Hess not wanting to take responsibility.

Heres the story:

3.5 years ago we went to a Hess gas station. We pre paid for $20 or so dollars, so when you reach the limit the pump shuts off. Well, the pump clicked and my Wife removed the nozzle. The gas did not shut off and actually still kept pumping gas all over my Wife, the car and the concrete that was soaked with oil. Our girls came out and were skipping to my Wife and my Wife told them to stop and not to come to her. When she stepped forward she slipped and fell on her back. We made a complaint inside to have them write a incident report. The Indian fella in the store acted like we were not telling the truth because he did not "SEE" it take place. He got our info and saw on my card that I was a paint contractor where he then asked if I would like to have some painting projects. Uh yeah...

Now after a few years of all this legal junk we went to the mediation to get it settled to not goto court. Our lawyers working on our case have changed 3 times... Four months ago the price was 250K, when we went to mediation it started at 150K and then our lawyer dropped it to 95K. The lawyer at Hess started at 5K. Then our lawyer dropped it to 60K and in the end it was offered that they would only go 25K, but after our lawyers fees of 40%, the mediation cost and medical bills we end up with a whopping even!!!?

The entire time it seemed like our lawyers were actually on their side so in essence we were on our own. He said if we goto trial we would end up with less and could lose because their experts(Hess payroll) said it never happened before or since. They said my Wife panicked and held onto the nozzle in a open position(No proof) I said who in the world would remove the nozzle from the tank in a open position and how did she panic before there was even a problem. She did not know until she removed the nozzle. We mentioned the oil all over the concrete and their response was that petro being poured on oil stains would not be slippery? Really?


Imagine that? Billion dollar corp that will not pay out lol. They said that is was my Wifes fault through neglect. I said the neglect was that there was traces of cat litter poured on the concrete spots where the oil was and that either the mech pumps or the computers itself did not function right through some glitch or whatnot.

Agenda:

Report every Hess station in your area to the EPA for their dirty concrete and that they do not care about its customers well being.
 
Sorry to hear that. Local rumor is they only pay $125 to clean the pads and store front. I have tried selling them before but when the manager said they would not pay more than $125 I ran. Two days ago I drive by a hess and there is a guy pressure washing the store front in the middle of lunch rush hour. He also had all of his equipment on a rented Uhaul trailer. I guess at $125 he cant afford a trailer.
 
Sorry to hear that. Local rumor is they only pay $125 to clean the pads and store front. I have tried selling them before but when the manager said they would not pay more than $125 I ran. Two days ago I drive by a hess and there is a guy pressure washing the store front in the middle of lunch rush hour. He also had all of his equipment on a rented Uhaul trailer. I guess at $125 he cant afford a trailer.

Thats the cost of an 8 ball these days right? :speechless:
 
I went through Mediation years ago and I had good lawyers. The mediator actually was very good and I felt he was almost working for me. When it got up to a certain point in $$$ he said its about the max. We were fighting a big corporation and I did pretty good. It all depends on the lawyers and your case was your word against theres and hard for you to prove. I had some major injuries and there was no doubt that the company made some major bludders. You here these multi million dollar lawsuits, they are few and far between. Sorry you had to go through all the crap. Hopefully your daughter is fine
 
Your Lawyer sucked, plain and simple. When things like this happen you need to find the best trial lawyer you can find!! My sister fell real hard on her back in Waldbaums Supermarket. They were doing an AC repair in the store and water had leaked all over the floor, she walked thru it and slipped.

She fell hard enough to break her tail bone and screw up a few disc's in her back. She sought out the best trial attorney she could find, long story short 2 yr's later she settled for $300,000 + all her medical and lost wages which came to another $70,000. Like they say you get what you pay for.
 
The lawyers we are using was not my first choice by any means, but they returned our calls the fastest.

these are the Florida Premises Liability Attorneys we used.

In my opinion they do not represent their-self very well through the attorneys they have employed in their service. I remember being a kid and seeing a huge semi in downtown Jacksonville, Fl and it had a huge banner calling them crooks.
 
Your Lawyer sucked, plain and simple. When things like this happen you need to find the best trial lawyer you can find!! My sister fell real hard on her back in Waldbaums Supermarket. They were doing an AC repair in the store and water had leaked all over the floor, she walked thru it and slipped.

She fell hard enough to break her tail bone and screw up a few disc's in her back. She sought out the best trial attorney she could find, long story short 2 yr's later she settled for $300,000 + all her medical and lost wages which came to another $70,000. Like they say you get what you pay for.


My Wife's disc is now pressing up against her sciatic nerve. It is causing numbness in her legs now as well as having pain that comes and goes with activity. Our lawyer said it was not about the injury?!!! Really? I wander if we can still take it to court because my Wife signed off on the 25K under what I told her was diress. I also told her it seemed that our Attorney was bullying her into it and scaring her by saying that if she lost she could actually be sued for big money by Hess for attorney fees and experts.
 
To me it sounds like your lawyer needed the settlement quicker than you did. You can always revisit the case under the context of poor representation. Get a copy of the transcript and have it reviewed by a different / better law firm.

Sounds like good advice. Funny thing is this is a law firm who spends 4 million per year in advertisement. I am sure they would not work for what breaks down to $275 dollars per month. Wonder if we got sold out?
 
What you have to consider is how much actual time your law firm put into it. I'm guessing very little. The bad thing is you will have a hard time getting a lawyer to take it on a contingency basis since she signed off on it. Always worth a try. Bad deal.
 
What you have to consider is how much actual time your law firm put into it. I'm guessing very little. The bad thing is you will have a hard time getting a lawyer to take it on a contingency basis since she signed off on it. Always worth a try. Bad deal.

Like he said. If she signed off, its over. Its not like its a huge $$$$ case. Some times you just got to say its over and move on
 
Your Lawyer sucked, plain and simple. When things like this happen you need to find the best trial lawyer you can find!! My sister fell real hard on her back in Waldbaums Supermarket. They were doing an AC repair in the store and water had leaked all over the floor, she walked thru it and slipped.

She fell hard enough to break her tail bone and screw up a few disc's in her back. She sought out the best trial attorney she could find, long story short 2 yr's later she settled for $300,000 + all her medical and lost wages which came to another $70,000. Like they say you get what you pay for.


Get this. If your Sis was represented by our lawyers, they would have told her she was at fault because she saw work being performed and she should have just walked around the puddle instead of in it or went to a different store. Thats what they told us in plain English. They said that my Wife panicked. I told them that the spill only occurred after my Wife removed the nozzle after we heard the click and what reason would she have to be in panic mode? He then said she must have been afraid and held onto the nozzle as if she was still trying to dispense gas when she went to put the nozzle back into the slot on the gas dispenser?
 
My father owned and operated a transportation Company leased to UNION CARBIDE and Prax Air.

Well long story Short my father was involved in a lawsuit, he wanted to give the driver money because the hitch was defective from a manufacture on there Company owned trailer. They pulled there trailers with the tractor, my father had very few trailers. When he was on scene of his driver it was bad, my father could see they had welded the piece onto the trailer and clearly without any scientist he knew he was going to have to pay. It was all a matter of how much????

The lawyers screwed the driver my fathers driver out of everything they could.

My fathers passed away in 1996 and to the day he died he personally saw the driver who never worked ever again do to injurys. Well he made sure the children had what they needed always.

I remember his Lawyers arguing with Carbide Lawyers we dont want to pay. We know that we are at fault, but admission will only result in a jury trial where people will slauter us.

He always thought Carbide Lawyers where paying the drivers lawyers off to take the peanut settlement.

in the end the bill he shared with carbide for the lawyers was 9 times the settlement.
 
What you have to consider is how much actual time your law firm put into it. I'm guessing very little. The bad thing is you will have a hard time getting a lawyer to take it on a contingency basis since she signed off on it. Always worth a try. Bad deal.


THe problem in AZ is your obligated to the fired or quiting law firm last settlement amount. Thats BS

They lean the case!!! How do you like that BS
 
Alright, I'll accept my beating after my response........

