Two more examples of our "It ain't my fault!" society.

[revwardoc]

http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=106070

Fake Saudi Princess Countersues AmEx

NEW YORK - A woman who was sued by American Express over an alleged scam where she posed as a Saudi princess to steal thousands has countersued the company, saying she was mentally incompetent when she opened her account and the company should have known it.

The countersuit was filed by Antoinette Millard, 40, free on $100,000 bail and awaiting trial on attempted grand larceny charges for alleged scams carried out while she posed as a Saudi Arabian princess and a Victoria's Secret model. She was neither.

Millard, a former vice president at the Brown Brothers Harriman investment bank, countersued for $2 million in Manhattan's State Supreme Court after Amex obtained a court order of attachment freezing more than $951,000 of her assets for unpaid charges.

Millard's court papers say that to "induce" her to establish a Centurion account, the account through which Amex customers get the rare and envied Centurion "black" card, the company promised she could make flexible payments.

The court papers say the promise was "false and fraudulent" and "in truth and in fact (American Express) did not allow (Millard) to make flexible payments" on the account.

Millard, her lawsuit says, "was suffering from anorexia, depression, panic attacks, head tumors and by reason of such illnesses was mentally incompetent and unable of executing or making any agreement as alleged" in Amex's complaint.

American Express "knew or should have known that (Millard) was acting impulsively and and irrationally at the time she entered into contract," her court papers say.

The larceny charges against Millard stem from her allegedly trying to steal $262,000 from an insurance company by falsely reporting that her jewelry had been stolen, the Manhattan district attorney's office said.

Prosecutors alleged that Millard, arrested in May at her Manhattan home, had in fact sold the jewelry and then tried to collect insurance on it. She is charged with insurance fraud, attempted grand larceny and possession of a forged instrument.

Millard faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the insurance fraud charge, the top count.

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http://www.tennessean.com/local/arch...nt_ID=61998012

Donor sues Red Cross, blaming it for crash

Franklin driver blacked out after giving blood

A Franklin blood donor, who blames her car crash on post-donation wooziness, is suing the Red Cross, alleging negligence in allowing her to leave too soon after giving blood.

Mae Rambo crashed into a tree about a mile away from a Red Cross bloodmobile. She claims that inattentive practitioners were negligent in allowing her to leave within five minutes of having her blood drawn.

The Red Cross counters that Rambo's blood donation went smoothly, that staffers advised her about what to do if she later felt faint, and that she was instructed to stay at the donation center for at least 10 minutes after giving blood.

The blood donation and the crash occurred Sept. 1, 2003, according to federal court documents.

Rambo contends in her lawsuit that the practitioners who took her blood were distracted:

''They engaged in continuous banter amongst themselves about the upcoming holiday weekend and what they would do during the respite and other matters of a personal nature,'' according to a case-management order that summarizes the status of Rambo's suit.

She got some cookies, a Sprite and a T-shirt. She says that she was told to go home no more than five minutes after her noneventful blood donation.

''The plaintiff left the blood-gathering station, walking into the hot afternoon,'' Rambo's attorney, Norman E. Solomon, wrote in court documents.

About a mile away, she blacked out without warning, Solomon continued.

''Her vehicle, now resultantly 'pilotless,' ran off the roadway and headlong into a tree.'' The car was demolished, and Rambo says she suffered serious injuries to her wrist and knee.

The Red Cross tells a different story:

She was screened before the donation. Her red-blood count was taken, as were her temperature, blood pressure, pulse and weight. Her donation lasted nine minutes.

''Following her donation, the plaintiff was instructed to proceed to the canteen for food and drink and asked to stay there for at least 10 minutes,'' reads the account of Thomas M. Donnell Jr., the Red Cross' attorney in the case. The defendants say there was a bed on the Red Cross bus in case she needed more time to recover.

No one saw any evidence of a bad reaction to the donation or symptoms of lightheadedness, ''and she stated that she felt okay when she departed,'' court records state. The Red Cross says that Rambo was given instructions about what to do if she started feeling faint.

''At some point within the hour after her donation, the plaintiff felt 'woozy' while driving. Rather than immediately pulling over, however, she continued on and at some point 'blacked out,' '' Donnell writes.

The crash was Rambo's fault, the Red Cross maintains.

The agency contends that it did everything it reasonably could to ensure that Rambo left feeling well and capable of driving safely.

The case has been set for trial in December 2005 before U.S. District Judge Robert Echols.