Salt Lake Tribune | 1989-08-07 | Page 10

i esel14 rt14 1174— a'tn ' i F - Vim Wit- 44 !"146AlkitArka mun ivmkobbe 4444'le-40- t ' be Salt 'Kafir - Terrorism Flows In Predictable Rational Cycles Za'ibunr ' Monday August 7 9 1989 r- a — '' e' Huge jury awards for punitive dam- l' ages in civil suits often are arbitrary v! threaten the integrity of the jusThey ' tice system and the economic of the nation They must be checked Punitive damages are intended to punish defendants whose conduct has been so outrageous as to border on the criminal They are separate and in addition to damages awarded to compensate a plaintiff for a loss and may be awarded in many types of civil suits including t medical malpractice product liability insurance bad faith and libel -- In most states the law gives judges Jd and juries little guidance in determinv ing whether punitive damages should be I' assessed and for how much Attorneys have little to lose by pressing a claim and if they win both they and the client (: can reap major windfalls Often a puni- r tive damages claim permits a plaintiff to ' subpoena and introduce evidence of the defendant's financial worth Pointing to a deep pocket often increases the ' amounts of both compensatory and pu' nitive damage awards Multimillion dollar awards for pun!- ' tive damages are a recent phenomenon In a case decided by the US Supreme Court in June two justices noted that these awards are "skyrocketing" Only a decade ago the largest such award affirmed by an appellate court in a prod ucts liability case was $250000 Since then awards more than 30 times that high have been upheld This situation discourages manufacturers froht developing and introducing new products and it increases the price Americans pay for existing goods and services Some pharmaceutical firms have decided not to introduce new medt icines onto the market rather than expose themselves to the legal and monetary risks Product liability libel and I malpractice insurance are sometimes well-bein- g 1 1 - ' - 'unavailable and often enormously expensive Excessive awards for punitive damages have been attacked in the courts under two constitutional strategies The first argues that awards which are out of all proportion when weighed against the conduct involved or civil fines imposed for similar offenses violate the ' ately eavesdrop on a person's dying : words and screams an ultimate inva- ' sion of privacy On that score denuncia- tion of publicly broadcasting airline cockpit voice recordings after air crash' es issued by the National Transporta tion Safety Board the Federal Aviation :Administration and the Air Line Pilots : Association is correct ' This collective wrath separately expressed developed after the release of a recording made in the cockpit of a Delta Air Lines Boeing 727 'which crashed a year ago while taking off for Salt Lake City from Dallas-For- t Worth airport The tape portions of which were broadcast locally by CBS News and KSL-Trevealed that the cockpit crew erroneously thought they were experiencing an engine failure It ended with a scream and the sound of the plane c court-ordere- d : : breaking apart Although 14 persons died in the crash the crew survived but has since been fired after Delta accepted blame for the crash saying the crew neglected to properly set the wing flaps for takeoff ' Henry A Duffy president of the pilots union said: "No pilot wants to hear broadcast to the public the agonized screams of his colleagues the moment before they die in a fiery crash" His criticism of the tape's release is fitting and justified He makes one more appropriate ob:servation when he notes "No other to Nv ork ers in America are subjected :A I — Once again terrorism against Americans in the Middle East Once again an "outraged" American president on the spot Once again American cries for retaliation against the "savage' terrorists in Lebanon Isn't this where I came in? Isn't it just this that destroyed Jimmy kind of hostage-takinCarter's presidency? Isn't it the Lebanoy placen and ment of American Marines in scandal that will most dim the the luster of Ronald Reagan's tenure? Is George Bush's presidency to be equally defeated by the unpredictable and desperate behavior of turbaned fanatics in southern Lebanon who again point up American weakness in the WASHINGON The new limitations on punitive damages do not apply to drunken driving cases nor to other areas of Utah law where previous statutory standards exist Only time will tell whether the recent changes in the judicial code actually restrain excessive punitive damages awards The Legislature should watch the situation to see if further measures are warranted routine constant tape recording of the performance of their duties so the mere existence of the cockpit voice recorder is an invasion of privacy" Because of this "invasion" tapes loop-tapfrom the devices are not ordinarily released in their entirety Only after a crash accident invese tigation is completed does the NTSB usually release printed transcripts of any pertinent portions of cockpit recordings Fred Farrar an FAA spokesman said of the order by Texas District Court Judge Adolph Cana les releasing the tape of Flight 1141: "We are very disappointed We agree with the pilots right down the line This is an unwarranted invasion of privacy" Closing ranks with the FAA and the pilots