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Conference hydra::dejavu

Title:Psychic Phenomena
Notice:Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing
Moderator:JARETH::PAINTER
Created:Wed Jan 22 1986
Last Modified:Tue May 27 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2143
Total number of notes:41773

102.0. "Courts" by PEN::KALLIS () Mon Mar 31 1986 20:48

    According to a United Press International story appearing in the
    29 March issue of _The Boston Globe_, a woman, Judith Richardson
    Haimes, successfully sued Temple University Hospital foir loss of
    her psychic powers.  She claimed that a CAT scan she had in order
    to locate recurring brain tumors resulted in the loss of her powers
    by causing her to have massive headaches, accoirding to the story.
     The story claimed that the judge had ordered the jury to disregard
    her claim of losing psychic powers, and concentrate only on the
    allergenic reaction she apparently had to the dye.  However, whether
    the jury heard the judge and disregarded it or didn't hear the
    insdtructions, it awarded the "psychic" $1 million.
    
    Two points here:
    
    Apparently she asked for the scan.  And the judge indicated she
    had failed to prove her case.
    
    If she was genuine (and there was no report of substantiating evidence
    in the trial), shouldn't she have _known_ what the CAT scan procedure
    would do? :-)
    
    Anyway, what other choices did the doctors have?
    
    A jury of her peers would also have been psychics.  the mind boggles!
    
    :-)
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    
    P.S.:  If you think I don't take her claim seriously, well, maybe
    you're psychic!
    
    -SK
    
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102.1EVER11::EKLOFThere's no government like anarchy!Mon Mar 31 1986 20:5645
	Here's the story according to VTX...

Associated Press Fri 28-MAR-1986 08:37                           Psychic Suit

Woman Awarded $1 Million In Lawsuit Over Impaired Psychic Powers

   PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A woman who claimed a CAT scan she received
at a hospital in 1976 made her unable to use her psychic powers has
been awarded $988,000 by a jury.
   The eight-member Common Pleas Court jury deliberated about 45
minutes Thursday before awarding Judith Richardson Haimes $600,000
plus $388,000 in interest on her malpractice claim against Temple
University Hospital.
   Ms. Haimes, 42, contended an allergic reaction to a dye injected
during the exam gave her severe, recurring headaches that forced
her to give up her practice in New Castle, Del., two months later.
   Before the test, she said, she was able to read auras, conduct
seances, observe the past and the future and help police solve
crimes.
   Judge Leon Katz had instructed the jury not to consider Haimes'
assertion about her psychic powers and her loss of business in
weighing the suit.
   Instead, he told jurors that if they found the hospital
negligent in giving the CAT scan, they should consider only the
damages related to the immediate allergic reaction, which included
nausea, welts and hives.
   After the verdict, hospital attorney Richard R. Galli argued
that the jury had disregarded the judge's instructions and asked
Katz to set aside the verdict. The judge gave him 10 days to submit
written arguments.
   Ms. Haimes' attorney, Joel M. Lieberman said the jury ``was
intelligent enough to understand the judge's instructions, and I
think they followed them.''
   ``What was done to this lady was an outrage,'' he said. ``I
personally think that there is a guideline every jury follows:
Consider what would they pay not to go through the same experience
for one minute.''
   Ms. Haimes, who underwent the CAT scan as part of a search for
the cause of recurring tumors, had introduced testimony from three
law-enforcement officers who said she had helped them solve crimes
with her psychic powers.
   A CAT scan is a sophisticated form of X-ray that enables doctors
to see cross sections of the body.