Well, ScienceBlogs is recovering from a system-wide crash, so some of your comments were lost and some of my colleagues' entries were lost, too. (I lucked out, because one of my entries published itself six times, instead of being lost). Sorry about that, but you'll be pleased to know that we all complained loudly about the situation behind the scenes.
So on to the court date story. I went to court yesterday evening as scheduled and sat on the bench, sweating, despite the fact that the courtroom was air conditioned to the point where it was as cold as a refrigerator. Anyway, after the first roll call, I discovered that the person who was suing me had not arrived yet. This meant that our case was placed at the end of the queue for the evening. At that point, I hardly dared to breathe, hardly dared to believe that maybe .. she wouldn't show up?? Would that be possible? Could that be possible?
It was not only possible, but that is exactly what happened. Because the person who was suing me didn't show up by the second roll call, I was excused and the case was dismissed. YEAH! I won! As I was leaving, I learned from a lawyer who walked to the elevator with me that the case could be recalled if the complainant had a good reason for not showing up -- and also a good case. I asked if a good reason for missing court was something like being run over by a cab, and the lawyer looked at me and smirked. "Well, constipation has worked in the past," he said.
Okay, so chances are excellent that this is the last I will hear about this situation, because even if the person suing me has a good reason for missing her court date, she does not have a good case.
At this point I am very relieved, although I think she and I are "even" in a cosmic sense. After all, one of my parrots did die while under her care and "replacing" (as if!) this parrot is nearly impossible because he was quite rare. Not only that but she did call me several times daily to harass me for a month after I first got out of the hospital, and she was incredibly rude and aggressive to me on the phone on several occasions. Then she dragged me into court to sue me, which was really stressful each time, and then didn't bother to show up at all for the second court date.
And the entire time I sat in court last night, all I could think about was how I want another parrot. Ah well.
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Makes me almost want to believe in karma.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma
But seriously, all that non-thermal sweating is to provide subsrate to the biofilm of autotrophic ammonia oxidizing bacteria that you (probably don't) have to upregulate your NOx status in anticipation of doing battle.
This woman sounds like a real piece of work.
The fact that she can put you through this for such ridiculous reasons, especially after she was incompetent at the job she was supposed to be doing, is one small part of the reason that I think that civil law in this country is horribly, horribly broken.
-Rob
You have to admit, there's something weirdly hilarious about someone who would attempt to sue you, and then not show for the court date (assuming there was not an accident, of course).
I think she knew she didn't have a case and made GrrlScientist jump through hoops just for spite.
Congrats! I'm glad to hear your ordeal is over.
The fact that she did not show up is not too surprising. Very often when people threaten to sue you they really don't want to sue and will not back up their threats. Its an attempt to intimidate someone into settling out of court.
I'm glad you called her bluff. I suppose she might re-open this case, but I think its unlikely. Relax and enjoy your victory and the peace of mind that comes with it.
Phew. Good to hear this is sorted out. Now you can concentrate on learning about server maintenance.
Bob
Frankly, given that she killed GrrlScientist's parrot who she was supposed to be caring for and then had the jawdropping nerve to not just demand, but SUE FOR, wages she was never promised, I'm not sure it wouldn't be hilarious if she DID get in an accident (see comments about karma above).
I'm ashamed to say I only today went back and read through the entire saga. Wow...you've been through quite a bit, haven't you.....
Given that, according to what you wrote, she agreed to care for your birds, but you returned to find one (at least? Were there more?) of them dead, and the place absolutely filthy and full of vermin, you could (if youb really wanted to...) countersue her for the loss of your valuable bird and the pain and trauma that it caused you.
Aside from that observation, I would note that you are obviously a lot tougher than you give yourself credit for, seeing how far you have made it without proper support of any kind, and with your own body trying its damnedest to sabotage your coping skills.
And I am just so, so sorry about your poor birds. I hope all goes well from now on.
If anything like that ever happens again, or if you ever think it might, email me -- I'm at accademia_dei_lincei "at" yahoo.co.uk. Me being in Scotland, I'm not able to help you myslef, but I have three very nice cousins in New York City, and I'm perfectly willing to see if I can impose on them on your behalf.
I obviously have no ability to spell tonight, either. :-/
Hopefully it is now over.
You handled it a lot better than I would have.
One wonders what the spiteful one was thinking; she must have realised she didn't have a case.
Congratulations! As I and others have commented in the past, their suit was hopeless to begin with; I agree that it was probably a nuisance filing. If you want to sink a bit of effort into (maybe) squelching her bullying, you might try to look up (in court records) all the times she's done this, and forward the list to some appropriate authority (AG's office? public defender?)
Thank goodness. I'm so glad to hear that is over, and you made it through in one piece.