Foolish Cat January 17th, 2008

Some guy named Jeb Corliss was on The Today Show today talking about his $30 million law suit against The Empire State Building for detaining him at the top of the building after he had already made it to the other side of the security fence from where he was going to jump, albeit with a parachute. Watch the footage here. It’s kind of funny.

Apparently, Jeb is a famous BASE jumper - an acronym that stands for Bridge, Antenna, Span, Earth (seems kind of forced - where does “Building” come in?) - and he was using the ESB for his latest stunt. He was charged with reckless endangerment, a felony, but beat the rap because, apparently, there is no law against jumping off of buildings in New York.

Next, he was sued by the Empire State Building for endangering the other visitors at the building; this suit was subsequently thrown out by the judge.

Well, ole Jeb is fighting back: he’s now suing the New York building for thirty million dollars worth of “severe emotional distress” because his life was in danger when security grabbed him (apparently jumping off of high structures doesn’t endanger his life).

The whole thing is kind of goofy and why would we expect anything other than a litigious mess? What astonished me about the story was not any of that.

What astonished me was that there is no law against jumping off buildings in New York!

Or is there?

Evidently (after doing some light research on ridiculous laws), there is an antiquated New York law that says the penalty for jumping off a building is death!

Several websites refer to the laughable law, but it’s hard to verify if it is, indeed, still on the books. If it is, then that judge blew it!

What an opportunity to invoke the power of the Law against those that really should have it handed to them. Now, since Jeb didn’t actually jump, I wouldn’t think he could be executed, per se; however, forcing him to reenact his stunt, sans parachute, would seem to be an acceptable compromise.

Ah, missed opportunities.

Blunder on, fools!

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