Weird Lawsuit: Attack of the 600-pound Crucifix

November 7th, 2012. By AbiK

One thing’s clear in this bad faith lawsuit: the plaintiff hasn’t lost his faith in our justice system. Whether he’s lost any faith otherwise, who knows—but David Jimenez is suing St. Patrick’s Church in Newburgh, NY after the church’s exterior crucifix fell on him, crushing his leg, and resulted in an amputation.

Huh?

Well, you need the back story on this one to fully understand it, so here we go.

Jimenez’ wife had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Being a religious man, Jimenez would stop by St. Patrick’s Church and pray in front of the crucifix for his wife to be cured. She ultimately was—and Jimenez felt indebted to the crucifix (and one would assume to God, himself) for his wife’s recovery.

According to CBSNews, Jimenez’ attorney Kevin Kitson stated, “David attributed the cure to his devotion to that cross.”

So, to show his heartfelt gratitude, Jimenez got permission to clean the crucifix, which was apparently in need of a good once-over. So far, so good.

Things unfortunately went south from there. Jimenez began to clean the cross—but it dislodged causing him to fall to the ground, with the cross crushing his right leg.

The alleged culprit? A screw. There was allegedly one screw holding the 600 lb. statue at its base. “The screw was useless. The screw is useless. It supported no anchoring system,” Kitson said in the CBS report.

The report goes on to say that St. Patrick’s Church parishioners collected $7,000 and food for the Jimenez family. But apparently, the insurance company for the archdiocese hasn’t shown the same generosity of spirit.

So what started as a heart-warming story of faith and devotion has now become a heart-wrenching bad faith insurance lawsuit.

The falling crucifix lawsuit is headed to trial, and jury selection was set to begin today.

Tags: Bad Faith Insurance, Bad Faith Lawsuit, Church Lawsuit, Crucifix, David Jimenez, Kevin Kitson, Newburgh NY, St. Patricks Church

This was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2012 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Accidents, lawsuits, Personal Injury . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.