the NTSB voted unanimously to support legislation advocated by the FAA and ALPA to keep the tapes secret Those tapes are probably invaluable investigative tools but they are not within the public's "right to know" Their release with the exception of those parts that shed light on what caused an air crash will serve no worthwhile public purpose It will only help satiate the appetites of the morbidly curious for lurid entertainment As such the restrictive legislation sought by the pilots' group the FAA and NTSB would preserve cockpit tape recordings usefulness as investigative aids but prevent unwarranted use for entertainment or theatrical purposes Iranian-sponsore- ii ex-se- g card-carryin- g i logic upside-dowWhen the Senate Judiciary t 1 k A Committee c' - t 0111k 4 PMtlist Sandy If the answer to these dismal questions is "yes" we are in serious trouble For the truth is that 1) everything that is happening these days is totally predictable and could have been charted from the moment President Bush took office and 2) the events of the last week point to American strength rather than weakness and can certainly be dealt with First take the question of weakness vs strength It is the Lebanese Shiite groups such as Hezbollah and the Organization for the Oppressed on Earth who have been increasingly weakened in the last month The Lebanese civil war has become ever more bitter and hopeless and the death of these groups' "patron saint" the Ayatollah Khomeini knelled slow but certain death for them All the reputable reports are that Iran was cutting way back on supgroups as port for these Khomeini-sponsorea desperate "new" Iran sought economic and military renewal and the Khomeini revolution receded throughout the area The capture of their organizational leader Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid providentially but not accidentally got them back to the center of the board in the international power game For Israel the kidnapping of Obeid served far more than one purpose Certainly part of the reason was to try to force an exchange of prisoners But a far greater reason was to divert attention from any American-pressure"peace process" with the Palestinians and to divert the United States by causing the Shiites to assault Americans and thus American pride It is a transparent tactic the Israelis have used over and over What is going on in the Middle East then is a most clever trick with mirrors in terms of power switching The United States is strong both the Lebanese Shiites (militarily and economically) and the Israelis (economically and politically) are at dangerously weak points in their history The ominous and nasty "play" over American hostages renewed once again allows both of the weak players to manipulate Washington to force President Bush to run back to Washington in anguish to call together the most powerful men in the land and to completely wipe off the political slate any such undesirable (to both sides) American yammering about "peace" A few people are onto the game Perhaps Robert E Hunter director of European Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies here put it best in an insightful article in the Los Angeles Times: "In the last few days patterns of behavior in the Middle East have reasserted themselves like some earthly version of celestial mechanics with each entity moving in assigned and predictable ways" Once the United States from the beginning of President Bush's term quite correctly and prudently began to try to force some justice between Israel and the Palestinians some such move was inevitable Because as Hunter so correctly said "every 'ffort to move toward peace also stimulates those who prefer the status quo because they either profit from turmoil or fear the future" If these cycles of terrorism are quite predictable (instead of wildly unpredictable as we think) if they are rational (instead of fanatically irrational as we think) and if the terrorists have clear intentions about how to influence our behavior (instead of these actions being some pathological expression of their character as we think) then our responses should be quite different from what they are No one is going to say that US is easy But President Bush does not have as the White !louse keeps saying "limited options": he has complex options Basically if at the beginning of his presidency the president had given a speech saying that we understand these cycles in the Middle East and will not be used by them we might very well not have had still another "ter rorism crisis" If the administration will even now delineate an American poliey based not on the pressures of other countries nor on the emotionalism of the moment but on the interests of both America and the Middle East in the long run we could surely d d long-standin- g policy-makin- long-rang- rulings s can understand why Bush and Thornburgh are red faced over having their guy turned down iiut anybody who followed Lucas' bumbling testimony would find their reactions well bizarre Bluntly Lucas was a decent sour-grape- vote the thumbs-dowblocked Lucas by t was a stinging rebuff to George Bush and embarrassment to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh A furious Bush echoing his frustration when John Tower had been turned dun called the Lucas defeat "pure partisan poli7-- 7 flat-ou- tics- aide