Veches lawsuits not frivolous

The law defines a “frivolous” lawsuit as “presenting no debatable

question” to the court. Your editorial dissuading the parents of

abused children from seeking redress before the citizens of Orange

County is shameful (“Let justice be done in the criminal courts,”

Sunday).

Employers are responsible for the actions of their employees. The

abuses occurred at the employer’s premises, the abuses occurred

because the employer sought and placed children with the abuser. The

employer specifically placed the abuser in a position that the abuser

would have access to the children and placed upon the abuser the seal

of approval such that parents would have faith and trust that the

employer would never let anything occur to their child. It matters

not that the employer was the city of Newport Beach, it could well

have been the Catholic Church. The actions of the employee were made

possible by the employer by providing access, location and fostering

a belief in the parents that this was a safe place to let your

children play. Accordingly, the case is not “frivolous.”

What astounds me however is the fact the Daily Pilot would try to

influence the parents from seeking a fair hearing of their claims.

The motto of the newspaper should be “to seek the truth.” Seeking the

truth is nothing more than what a lawsuit will do. Unlike the

newspaper, the lawsuit allows for the power of subpoena the power of

deposition, the power for the citizens to determine what the standard

will be in our community. Do we as a community what to have our

government place sick twisted people in positions of trust? Trust

over our children? The burden is on the parents to prove their case,

have faith in the system. The city has rejected their claims and now

must stand in judgment.

Personally, I would like to know the facts. I would like to know

that out of this bad, good can come. The city can learn to find how

Trenton Michael Veches slipped through the cracks. I would like to

know just how many more Newport Beach employees, officers, teachers,

or others that we trust our children to have similar tendencies. Has

Newport Beach changed anything in the way it hires employees? What

has changed? Or, has nothing changed and we are all now still at

risk?

I am an attorney, I am a parent. I have no interest in this case,

but I have a strong faith in our jury system. The editorial published

is just one of many attempts to limit our civil rights. There has

been great publicity of late for “tort reform.” Our country was

founded upon the principle of individual freedoms. Tort reform is

founded upon the principle of “the greatest good for the greatest

number of people.” That philosophy means that the individual does not

matter. Our government, our foundation as a nation, has always been

one man, one vote. That a person is an end unto themselves.

It is the Communist or Socialist view of greatest good over the

rights of the individual. It is the democratic view -- one man, one

vote -- that places the accent on the individual and that each

individual has value.

Proof of this point of view is obvious in the Declaration of

Independence written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. Note the first

point is the accent on the individual and the second is the idea of a

Social Contract:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created

equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain

unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the

pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are

instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of

the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes

destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or

to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation

on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them

shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

This is our view, we are not a society that ignores the rights of

even one man or one child for the greater good, we are created equal

and we have a contract with our government that it governs from the

consent of the people -- one man, one vote.

The idea of tort reform is an idea of placing caps on what someone

may recover. It is an idea of obliterating the philosophical heritage

of our country. It says that individuals do not matter. Despite the

fact the doctor sawed off the wrong leg, this legless person’s pain

and suffering, his mental anguish should not be considered because

some group of people -- either doctors, either insurance companies or

either whom ever you name, but someone else is better than that

individual. This leaves the least among us, the person who cannot

fight, the person without their legs, having nothing to stand on in

court. You, I, or anyone of our friends could be that legless person.

Ronald Reagan used to tell the story of the starfish. The storm

comes in and it washes up all these starfish on the shore. A person

is seen on the beach picking up the starfish and throwing them back

into the water. If they remain on the land of course they die. The

job of just picking up one at a time is futile because there are so

many thousands starfish that have been washed up. A passerby says:

“Why are you doing that, it won’t do any good; there are just too

many that your efforts don’t matter.” The person on the shore, as he

picks up a starfish and throws it back into the water saving its life

says, “It mattered to that one.”

Each of us matter. Tort reform is not the philosophy of individual

rights but is abhorrent to such rights. We need to place the accent

on the individual not on transient problems that change the

foundation of our country.

As for the city of Newport Beach, they need to be accountable to

us. That accountability requires them to answer how it is children

ended up in the hands of an abuser whom they employed and whom they

placed in charge of children.

JAMES D. DAILY

Costa Mesa

* James D. Daily is an attorney with a practice in Newport Beach.