HUGE victory against the worst society has to offer....

[jks]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16211694/

CHICAGO - A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected most claims by slave descendants that they deserve reparations from some of the nation's biggest insurers, banks and transportation companies.

The three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that slave descendants have no standing to sue for reparations based on injustices suffered by ancestors and that the statute of limitations ran out more than a century ago.

But the panel did keep alive a smaller portion of the suit, claiming that major U.S. corporations may be guilty of consumer fraud if they hid past ties to slavery from their customers.

The opinion, written by Judge Richard A. Posner, said that "statutes of limitations would be toothless" if descendants could collect damages for wrongs against their ancestors.

"A person whose ancestor had been wronged a thousand years ago could sue on the ground that it was a continuing wrong and he is one of the victims," the court said. It said statutes of limitations could be extended in some cases but not for acts committed 100 years ago.

The panel also said the descendants lacked standing to sue because their links to the slaves were distant.

It said the "causal chain is too long and has too many weak links for a court to be able to find that the defendants' conduct harmed the plaintiffs at all, let alone in an amount that could be estimated without the wildest speculation."

10 lawsuits consolidated
The lawsuit was a consolidation of 10 suits filed around the country and moved to Chicago. Slave descendants claim that big American corporations — including such Wall Street giants as JP Morgan Chase & Co., Aetna Inc. and Bank of America — profited from slavery and should pay. It says the companies insured and transported slaves and even issued loans to slaveholders so they could buy slaves.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle Sr. had dismissed all the claims. He found that the descendants lacked standing and that the statute of limitations had expired, and that the issue was political and shouldn't be worked out in a court.

While largely upholding Norgle's decision, the appeals court kept alive the consumer protection claims.

Descendants claim they have been injured by buying products from companies that concealed the fact that they or their predecessor companies somehow benefited from slavery.

In allowing the consumer-protection claims, the appeals court said it knew of no law saying a seller has "a general duty to disclose every discreditable fact about himself." But it added that sellers who misrepresent a product, fearing the loss of buyers who would object to it, are guilty of fraud.

Bruce Afran, an attorney for the descendants, said that "we have a very fair chance of prevailing" on the fraud claims.

He said some banks had filed false information with regulators that could be used as evidence in arguing they were guilty of consumer fraud.

Defense attorney Owen C. Pell did not return a message left at his office. Defense attorney Alan S. Madans declined to comment.

 

[Badger]

This will not end well.

*ducks*

 

[mightiest_mortal]

Jeez... why can't people just leave the past in the past.

What I find bad about this article, isnt that certain companies may have used slaves years and years ago, but its that people are using the hardships and struggles that their ancestors went through just to get a quick easy buck.
A large proportion of our Chocolate is still produced by slaves. If these people are so active against slavery why not put their money into trying to stop that rather than in suing faceless companies, when the people responsible are long dead?

 

[terry78]

Why is this a victory? You're basically saying it's an us vs. them thing. I am black, and while I'm not 100% behind monetary reparations, I do think they should be in the form of improving impoverished communities.

 

[Crowforge]

Oh yeah, Child rapists<reparations.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

"HUGE victory against the worst society has to offer.."


???

 

[Strange]

Why is this a victory? You're basically saying it's an us vs. them thing. I am black, and while I'm not 100% behind monetary reparations, I do think they should be in the form of improving impoverished communities.

What you are saying is very resonable but unfortunately most people only see dollar signs not reason.

 

[Calvin]

"HUGE victory against the worst society has to offer.."


???

That's gotta be the most racist thread title I've ever seen on here.

 

[Addendum]

The huge victory against the worst society has to offer happened in the movie Mars Attacks, when the martians blew up congress

 

[The Avatar]

That's gotta be the most racist thread title I've ever seen on here.

Considering the threadmaker, it was copied word for word from another forum, he likes to do that.

 

[C.F. Kane]

waiting for the thread to close...

 

[Kritish]

Not a single living black person in America has been a slave.

Enough said.

 

[Ben Urich]

People who want reparations are the worst people in society?
What?

 

[Kritish]

Yes the thread maker is probably a racist.

But no black people do not need reparations now, maybe in 1860 or something.

 

[Calvin]

Yes the thread maker is probably a racist.

But no black people do not need reparations now, maybe in 1860 or something.

Yeah, there sure aren't any lingering effects of racism these days, that's just crazy talk...

 

[Kritish]

Yeah, there sure aren't any lingering effects of racism these days, that's just crazy talk...

So we should give every single black person in the U.S.A money?

 

[jks]

Memo to morons posting in thread:

Where was anyone's race ever mentioned by me? No, since some of you people's mental capacity is too limited to even solve blue's clues "the worst society has to offer" refers to people looking for a handout for nothing instead of earning what they get for themselves.

 

[Calvin]

So we should give every single black person in the U.S.A money?

You can give reparations in forms other than pure handouts.

 

[Kritish]

You can give reparations in forms other than pure handouts.

They used the Irish as slaves, I'm Irish.

Do I deserve a reparation?

 

[Calvin]

Memo to morons posting in thread:

Where was anyone's race ever mentioned by me? No, since some of you people's mental capacity is too limited to even solve blue's clues "the worst society has to offer" refers to people looking for a handout for nothing instead of earning what they get for themselves.

You're trying to backpeddle, and I doubt anyone's going to buy it. And even if we did, referring to handout seekers as "the worst society has to offer" is still incredibly stupid.

 

[Calvin]

They used the Irish as slaves, I'm Irish.

Do I deserve a reparation?

Are the irish still suffering from deep-rooted cultural and economical disadvantages due to that? Not really.

 

[Kritish]

Memo to morons posting in thread:

Where was anyone's race ever mentioned by me? No, since some of you people's mental capacity is too limited to even solve blue's clues "the worst society has to offer" refers to people looking for a handout for nothing instead of earning what they get for themselves.

For your information I solved Blue's clues at 23.

 

[Kritish]

Are the irish still suffering from deep-rooted cultural and economical disadvantages due to that? Not really.

Who get's to decide what's a cultural disadvantage?
Last time I checked there was plenty of black people that have quite a bit of money. Your defense would have been a good one in 1960, we might not be perfect but we have evolved a little bit since then.

 

[jks]

You're trying to backpeddle, and I doubt anyone's going to buy it.

No, I just [mistakenly, obviously] assumed most people on here weren't too inbred to grasp the concept of up and down. It's not my fault people arent very intelligent

And even if we did, referring to handout seekers as "the worst society has to offer" is still incredibly stupid.

In reality, it's not. How much of our tax money goes into the welfare system to suport people who are abusing it? Wether it be the black single mother who spits out 12 kids to collect mre and more for each kid or the lazy white redneck too lazy to get off his ass and get a job. Where do you think these corporations were gonna get the money from to pay these people? That's right, us, by raising the costs of whatever product they are distributing.

 

[Calvin]

Who get's to decide what's a cultural disadvantage?
Last time I checked there was plenty of black people that have quite a bit of money. Your defense would have been a good one in 1960, we might not be perfect but we have evolved a little bit since then.

Quite a bit of black people having a lot of money is your argument? What the hell? That's a pretty poor indication of what the overall situation is. We've evolved a little bit, sure, but in no way is everything Even Steven already. There are still lasting effects of the ghettoization that went on in the not too recent past. Walk around any big city and you'll see at least that much.