insinuating Democrats punished Lucas in spite because he had switched parties called the vote "a chPap shot Thornbtirgh who had his prestige on the — p dunce Sure Lucas had a terrific resume Sheriff cowl executivc Of Wayne County Mich candidate for go ernor But under grilling by the Senate committee he seemed dimmer than any firS1 var law school grad lie was baffled by sm h basics as "de jure' and "de facto' segreation At one point Lucas said m pw to the law blankly I can only u mise that Bush Thornburgh and eOnsCr Republicans wanted a civil right ad voi it too paisively incompetent to a replay of hUlls Silent Sam rock the V :4 It ' lt 'fis 4 7" ' ' - T t )4 Al 04 fiT -- '1 ' ' '''V ti ' :' '111-- 001 ' ilt:tedkiZ - ' ''' ' ill A - d' ' 'ci ' il P A' 4 111- itOli e- 71)'r 14'11110°9 il! ii' lot : 4 r 401P '54'1011 ' Yvvirtt1' t ' e 'P k ''- 10- 41 t 'PI ' 4 0 - ) :115 110 No e ' '1 ii - 1 4 44311111171 1 1 'ss - "-- ( --- ' tt 24 iito EA I is" K) C7 : rtt' 1: ' i r f 1 PN‘ 41 14 4 toi 49 '14:1 4 t - :17: ‘b '') 11 7 - ' iii -- -' 0 rV L Jk t 11''' 5p V s 044 11 1'd 4 - 5- Aty '4il144111)' els i 0 44111 " st ) 4:: : '- 4 it y 4 0t 'f ''401' ' :7 ' --- l i4 ' ------ i i r! I 41yl 10 t 1 i 1 "gl ' I? - - 1 40 JO " t I 1g ik 4o 11 t ------ J4 4114 ifi ' '' tr14 a 14: Al i 11 rd4 t: A :to v! Ls : 04 is” 1 v - ‘41 ' i 'elill 4 1' I 0 Pl' f ' ''1- r 11 gt ) ' i fr t 1y 1ti flf-'- - ei 41yr1:':iit'44)'141141 j 0 1011itSAArtiquisit-'Chkateir AN Cr411 &of-Thr- ift Reducing the Capital Gains rfac Would Stimulate Solid Growth New York Times Service WASHINGTON — We may be on the verge of a capital Capitol gain A good Bush tax idea is taking root in Congress and may blossom into a better deal than the original under Gramm-RudmaBipartisan budgeteers discipline agreed months ago that the taxpayers would have to ante up five billion To raise this money Bush proposed to reduce the capital gains tax carrying out one of the few specific promises in his campaign This is classic supply-sid- e theory — reduce a rate to stimulate growth and generate more revenues — that liberal Democrats have been derogating as smoke and mirrors through our longest sustained boom In this case however Democrats realize that as people whose capital has grown act to take advantage of the break a cut in the capital gains rate from the present 28 percent to 20 percent will indeed raise revenues in the next couple of years The drawback liberal theorists warn is in the "out" years when richies playing the market would most benefit But Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois no longer has tight control of the House Ways and Means Committee A group of six Democrats likes the idea of painlessly raising the $5 billion limiting the capital gains reduction to individuals and not corporations and festooning it with tax incene tives to housing and historic preservation All the committee Republicans long Rosty ago turned off by the are eager to go along with the mavericks Speaker Tom Foley is horrified at this end run Ile saw the Bush capital gains reduction as an offer to deal: If the Demos agreed to reduce capital gains the GOP would accept a "user fee" increase in some other area and Bush could say the package kept the promise read on his lips But the maverick move would lose the Democratic leverage for a tax n hard-chargin- g er A 1 g- 1 - 1 t Ilk 1 - - g ': - I 44' " -- - 4 - Ighb 1' 14J igi '-- — re' e ef )an Rostenkowski Pierce Biden said it openly: Bdl Lucas adds up to a perfect foil Why not pick a decent honorable black man who's had a successful career who demonstrates he knows absolutely nothing about the law and make him head of the civil rights division? That's cynicism In the face of Lucas' blatant ineptitude it was wondrous to hear Strom Thurmond unloading a lecture on racism "Ile's- a minority yes Minorities deserve a said Thurmond "Turn him down because he's black? That's the word that will go out to other coLintries This was a marvelous harangue from a man who ran for president as the Dixtecrat (ie anti-civrights) candidate and s‘vitched philosophies only after he needed South Carolina black votes to keep his Senate seat Thurmond wasn't alone in racial sermoniisaid If he ing Sen Chuck Grass ley Lucasl were a white Republican he'd sail through the committee More bitingly Sen Alan Simpson charged: —1 his is chance- a I r 1 1 William Safire t‘syr o 1 To stop the stampede the speaker and the chagrined Rosty are offering a compromise to the White House: indexation of capital gains subtracting the tax from the rise IA valndue to inflation which has always be'en'turtfav So the House will pass either a capital gains reduction or an indexation The question is: then what? Where will this go in the Senate? The key man on Lloyd Bentsen's Finance Committee is ranking Republican Sen Bob Packwood of Oregon He has "misgivings" about tampering with the tax reform of 1986 The limitation in the Democratic bill which wCould zap Oregon timber companies will not fly But he tells me he looks kindly on tht indexation of capital gains taxation ' which " would remove a gross inequity ("Gross is a good name for a venture capital Meg-tithes- firm) Here's what to watch for: lengthy Senate hearings on this capital gains proposal including the House bill the original Bush clean-cu- t proposal and the indexation compromise being