Rather than try to win a judgmentin excess of a small firm's liability insurance policy (and potentially force it to liquidate assets, which complicates payment), plaintiffs in many states can sue all along the company's supply chain to sweeten the spoils.
He wrote to his president, Jimmy Carter, that a plan to try to rescue by force 52 Americans held prisoner in the United States embassy in Tehran had been made against his judgment and that he was resigning as secretary of state, whether the mission succeeded or failed.