............... And there is nothing wrong with our legal system

The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald’s (in USA ). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States . Here is this year’s winners! (Keep in mind…These are supposed to be true!)

5th Place (tie):
Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas , was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson’s son.

5th Place (tie):
19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor’s hubcaps.

5th Place (tie):
Terrence Dickson of Bristol , Pennsylvania , was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner’s insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed, to the tune of $500,000. In my opinion this is so outrageous that it should have been 2nd Place !

4th Place :
Jerry Williams of Little Rock , Arkansas , was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor’s beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3rd Place :
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster , Pennsylvania , $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

2nd Place :
Kara Walton of Claymont , Delaware , successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

1st Place :
This year’s runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma . Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago (RV) motor home. On her first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The Winniebago company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.

(Courtesy Jerry Peck: posted on another site)

Regards

Gerry

There is a new winner!
A women is suing the makers of Starburst. She clams that the candy is so chewy she hurt her jaw.

Like the man said… “you just can’t fix STUPID!!!”

But it looks like you can reward it :twisted:

Regards

Gerry

Gerry I think you have been had these stories just get blown out and like the every ready Bunny just keep going & going & going

Hi Roy, good point I should have done some due dilligence, however like the reporter in your last link said:

Regards

Gerry

From the Stellawards site.

http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html

Snopes.com entry.

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

This was just sent to me and seemed to be fitting.

When I pulled trailers for fema I heard at least 5 variations of the winnebago story, but sadly there are the true storys that are worse. About 8 years ago in the middle of a custody battle,(between him and our daughter) my ex son in law went to the Walton county sheriffs dept and tried to get my wife and i arrested on a false claim,(we had the truth on video) to his amazement he got arrested on an old kid napping warrant that was supposed to have been dismissed by the district attorney. He sued me for attorney fees and court cost to get him out of jail. He won, the judge said it was my fault the son in law went to file false charges at the sheriffs dept and was arrested. True story! I will never respect the law anymore! True statement!

Those were the good old days when you could walk to the bus stop and wear underwear on the inside.

I would hope he is your ex-son-in-law and you never have to see him again, I’d be so afraid wondering if he every came near me and I did anything a crazy judge might side with him again on . . . wow, how weird.

he lives in california now. still not far enough!

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_11_6.gif

That alone is almost worth the insurance deductable!

hey nick, does the site where you found all the cool emoticans have spyware in it?

I don’t know if I should laugh or hide my head in embarrassment over our “legal system”

Frivolous doesn’t cut it (imho) … these “lawsuits” are simply disgusting.

Not sure, all I know is that they have a lot which are easy to insert.
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/28/28_1_16.gif
http://www.smileycentral.com/sig.jsp?pc=ZSzeb098&pp=ZSYYYYYYKUUS](“http://www.smileycentral.com/sig.jsp?pc=ZSzeb098&pp=ZSYYYYYYKUUS”)

I’m with you on that one Nick :mrgreen:

Regards

Gerry

And are NOT TRUE…See post #6 in this thread.:slight_smile:

Shakespeare was right - Dick the Butcher “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”, from King Henry VI, Part 2. And THAT statement was 500 years ago. Imagine what he would say NOW.:twisted:

What’s worse is that a close friend of mine is a juvenile prosecutor. His favorite joke is “What are 100,000 lawyers at the bottom of the Atlantic? A VERY good start.” This FROM a lawyer!:cool: