court rules that passenger who flips off another car not responsible if driver shot

[Liberal_in_LA]

Bird-flipping passenger off hook for shooting

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, July 11, 2009

(07-10) 17:23 PDT RICHMOND -- A car passenger who gestures angrily at a passing vehicle can't be held responsible if someone responds with gunfire, a state appeals court has ruled in dismissing a lawsuit that blamed a passenger for provoking a shooting.
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Adam Vue was taking a sport utility vehicle for a test drive on Interstate 80 in Richmond in January 2007 when a car entered the freeway and nearly hit him. He honked his horn and his passenger, auto salesman Gabriel Lobos, threw his hands in the air. According to Vue, Lobos also made an obscene gesture at the other driver.

Someone in the car fired a shot that hit Vue in the head. The 22-year-old pharmacy technician from Gold River (Sacramento County) was in a coma for six weeks and suffered permanent brain damage and impaired mobility, his lawyer said. Police never found the shooter.

Vue sued Lobos and his employer, East Bay Mitsubishi of El Cerrito, in Contra Costa County Superior Court, saying the salesman's gestures provoked a violent response that should have been foreseeable.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/10/BACA18MI8S.DTL&tsp=1

[Jeep789]

1. They got that one right

Freedom of speech and no way anyone should be held responsible for an idiot's actions simply for informing the idiot that he is one.

[Auggie]

4. Yeah, but Vue's lawyer is taking the case to the CA Supreme Court.

What a waste of taxpayer money.

[Selatius]

2. So there is still a guy out there on the roads with a gun and serious road rage.

Not good, folks, not good at all. This person is going to kill somebody if he keeps going like this.

[AndyA]

7. It sounds like one life has already been ruined due to this nut.

But thank goodness he has a right to carry a weapon around with him!

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. +1

My thoughts exactly.

[Tan Gent]

9. Actually he doesn't have the right...having committed a felony.

But then we don't know if he had the right before, either.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. cops don't catch most of the CA car-to-car shooters. Most of those cases go unsolved

[SpiralHawk]

3. And if you flip off America, like xCommander AWOL (R)

Then you can be sure the Republicon Homelanders will love and laud you as their beloved Chickenhawk-in-Chief.

[valerief]

5. If flipping the bird always resulted in gunshots, this country would be even more screwed up

than it already is.

[Chemisse]

6. The death finger

"saying the salesman's gestures provoked a violent response that should have been foreseeable."

You give someone the finger - you get shot; it's that simple. It was almost as if the salesman shot the driver himself.

:sarcasm: