Rachel Corrie was a misguided activist who thought that she could bring peace to the world by standing in front of a Israel Defense Forces bulldozer. It goes without saying that Ms. Corrie could have done more for world peace trying to stop suicide bombers and terrorists and her death should have been the sad ending to an unnecessary story. Not surprisingly, Ms. Corrie has become a martyr to Palestinians and their supporters. What is surprising however is that in addition to martyrdom, Ms. Corrie is at the center of a U.S. lawsuit against Caterpillar, Inc.

Common sense would dictate that it is not wise to purposely stand in front of a moving bulldozer and that in a battle between a bulldozer and a person, the person will always lose. But there is very little common sense in this case. The plaintiffs and their attorneys are going after Caterpillar because they built the bulldozer was used by the Israelis and that its use was in a violation of International Law. (It goes without saying that Caterpillar is also being targeted because its a deep pocket.)

Despite the fact that there are over 2 million Caterpillar machines out in the world, the plaintiffs argue that the company should be policing how they are used. I could go on and on with the flaws in this thinking but suffice to say a lot of time and money is going to be wasted on this before it’s through.

To protect itself in the future from similar liability, perhaps Caterpillar should put the following in large letters on the front of each bulldozer “do not stand in front of moving bulldozer” or possibly “this machine is not to be used to commit war crimes and failure to adhere will result in the voiding of manufacturer’s warranty.”

This entry was posted on Monday, March 21st, 2005 at 4:05 pm by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable, How Not To Succeed In Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.