Mrs. Roxanne Gourneau of Wolf Point, MT has hired Billings attorney Solomon Neuhardt to represent her in a wrongful death lawsuit against the Wolf Point School Board, the State of Montana and Henry Hamill, the District Superintendent. The complaint alleges that these defendants contributed to the suicide death of 17 year-old Dalton Gourneau, on November 23rd, 2010.

Dalton, a student at Wolf Point High School, was a member of the wrestling team. After being accused of having chewing tobacco on his person, the young man was told he would not be allowed to participate in athletic events for 60 days. In this period, Wolf Point would be competing in state level events.

Personal injury lawyers have a sense of humor after all

The practice of personal injury law is often a deadly serious business. Huge sums, reputations, freedom and even lives may be on the line. But in the midst of all the sober decision making, and perhaps partly because of the stress it entails, there is a relief valve – the unexpected humorous twist. The funny stuff isn’t gallows humor at all; rather it’s the type of unthinking errors we all make under pressure.

The material below was collected from sources on the Internet that weren’t cited. Snopes was unable to confirm the origins. They are purported to come from actual court transcripts, but they’ve been passed around enough that there is now no way to tell for sure. However, any lawyer can tell you they ring true.

She’s the heiress of two fortunes. On her father’s side, the Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos. And her mother is the daughter of Henry Ford II (the grandson of the Ford Motor Company founder).  She’s the first female family member to work as an executive for the company. And now, Elena Ford has been arrested for drunk driving.

There’s a Ford mansion on Jefferson Avenue, on Lake St. Claire, down the road from the yacht club. In exclusive Grosse Pointe Shores, the mansions are on the water, but set back from the road with main houses, separate garage houses and more buildings for caretakers. This is old money in an area developed when it was far enough from Detroit to avoid seeing any of the urban blight. It still is, but just barely. And here is where the royalty lives.

Mrs. Ford was arrested while driving in Ferndale, a suburb not far from Grosse Pointe. According to reports, she had her 11-year old daughter in her company-provided Ford Explorer. The vehicle was spotted by police running up onto the median and off again. When she failed field sobriety tests and blew a 0.14 on the breathalyzer, Mrs. Ford was charged with DUI and child endangerment.

It’s called unintended consequences or collateral damage, and it often happens when radically new law is passed. It’s happening now as States with medical marijuana laws on the books run into untested areas. Montana is no exception and our courts will continue to see cases where the law isn’t settled.

One such was a ruling was the 2009 case where an employee was fired because of a positive test for marijuana and a valid prescription was no protection (Montana Supreme Court ruling, Johnson v. Columbia Falls Aluminum) – the normal protections from federal labor laws didn’t apply because marijuana use is still illegal under those statutes.

Another was a case from a year before where a person, not yet on the medical marijuana program, was busted for growing pot, pleaded guilty and as part of their probation was enjoined to “obey all state and federal drug laws.” They subsequently enrolled in the program (because of degenerative disc disease) and accepted. The Montana Supreme Court found that in that case, the condition that they obey federal law (marijuana illegal) was trumped by state provisions (marijuana legal).