Charter told to pay $7.3b in damages after cable installer murders grandmother

https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/27/charter_spectrum_murder_damages/

by avastel • 4 years ago

30 24 4 years ago

treesknees• 4 years ago

I don't say this to diminish the value of human life, because there certainly is no amount of money in the world that can bring back a murdered loved one, but I'm wondering how they come up with the value of $7 billion? I mean that will certainly get the attention of service providers, I'm just surprised at the amount.

missedthecue2• 4 years ago

Juries always award huge punitive damages. Like when a jury awarded that employee of Tesla $137 million because he was harassed at work.

A judge will always reduce this amount to a more reasonable level.

jstummbillig• 4 years ago

Okay but still, why.

_-david-_• 4 years ago

That seems a bit excessive. I understand there is some emotional damage due to the stolen checks and the billed amount going to collections, but $7 billion? The lady who was killed was over the average life expectancy!

Nexxxeh• 4 years ago

A question not a statement, but are punitive damages set to a level where they should be felt by the guilty party?

If you don't set it in the billions, Charter wouldn't even notice it. Their yearly profits are in the billions.

$7 billion is very possibly less than the profit made between the murder of the woman (2019) and the verdict (now).

hnburnsy2• 4 years ago

Just like taxes, companies don't pay or feel them, they either reduce expenses (example by paying their employees less) or increase revenue (example increase prices to consumers). In the end, consumers and employees are the ones suffering the punitive damages.

hnburnsy2• 4 years ago

If this verdict stands we will all pay as service companies will raise rates to reserve or insure against potential litigation losses like this.

killingtime74• 4 years ago

So you should, most companies insure against crimes their employees commit

cto_official• 4 years ago

7.3 billion :o did I hear it right ? Is it going to only one individual ?

tcmart14• 4 years ago

That is the confusing part. I don't know if that is the case here, but with lawsuits similar, the amounts seem really high and the reporting doesn't fully explain why, which I wish would change. Some people will get rewarded at face value handsomely. But in reality, it isn't the case since in some cases most of what is being "rewarded" might just be going to attorney fees and other costs of the litigation itself.

yummypaint• 4 years ago

This isn't actually that steep if you compare it to a human being getting convicted of manslaughter. The fraction of a person's life and income taken away by damages fines and incarceration are much larger than what charter will (not actually) lose.

spicymaki• 4 years ago

I personally believe that the value of a human life is priceless (in a subjective sense). However in an objective sense you can use a heuristic to figure out damages a company should payout. I would love to know how the jury came up with that number.

Ekaros3• 4 years ago

Specially when in this case the victim was 83 year old... Objectively there isn't much life time earnings left there or even qualitative years. So I don't know what objective metric could get it to that level.

Ekaros3• 4 years ago

357 million to family and 7 billion punitive damages.

Those sound really really high...

HomeDeLaPot• 4 years ago

Dang, those jurors must be really upset about Spectrum's monopolistic practices...

Charter told to pay $7.3b in damages after cable installer murders grandmother

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