Thursday, December 1, 2016

A SIN WHICH I SHOULD CONFESS ???

I  just  discussed  the  following  moral  question  with  my  family.   They  laughed  and  said  that  I  acted  properly.  This  is  a  good  place  to  seek  public  comment.

I  have  always  been  a  library-goer.  One  night  years  ago  --  maybe  30  years  ago  --   I  was  kay-ing  my  vehicle  out  of  my  place  in  the  lot  at  the  library  when  there  was  an  unexpected  "CRUNCH"  in  back.  I  jumped-out  and  walked  back  and  saw  that  I  had  backed-into  the already  ripped-up  fender  on  the  already  essentially  demolished  car  body  of  the  vehicle  behind  me.  No  exaggeration  at  all,  I  promise,  the  vehicle  really  did  look  like  a  survivor  of  a  dozen  demolition  derbies.  No  part  of  the  body  was  undented.  It  was  the  kind  of  car  where  a  cop  called  to  the  scene  by  me,  if  I  were  scrupulously  honest,  would  think  that  I  was  crazy  for  reporting  it,  risking  entanglement  with  a  nut-case  vehicle  owner  trying  to  finance  total  body  reconstruction  with  a  fraudulent  massive  claim.

Soooooooooo,  I  looked  around  carefully.  I  saw  no  security  cameras,  and  I  was  in  the  darkest  part  of  the  lot.   I  climbed  into  my  driver's  seat  and  drove  home.

Technically,  I  violated  the  New  Jersey  Hit  &  Run  Laws  by  leaving  the  scene  of  a  very  minor  accident  in  which  I  re-damaged  a  severely  damaged  fender  of  an  empty,  already-badly-damaged  car,  already  not  much  better  than  this  close  facsimile ...


I  never  got  caught.  Did  I  sin?  As  a  Catholic,  should  I  have  confessed  it?   As  a  lawyer  at  the  time,  should  I  have  been  disbarred?

We  all  know  what  the  internet  is  like ... every  anonymous  nut-case  comes  crawling  out  from  under  his  or  her  rock  in  response  to  something  like  this  and  screams,  "DISGUSTING !!!"   Are  you  one  of  the  nutcases ?   Am  I  disgusting ? How  will  God  respond  to  this ?



1 comment:

  1. I agree with your family--you did the right thing. This is a letter of the law vs. spirit of the law sort of question. While you would technically be required to inform the vehicle owner, in reality it's unlikely that he/she or the car suffered any noticeable harm from the accident, and I wouldn't be surprised if the driver never even realized the additional dent.
    --Phil

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