I don't want to short change you from the drama Grisham includes. Please be sure that if you choose to read this book, I've left out a pretty hefty amount of colorful drama from my posts. To pick up where we left off, Krane has decided to put all their hope in Ron Fisk, a well-to-do Christian conservative, in a state supreme court election against a more liberal incumbent. The strategy here is to employ a more conservative court. There are 9 justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court and 4 are fairly conservative and 4 are fairly liberal. How does this relate to Krane Chemical's $41 million appeal? Conservative supreme court opinions tend to favor big business. In other words, is Krane TRULY liable for these cancer-related deaths? And if they are, isn't $41 million a bit excessive? After all, they DO have a company to run! The rationale here is that liberals say HECK YEA they are liable and conservatives favor limited to no liability with much less financial penalty. All in all, Fisk on the Supreme Court would likely mean more conservative verdicts. Thus, when the Krane case hits the Supreme Court docket, they'll likely get the lower courts judgment for $41 million reversed. That's Mr. Trudeau's hope anyway.
The campaign proceeds and it gets down right nasty. There are all sorts of slanderous attack ads being generated by Fisk's campaign manager. Keep in mind Fisk is truly a stand up guy. He truly does want to run a clean campaign. However, the folks that have "recruited" him to run have other ideas in mind. They are spending millions upon millions on direct mail advertisements, TV ads, et cetera to dirty the incumbent's name. They even strategically create drama! You'll have to read yourself to hear about some of their tactics. It really makes you wonder if this really happens during elections. Crazy!
Okay, fast forward to the height of the election campaign, Fisk wins! Isn't that a surprise?! Remember he has no clue WHY he's been "recruited" to do this as no one has brought up the upcoming Krane appeal to him. As a Supreme Court Justice, Fisk votes on a few big business cases and he consistently affirms limited liability. True to his political platform, he votes conservatively. Krane's case is coming up on the docket soon and it looks promising.
In Fisk's spare time, he coaches his son's baseball team. This most recent game was quite tragic. His son was hit in the temple with a fastball. Severe damage was done to his son's brain and motor functions. In the midst of seeking medical attention, a doctor made a silly mistake that cost his son a large percentage of his motor functions. Fisk is outraged. His friends and family say SUE SUE SUE! But, of course...being the big business person he is, this would seem highly contradictory. Fisk begins to do a little soul searching and learns that his position on the issues may be changing, now that his family has been personally and wrongly affected by big business. Hmmmm.
Krane case vote comes up. It's dead locked, 4 to 4. Do we affirm the $41 million settlement and make Krane pay? This would of course open the fence for anyone with cancer in cancer county to file a case and expect a large verdict. Or, do we return the verdict and render it excessive? Before Fisk's son was ever hurt, it was a "no-brainer" for him. Limit liability! Krane should NOT pay. But, now his feelings are involved. His child is involved. What does he do? As he sits in the hospital room near his son in ICU, he writes his judicial opinion to render the verdict excessive. He caves. I'm very surprised this was the path Grisham wanted Fisk to take. I was certain that he'd change his mind after the incident with his son. I'm a little dissatisfied with the ending. The final chapter returns to Mr.Trudeau, CEO of Krane, during a dinner on his $75 million yacht, a recent purchase in celebration of his victory in the appellate courts.
As I close the book, I can't help but wonder...does this really happen? Where do I stand on these issues? How did politics get so dirty?
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