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Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

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Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#11

Post by avgDev »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #7
ergocoder wrote: post #3

Paying fine doesn't seem enough. Someone needs to go to jail.

I hate this ridiculously unfair double standard. If someone costs a company money, we ruin their life. If a company ruins someone's life, we charge the company money. If a cashier at a fast food restaurant takes $30 from the register, they go to jail. If a company steals millions from their workers paychecks, we slap them with a tiny fine.

In my opinion, which may be unpopular, a CEO who earns many times more than a regular employee should ensure that there are policies in place that prevent a regular employee or the "system" ruining a customers life. They should be held individually responsible if it can be proved in court that they ignored the issues.

Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#12

Post by HarryHirsch »

nickvanw wrote: post #6

These stories are awful - this wasn't just an administrative headache for people, they served real time and has real consequences. Filing a false police report is a crime, it would be nice to see that enforced against the company in one way or another.

But... intent - Hertz had no intent to have customers locked up or threatened by out-of-control cops, so it's all good. When it comes to life-and-limb matters like this intent really shouldn't matter because it's nothing more than a get-out-of-jail card for executives who couldn't care less about the impact of their policies.

No one important at Wells-Fargo went to jail either - they set policies which were expected to have certain outcomes, but top brass could not have possibly have foreseen the outcomes. I'm sick of plausible deniability, especially when it isn't even plausible any longer, the complaints go back years.

Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#13

Post by adql »

bombcar wrote: post #5
ccleve wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely. Nothing happens until the individuals responsible pay a penalty. If an exec knowingly, or through negligence, causes a person to be arrested, that person needs to pay up personally . If they did it to protect their own position, then jail time is appropriate. Falsely reporting a crime is a crime.

Qualified immunity makes some sort of sense for actual cops, perhaps, but makes absolutely ZERO sense for a corporation and its executives.

Should be on the CEO's head unless they can prove it was someone's malicious action without their knowledge. At least that would partially exclude the ridiculous compensation

Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#14

Post by fallingknife »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #12
nickvanw wrote: post #6

These stories are awful - this wasn't just an administrative headache for people, they served real time and has real consequences. Filing a false police report is a crime, it would be nice to see that enforced against the company in one way or another.

But... intent - Hertz had no intent to have customers locked up or threatened by out-of-control cops, so it's all good. When it comes to life-and-limb matters like this intent really shouldn't matter because it's nothing more than a get-out-of-jail card for executives who couldn't care less about the impact of their policies. No one important at Wells-Fargo went to jail either - they set policies which were expected…

Intent always matters. And it is absolutely plausible that a rental car could be marked stolen through a bureaucratic error. If fact, in this case, it's more than plausible. It's pretty much inconceivable that a rental car company would intend to just say "fuck you in particular" to a few customers and try to put them in jail.

Those customers should obviously get their judgment money, and Hertz should pay a heavy price (maybe even such a heavy price that they go bankrupt), but no one should go to jail for filing a false police report unless they intended to mislead the police.

Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#15

Post by jmyeet »

Let's compare this to China where 2 executives were sentenced to death (and others to life sentences) for their role in selling tainted formula (resulting in infant deaths) and concealing it [1] or Jack Ma (of Alibaba) who just disappeared for 3 months [2].

It should be a legal requirement that a human review and sign off on any complaint about a stolen car to police. That personal (and company) should be held criminally liable for making false police reports in addition to any civil damages (including significant punitive damages) they should pay.

[1]: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna28787126

[2]: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56448688

Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#16

Post by jboy55 »

A long time ago I was in a relationship where my SO took my car and refused to give it back. I called the police to report it stolen and they said that since I had lent the car to her in the past, this was a case of someone not abiding by an agreement, and it was a civil matter and I would need to retrieve the car or a PI would. This was California, so other states probably have different laws, but I would have to think for a major corporation this should be in civil court first.

Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#18

Post by jeffbee »

xaerise wrote: post #10
thelastgallon wrote: post #9

From the article: In its release, Hertz says they believe “a meaningful portion of the settlement” will be covered by insurance so ‘no big deal’ to them what they did to customers, at least for investors. Meanwhile their CEO shrugs in an included statement saying they “will not always be perfect.”

i hope the insurance company takes a look in the documents and tells Hertz to go f** themselfs... No way that the insurance company would cover negliance and fraud...

Every business is insured against claims of negligence. It is totally standard and I imagine universal that large businesses are so covered.

Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#19

Post by gnicholas »

bombcar wrote: post #5
ccleve wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely. Nothing happens until the individuals responsible pay a penalty. If an exec knowingly, or through negligence, causes a person to be arrested, that person needs to pay up personally . If they did it to protect their own position, then jail time is appropriate. Falsely reporting a crime is a crime.

Qualified immunity makes some sort of sense for actual cops, perhaps, but makes absolutely ZERO sense for a corporation and its executives.

Just to be clear, corporations and executives do not get qualified immunity. They just get to pay with someone else's money (insurance, or shareholders) instead of their own.

I don't know why judges don't insist on jail time for someone in these situations. It might not make sense for a mistake that happened once, but after they knew it was happening and didn't fix their systems, the behavior was knowingly reckless.

Re: Hertz to pay $168M to customers arrested due to Hertz’s false police reports

#20

Post by pitaj »

nickvanw wrote: post #6

These stories are awful - this wasn't just an administrative headache for people, they served real time and has real consequences. Filing a false police report is a crime, it would be nice to see that enforced against the company in one way or another.

Personally I'd prefer customers be directly compensated than companies just be fined or people imprisoned.
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