Stella Awards - crazy civil court cases

[bored]

Stella Awards
It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'! For those unfamiliar
with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who
spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in
New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid
off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving.
Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's
right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts
in the US. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head
So keep your head scratcher handy.



Here are the Stellas for the past year:



*SEVENTH PLACE*
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 store owners were understandably
surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own
son. Start scratching!

* SIXTH PLACE *
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical
expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord.
Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the
car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps. Scratch some
more...

* FIFTH PLACE *
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house
he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for
Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could
not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house
because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson
pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and
survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the
homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish.
Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson
$500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.
Keep scratching. There are more..... Double hand scratching after this
one..

*FOURTH PLACE*
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the
Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being
bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the
beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get
as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have
been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed
over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet
gun. Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..

* THIRD PLACE *
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a
Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a
spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink
was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds
earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being
responsible for their own actions?

Only two more so ease up on the scratching....

*SECOND PLACE*
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in
a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor,
knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to
sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover
charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....
oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure. Ok. Here we go!!

* FIRST PLACE *
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv
Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot
Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game,
having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph
and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to
make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the
freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs.
Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that
she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control
was set The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down?
$1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their
manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any
relatives who might also buy a motor home.

 

[therightone]

From the True Stella Awards Book:

Chapter 10: Just Plain Stupid -- Man works hard -- very hard -- to woo his fourth wife. When his effort fails, he sues her to get back the expensive gifts he gave her. § Yahoos rent car, drive it around shooting fireworks out the window. When a rocket explodes inside, someone has to be responsible for the resulting death and mayhem. But who? That's right: they sue the car rental agency. § Cable TV channel airs documentary about how music programs help rehabilitate prisoners. One of the prisoner-musicians featured is a murderer; his family sues for the "distress" of having to see the murderer on TV. § Woman sues county after she falls down during a goose "attack". The suit calls the goose a "wild" and "dangerous" animal that the county should not have allowed to live in the park. § Radio station pulls practical joke on restaurant, telling the manager that he can't pay for his meal and offers to do dishes. Manager, nervous since they were recently robbed, calls the police. Ha ha: big joke, you're on the air! Manager -- and cop -- sue the radio station. § Man goes berzerk after his dog gets lost, spending over $20,000 on pet "psychics" and other "professionals" to find the stray he had found on the street. Meanwhile, he let his business collapse so he could spend full time on the search. And who's at fault for all of this? His pet-sitter. He sues her for $160,000. § Singer James Brown's daughters sue him, claiming they are entitled to royalties for "helping" him write his songs -- when they were as young as 3 years old. § Man wins lottery, but argues that he should have won more than he did. The reason? He says the vendor who sold him the tickets didn't explain the rules to him carefully enough, that there was a cap in the amount of winnings, and he had more winning tickets than could be cashed in. The vendor noted that he did give the man the printed rules provided by the state lottery, but the court rules against him anyway!

 

[j funk]

I can't believe judges would even hear any of these. Only serves to encourage blame culture.

The worst I heard was a woman who had a car crash on the way home from work and sued her boss for letting her leave early.

 

[bored]

I can't believe judges would even hear any of these. Only serves to encourage blame culture.

The worst I heard was a woman who had a car crash on the way home from work and sued her boss for letting her leave early.

In the US you can take anyone before the courts for a civil trial.

The Judges do have the right to dismiss the case as frivolous and dismiss the case and charge you court fees and the legal fees for the defendant.

The courts usually give people a chance to at least be heard. I would say that most if not all of these went to a jury because the amount of money is too large for small claims court.

Civil cases are a lot different than criminal cases. In a civil case you only need a majority or a super-majority of the jury to vote your way versus all 12 have to vote the same to get a verdict and sometimes a civil jury can be less than 12. In a civil case the burden of proof is set low enough that you only have to prove that the defendant was probably at fault where a criminal case requires the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.

The rules for civil trials vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction so without doing research it would be hard to figure out just what was needed to get these verdicts.

I can see a judge allowing the McDonald's hot coffee case to go to trial. I can't imagine a judge not dismissing any case where someone's criminal activity lead to their hardship.

I'd poke my eyes out if I ended up on one of these jury's that awarded people for thinking their Winnebago could drive itself and the plaintiff was found at fault.