pushed by Foley And therein lies the potential opening for a major improvement in the relation of evernment to business In Senate hearings on the capital gains proposal expect a sensible refinement of the idea: a larger tax on gains taken within six months progressively lower rates as the ytars go by no tax at all after five years In that way excessive speculation 'would no longer be encouraged Instead long-terI investment would be rewarded That would take the pressure off eotipanies to show quick quarterly profits- attlhe expense of solid long-tergrowth Ituiduld help US companies invest in reseantir to compete in the world market Hearings on capital gains would Sorely lead to wider debate about our cooent wrongheaded corporate tax policy Today's tax law encourages Gross 1oequities Inc to take on junk debt for takeoveo by making its interest expense deductibleThe outmoded law also discourages stable equity investment by doubly taxing dividends:1' This sort of economics has been rpaliçing possible the construction of huge boti're of cards Wall Street wheeler-dealer- s fear that the coming capital gains debate will open a:Pandora's box They forget that amid all the evils in the mythic box was one overriding good: hope We can hope that capital gains reduction is passed in the house We can hope that the coming hearingt in Senate Finance will address the wider Assue We can hope the debate awakens cans to the need for a new impetus for investment Over speculation and for equity over debt in the way we do business '411 At Cheap Shots Race-Baitin- g I Grady 1 '' 9 ! 44 1116"-'- t I P I if ‘ titil ‘ i tks st 1s rit ' i: A world? civil-right- I 7 tt R411 '4' 11' 1 1' :4 - c Iran-Contr- a - A Bush V g ' "r I d line said it was 'bizarre- that Democrats had set up a litmus test- - — rejecting Lucas because he wouldn't criticize Supreme Court Knight-Ridde- r 1 ki 1441-20-4-1)t- t to honey— Ap ri:: I 1 me) I'm home Is t der federal standards ' ? IN Nncy Ilk I:)P 1 — :o Universal Press Syndicate 8th Amendment which prohibits the government from imposing excessive fines The US Supreme Court rejected that argument in June The second strategy asserts that excessive damages awarded by juries in the absence of adequate legal standards violate the 14th Amendment which prohibits states from depriving a person of property without due process of law A majority of the Supreme Court's justices indicated in June that they might look favorably on such an argument if the opportunity arises Though this possibility offers hope state legislatures also are seeking solutions Earlier this year the Utah Legislature enacted a new chapter of the state's judicial code that applies tighter standards to many punitive damages cases The new law provides that punitive damages may be awarded only if compensatory or general damages are awarded Clear and convincing evidence must establish that a plaintiff was injured as a result of willful and malicious or intentional fraud or knowing and reckless indifference or disregard of the rights of others Evidence of a defendant's financial condition is admissible only after a finding of liability for punitive damages has been made What's more in cases where punitive damages are awarded and paid 50 percent of the amount in excess of $20000 after payment of attorneys' fees and costs becomes the property of the state Punitive damages may not be awarded if a drug that caused the claimant's harm has received federal approval and is recognized as safe and effective un- e: 11 A Georgie Anne Geyer Lucas Backers Should Lay Off Newspapers WASHINGTON — Even in this surreal city where overheated blather fills the air every day its rare when members of the senatorial club blast each another as racists But the defeat of a black man named Witham Lucas the Bush administration's choice as Justice Department civil rights enforcer has become a dizzying hall of mirrors I never thought we'd hear Sen Strom once the symbol of Dixie Thurmond segregationists heckle fellow senators as racists "Give this black man a chance drawled Thurmond And I rieVer thought I'd hear Sen Joe Biden a liberal publicly accused of racism But the battle over Bill Lucas to be assis tant attorney general for civil rights became an chimera that turned i - Morbid Privacy Invasion It's definitely repulsive to deliber 4 :: : Limits On Punitive Damages Will Add Needed Correction 4A'Pr I 1 tee- Page 10 I e J 4 - Section A v - 1 i !!: -P'': f ill ' ' I - r°' stuff It's racism in reverse" Hnunm Does that make Jesse Jacks On who opposed the Lucas nomination a raCist? Does the racist lineup include Rep JohnCIOnyers black Michigan Democrat who dropped support for Lucas? Does it include NAACP director Benjamin Hooks who was "puwled why Attorney General Thornburgh persisled in pushing this nomination"? The daffy incongruity struck Bider' who marveled that "those of us identified with promoting the interests of blacks are in the position of racists" In truth seven senators said in plain English why they nixed Lucas — not because :he was black or white but because he was unqualified a good man in over his head Lucas embittered supporters should lay off the cheap shots There Most be 100 or 1000 candidates if Bush and Tik(frnbuigh seek a knowledgeable aggressiveWick lawyer to pursue civil rights or is that what they really want? race-baitin- 1! t "