Over twenty years too late for that.
Or, you were both inspired by the 1960s "Batman" episode, where Jervis Tetch, the Mad Hatter, did the same thing to all the jurors who'd once convicted him.
A criminal taking revenge on the jury that convincted him isn't exactly a unique idea.
I've actually experienced simultaneous story idea generation. "Eighteen Minutes" was being written at exactly the same time as "I Have Broken The Prime Directive" in SNW VII, and I can tell you I didn't even know it existed until I saw a reference to the contents of the story online somewhere and brought it to Marco's attention as soon as I knew about it, which was after SNWVII was out and Distant Shores was finalized. I tried to get in touch with G. Wood after I found out, just to smooth things and make sure he knew the situation, but never was able to make contact. It wasn't a lawsuit I was worried about, it was reputation.
Simultaneous idea generation does happen. Personally, I tend to think it happens with more obvious ideas like what the Doctor was doing on the Weird Planet than obscure ideas of which I can't think of an example right now, but the law of averages has to catch up eventually. At some point, someone's obscure plot idea is going to be too similar to someone else's. It's really a matter of risk management.
