Small wonder that Donald Toner of South Windsor, Conn., chose to ignore the three dunning letters addressed to his wife by the state’s department of transportation. Carline Toner was killed last October when her car collided with a garbage truck, and now the state, having determined that she was to blame, was demanding $34.15 to cover the cost of cleaning up the highway. When her widowed husband failed to reply, the state filed suit against Mrs. Toner in Windsor’s small claims court. With that Donald Toner asked Attorney James Throwe to fight the claim—and Throwe simply released the story of the suit to the local papers. Embarrassed, Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso last week deplored the incident as “unfortunate and regrettable” and asked the department of transportation to withdraw the suit. As Mrs. Grasso observed, “There are circumstances when mercy tempers justice, and this is one.” Reluctantly, the department complied—not out of any sense of mercy, its attorney explained, but because the suit was filed against Mrs. Toner rather than against her estate. Final score, as usual: Bureaucracy 1, Mercy 0.
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