A sales guy runs out of gas in the Illinois countryside and starts walking, hoping to cadge a gallon or two.
Eventually, as the old joke goes, he spots a farmer and a dog sunning themselves on the front porch of a farmhouse and approaches. Cautiously, he asks, “Does your dog bite?”
“Nope,” says the farmer, whereupon the chap reaches out his hand and barely pulls it away in time to keep it from being chewed off.
“I thought you said your dog doesn’t bite,” he protests.
“That ain’t my dog,” says the farmer.
The old joke may not have any point other than to make us laugh, but, if it does have one, it might be that you need to make sure who something belongs to before you go messing with it, and make sure you’re not confused as to who the real owner is.
That’s something Ronald Wilderness should have done before he filed a lawsuit against Marvin and Cynthia Mills, trying to hold them responsible for the death of his brother, Jason Thomas, in a Granite City house that does not belong to the Millses.
The house had belonged to them in the past, but, at the time of the incident, it did not. They had sold it to their adult daughter, Kristine, who, apparently, had at some point cohabited with Jason Thomas and accused him of domestic abuse.
It’s complicated.
Suffice it to say that Jason Thomas allegedly tried to break into the house owned by Kristine Mills while another male friend of hers was on hand and armed. Intruder Jason Thomas was shot and killed.
It’s unfortunate and it didn’t need to happen, but Kristine’s parents had nothing to do with it. The house it happened in no longer belonged to them and they were not there at the time of the incident.
Marvin and Cynthia Mills are seeking sanctions against Wilderness and his attorney “for filing, serving, and prosecuting an utterly frivolous case.”
Wilderness may have thought it was their house, but it wasn’t. Case closed.