Katrina rescuer is sued by boat owner: He took craft and never brought it back
A Broadmoor man who said he rescued more than 200 residents after commandeering a boat during the flood after Hurricane Katrina is being sued by the boat’s owner for taking it “without receiving permission.” Mark Morice, who by the Wednesday after the storm said he “couldn’t get more than a block or two without people screaming to me for help,” took the boat “out of necessity….I did it for my neighbors.”
From the “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” Department comes a DUMB@$$ AWARD first: a DUMB@$$ AND his attorney, who is equally deserving of his own DUMB@$$ AWARD. This is a case that fully illustrates and justifies Shakespeare’s antipathy towards the legal profession (Henry VI, Pt.2: First, we’ll kill all the lawyers….). During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, one of this nation’s worst natural disasters, Mark Morice (who also happens to be a lawyer) took it upon himself to help his neighbors. He rescued more than 200 people with a boat he commandeered for the purpose. He made a decision that human life at that point in time outweighed private property rights…and he should be hailed as a hero. Instead, he’s being sued by these two DUMB@$$E$, who care nothing for the lives saved by Morice’s selflessness and quick thinking.
The lawsuit contends that boat owner John M. Lyons Jr. suffered his own distress, in the form of “grief, mental anguish, embarrassment and suffering…due to the removal of the boat,” as well as its replacement costs.
E. Ronald Mills, Lyons’ Metairie lawyer, who filed the suit in 24th Judicial District Court in Jefferson Parish earlier this month, on Friday accused Morice of ‘hubris.”
Sure, if “hubris” means taking the time to rescue his imperiled neighbors, Morice is sure as Hell guilty. If “hubris” means doing whatever it took to get people to safety and look after his neighbors, he’s guilty. If “hubris” means having made a decision to elevate concern for human life over private property…well, you might as well just go ahead and get a rope.
Instead of being hailed as the selfless hero he is, Morice is having to defend himself against perhaps one of the most frivolous and truly evil lawsuits imaginable.
Morice made no attempt to return the boat, Mills said, and it remains missing.
Well, let’s all just get into a big circle and have a good cry over that one, shall we? Thousands lost their homes, hundreds lost there lives…and these two DUMB@$$E$ are worried about a @!#$%^& boat? Man, if losing your boat is the biggest problem you came out of Hurricane Katrina with, what in the Hell are you complaining about? Have you looked around the Ninth Ward recently??
Molly Gordon said she was baffled by the lawsuit.
“This man should be so grateful he had a boat that saved lives,” she said.
Indeed. Given all the tragedy and heartache that came out of Katrina, why not celebrate the fact that you were able to contribute something positive to Morice’s efforts to save his neighbors?
Let’s hope there’s a special place in Hell for these two richly-deserving DUMB@$$E$. They should go straight to the head of the line.
