Day on Torts
Associated Press reports that a lawyer employed by Baxter International, Inc, a major manufacturer of intravenous drugs and medical devices, tried to pay an opposing expert in a lawsuit if he would leave the country on a key court date. The expert caught the offer on tape.
Baxter’s response: "The offer to engage an expert was not intended seriously and the lawyer had no authority to offer it or act on it," Baxter spokeswoman Laureen Cassidy told the AP. "It does not constitute bribery under Mexican law and was never acted upon."
Reminds me of the old joke about told about the defendant in a dog bite case. "I don’t have a dog. If I do have a dog it wasn’t my dog that bit you. If you can prove my dog bit you I didn’t know my dog would bite. If I knew my dog would bite you must have provoked my dog. If you didn’t provoke my dog you weren’t injured by the bite. [And the new one] If you were injuried by the bite your claim for damages, compensatory and punitive, is capped."