I came across this story on CNN.com and found it fascinating. A widow is suing a debt collector for the wrongful death of her husband. The lawsuit alleges that the frequent harassing and threatening phone calls caused so much stress to her husband that it eventually led to his fatal heart attack.
I was unable to embed the video in this post, but it is truly worth watching. The widow saved several of the messages from the debt collector and the tactics used are disgusting and illegal. I hope that States follow through and prosecute debt collectors who use these “thuggish” methods of collection.
That said, I suspect this will be a nearly impossible case to win. The story reports that the deceased was already collecting disability for a prior heart attack. Therefore, it will be very difficult to causally relate a second fatal heart attack to the harassing phone calls. The defense will likely be successful in arguing that the second heart attack was inevitable.
Nevertheless, I give the widow credit and wish her the best of luck in her wrongful death lawsuit. It is embarrassing to think that a sick and dying man was treated with so much disrespect in the final months of his life.