCoEMC can > sue for is a refund of the subscription cost. The so called "Corporate > Veil" which distinguishes a company from its shareholders (or trust > from it trustees, etc etc) is a cornerstone of the US (and other > western) legal system, so the AUFFCoEMC cannot sue AOL on behalf of > its members. That certainly is not the way such matters are handled in The Netherlands. It is quite common here for people who have been wronged to get themselves organised in some form of group, and then have that group sue the wrongdoing party (only one law suit needed, therefore saves time and lots of money in lawyer fees). Example: the owner of the apartment building we lived in suddenly announced that the building was to be taken down. The tennants joined forces in a Tennants Group to fight this. Had it been necessary, the Group could have sued the owner on behalf of its members. If I understand your explanation correctly, US law (or at least Virginian law) does not allow people to have an organisation sue a party on behalf of their members. If find that rather odd, because it reduces interest groups to almost useless organisations and at the same time gives organisations like AOL the power to pretty much do as they please. So, the only way to get AOL to allow its users to use whatever e-mail client they want, is to let one individual sue AOL, after which other people can individually sue AOL for the same thing and refer to the first case as a precedent (assuming of course that the first individual wins the case). If that is in fact the way the US legal system works, I am glad not to be living there. Jeroen _________________________________________________________________________ Wonderful World of Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com Tom's Photo Gallery: http://tom.vanbaardwijk.com
