Woman Sues Stores-Claims Homeless Man Beat Her!

We need to adopt the European rule toward lawsuits. When plaintiffs lose cases like this, they should pay the defendants' legal bills. Read this comical but ridiculous story to understand why:


Woman Sues Stores- Claims Homeless Man Beat Her
By Nicole Young • THE TENNESSEAN • April 21, 2009

A Cheatham County woman who said she was beaten after giving a homeless man a cheeseburger outside a Nashville McDonald's last year is suing the restaurant, a nearby liquor store and her alleged attacker.

Fran MacLaren and her husband, Thomas, filed suit in Davidson County Circuit Court on Monday. They are asking for $2 million in damages.

In the criminal assault case against David Craig last April, MacLaren testified that she went to a Nolensville Road McDonald's for lunch on April 21, 2008. The homeless man, Craig, was outside of the fast-food chain after being told to leave a nearby liquor store, named in the suit as Uncle Koto Liquor Store.

MacLaren gave Craig the cheeseburger as he was lying down in a parking spot outside the restaurant. Craig shouted he didn't want the burger, just money and threw the burger at MacLaren, she testified.

"I told him he was an ungrateful bastard,'' she testified.

Craig went after her, she said. He struck her repeatedly, broke her nose, fractured her wrist, cheekbone and cracked a rib, she said. She also injured her knee.

MacLaren limped into the McDonald's but was later locked out of the restaurant.

According to the suit, both husband and wife allege that the McDonald's and the nearby liquor stores, "knew, or should have known, that their mode of operating their particular stores attracted persons prone to criminal acts and provided an environment to crime."

The suit states that both stores failed to provide a reasonably safe place for their customers.

Attempts to contact the owners of the Nolensville Road McDonald's and Uncle Koto Liquor store were unsuccessful.