A computer error cased the Ford Motor Credit Company to believe that Mr. Swarens was delinquent in payments on his new car. On two occasions, the company's representatives visited Mr. Swarens and left after he showed canceled checks proving that he was not in fact delinquent. On the third visit, he threatened company representatives with a shotgun, after which his car was repossessed.
Men feed data to a computer and men interpret the answer the computer spew forth.
In this computerized age, the law must require that men in the use of computerized data regard those with whom they are dealing as more important than a perforation on a card. Trust in the infallibility of a computer is hardly a defense, when the opportunity to avoid the error is apparent and repeated.