It sounds like you did ok.

Four months ago the price was 250K, when we went to mediation it started at 150K and then our lawyer dropped it to 95K. The lawyer at Hess started at 5K. Then our lawyer dropped it to 60K and in the end it was offered that they would only go 25K, but after our lawyers fees of 40%, the mediation cost and medical bills we end up with a whopping even!!!?

Do you think that Hess intentionally made their pump malfunction?

Things malfunction, we don't live in a perfect world. What if your hose popped in the middle and burned someone who happened to be walking near it? You might rightfully pay for damages (medical costs, etc) but would you feel obligated to pay them more than 16 times their actual medical expenses?

That's what you asked Hess to do when your starting "price" was $250k.

I know you are concerned about current and future physical problems. But who would you have sued if your wife had slipped in the rain out in a farmer's field? The farmer? The County? You would have had to pay for all those bills yourself.

If that happened to us I'd have to count myself fortunate that it happened at a location that was willing to take any responsibility at all and be grateful that I didn't have to pay for it all out of pocket.

Personally, I think this is part of the reason our country is doomed as it is.

Why should it matter if the company is a 100 billion dollar company or a $50k per year pressure washer? Since when does the amount of money someone makes determine the monetary value of justice? As a refresher I just went back and read on restitution in God's word. There are many levels of restitution and many variables, but the wealth of the one who did the wrong is not mentioned even ONCE in the entire Bible. I can only assume that it is IRRELEVANT. It's disturbing to think that in our society justice can somehow be measured by how much money someone has. That is why our country is in such a state of entitlement and uproar.

The amount you got was your choice. Obviously the company was willing to give you almost twice what the actual cost of treatment was, and it was you alone who chose to buy a new Harley for an attorney with half of it. Contrary to what the lawyers would have you believe, cases like this are settled all the time without any lawyers involved.

Is this the way we are supposed to be? Why do we have a system that rewards scumbag lawyers enabling them with the cash to have more TV and radio commercials than car dealerships, furniture stores and politicians.

Life happens. Accidents happen. We have been brainwashed by endless ambulance chasing commercials that we have to go looking for whoever has the deepest pockets every time we are involved in any thing that disrupts our lives in any way.

I'm a little biased because I spent a few years in the back of a van videotaping con artists faking injuries so they could get paid not to work. They all had lawyers.

How did we make it as a human race before these saviors of mankind came along to rescue us from any and all injustices (while taking their portion of course)?

Ok, let the beatings commence.
 
Alright, I'll accept my beating after my response........

It sounds like you did ok.

Four months ago the price was 250K, when we went to mediation it started at 150K and then our lawyer dropped it to 95K. The lawyer at Hess started at 5K. Then our lawyer dropped it to 60K and in the end it was offered that they would only go 25K, but after our lawyers fees of 40%, the mediation cost and medical bills we end up with a whopping even!!!?

Do you think that Hess intentionally made their pump malfunction?

Things malfunction, we don't live in a perfect world. What if your hose popped in the middle and burned someone who happened to be walking near it? You might rightfully pay for damages (medical costs, etc) but would you feel obligated to pay them more than 16 times their actual medical expenses?

That's what you asked Hess to do when your starting "price" was $250k.

I know you are concerned about current and future physical problems. But who would you have sued if your wife had slipped in the rain out in a farmer's field? The farmer? The County? You would have had to pay for all those bills yourself.

If that happened to us I'd have to count myself fortunate that it happened at a location that was willing to take any responsibility at all and be grateful that I didn't have to pay for it all out of pocket.

Personally, I think this is part of the reason our country is doomed as it is.

Why should it matter if the company is a 100 billion dollar company or a $50k per year pressure washer? Since when does the amount of money someone makes determine the monetary value of justice? As a refresher I just went back and read on restitution in God's word. There are many levels of restitution and many variables, but the wealth of the one who did the wrong is not mentioned even ONCE in the entire Bible. I can only assume that it is IRRELEVANT. It's disturbing to think that in our society justice can somehow be measured by how much money someone has. That is why our country is in such a state of entitlement and uproar.

