PepsiCo misplaces letter, faces $1.26 bln judgment

PepsiCo misplaces letter, faces $1.26 bln judgment

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It's an expensive lesson on the importance of reading your mail. A Wisconsin judge has ordered PepsiCo Inc to pay $1.26 billion to two men who said it stole their idea to sell purified water after a secretary mislaid a document alerting the world's No. 2 soft drink maker the lawsuit existed.

The judgment amount is equal to more than 20 percent of PepsiCo's reported annual profits in recent years, regulatory filings show

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I know how much some here like seeing big companies lose one. But this is ridiculous, large companies like pepsi face hundreds of lawsuits a year in all 50 states and internationally. If one slips through the cracks it is understandable. Granted the individuals who didnt do their job should be fired, but the whole company should not be penalized to such an excessive degree.

And this is excessive, the men are suing Pepsi for something from more than 20 years ago. I do believe that if you are going to sue someone for such large amounts that certain extra steps need to be taken, to make sure that the defendant is 100% made aware.

This is a time I hope an exception is made for a large company seeing as it is something that only a large company would have to face.

Here is a quote from the Pepsi spokesperson which if true, just shows how ridiculous and backwards the US tort system is.

"The plaintiffs' claim — that in 1981, they gave someone other than PepsiCo an idea for a 'soft drink' and that somehow, 15 years later, PepsiCo used that alleged information to develop the Aquafina Water products — is completely dubious and without merit,"

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I think you're right on one hand, but on the other I find the concept of bottled water so putrid that I can't help but feel a little good that such an expensive natural cost is countered by such a financial one. All the effort to secure the remaining clean water(which I usually joke would be owned by Pepsi or Coke) is so backwards. Where is all the energy to clean what we have and to streamline processes that harm them? We have the information and the knowhow(AND the now dire motivation) but we do not engage it because of money(which I always feel is only an agreement we all made to value it). How much we would lose accomplishing it, and how much is lost if it is a goal. I'm sure that is money is your only motivation, the twisted survival instinct of the amoral business behemoth will drive its competition(unowned water) into either irrelevance or extinction. It should be our duty to stop such a thing. No?

P.S.- I don't place the intensions of the receivers of the money in any well-meaning category though. It seems one greed just fed on another. A sad story too often told.