The amount you got was your choice. Obviously the company was willing to give you almost twice what the actual cost of treatment was, and it was you alone who chose to buy a new Harley for an attorney with half of it. Contrary to what the lawyers would have you believe, cases like this are settled all the time without any lawyers involved.

Is this the way we are supposed to be? Why do we have a system that rewards scumbag lawyers enabling them with the cash to have more TV and radio commercials than car dealerships, furniture stores and politicians.

Life happens. Accidents happen. We have been brainwashed by endless ambulance chasing commercials that we have to go looking for whoever has the deepest pockets every time we are involved in any thing that disrupts our lives in any way.

I'm a little biased because I spent a few years in the back of a van videotaping con artists faking injuries so they could get paid not to work. They all had lawyers.

How did we make it as a human race before these saviors of mankind came along to rescue us from any and all injustices (while taking their portion of course)?

Ok, let the beatings commence.

I would say its about Neglect, if his Smart lawyer could have proven this happens often and it seems to happen at Hess more then I could see more money.

Your right about accidents happen, we have even Screwed up and broken windows and windshields in Cars. Its happens!!

We do everything we can to prevent them, if a company os grossly neglecting Safety and repairs of equipment then I could see a Large money settlement. Teach them prioritys need looked at.

Your right about most people are just looking for Blame. I could here it now in the court room. Your wifes at fault we tested that pump and it showed not failure of that type by four experts.

Keep in Mind that if you get hurt of these freaks accidents happen to you its gotta be proven. Not because Honest folks like his wife got hurt but for every 1 person getting hurt for real theres 1000 faking shit.

Again, thank goodness everythings ok now and it wasnt worse.

I'm not completly with Tony but I get the side, I think Hess like all companys even if they had found the pump faulty would cover it up. They will do anything to be dishonest because they deal with it everyday. :shocked2:
 
Like I said, I'm biased. I videotaped a guy having to be helped into a courtroom while holding a barf bag because a fall caused his "equilibrium" to be messed up. He was suing for millions. He didn't know that I had filmed him the whole day prior walking back and forth across a 10 ft span on a single two by six at the house he was constructing and getting paid under the table.

The case was thrown out. They had already paid him for two years but the judge said there was nothing he could do. His hands were tied. They were just out that money.

If Hess was negligent wouldn't we be hearing about these types of things all over the place. If anything someone should sue the jack*ss who invented that stupid plastic condom that most fuel pumps have on the nozzle now that make the gas shut off every two seconds.
 
Accidents do happen all the time and a accident is something that is a specific, unpredictable, unusual and unintended external action which occurs in a particular time and place, with no apparent and deliberate cause but with marked effects. It implies a generally negative outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.

The argument of the lawyers for Hess that this never happened before or after with having malfunctions at the pump or their employees properly setting up a pre paid limit on their computers. I found on the internet that they have had incidents where their computers malfunctioned causing peoples tanks to be filled more than what they asked to be and then the Hess station said that the person was responsible for the overage.

My question is since when does something not ever happening before or since mean that a particular incident did not take place? They went on to say that my Wife panicked, but the spill did not take place til after the click indication showed our pre paid limit had been reached. Who would panic when that happens? Then when she removed the nozzle she discovered the gas was still flowing from the nozzle all over the concrete(Oil stains on it also) She clicked over the lever and tried to place it on the pump, but still overflow. She hit the emergency button, but no result. When the kids came to the car she stepped forward and yelled for them to stop and then slipped onto her back.

They said she must have panicked and held onto the nozzle in the flow position, but like I said, no panic would have been logical when you see there is no problem and who in the world removes a gas nozzle with the lever pressed in to put it back on the pump?

They then said it was about the action that was taken and not the true injury. What could we have done to prevent it? uh, dont goto Hess that particular time? I guess it was our fault for needing fuel? The only action we took was that we saw our suv was on 1/4 tank and needed some fuel, so we went to Hess to purchase the fuel. Our intention was to be a purchaser of gas, not to cause bodily harm to ourselves or our children.
 
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