Stella Awards

[Sonny]

It's time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards." (The Legal Profession's equivalent of the Darwin Awards). The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in New Mexico). That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.

Here are this year's winners:

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.

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 run away winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers 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 company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.

[Tim Whitehead]

Funny, but not true...

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

[Sonny]

Darn it! I'm two for two, in a row, on the Urban Legends.

[Campbell]

Interesting read about the McDonalds coffee incident where the woman was burned. Third-degree full thickness burns from 185 degree coffee, which was their standard temperature for coffee. That lawsuit doesnt seem so frivolous now.

In regards to your case examples Sonny, it is not too hard to believe they are true. Especially given the way the media and entertainment portray such incidents. Thank goodness they are not true though.

[tamu33]

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.

What kind of garage doesn't have the tools to open the locked door or the broken garage door. And dog food... gross.

[Brent Burns]

When watching "Mostly True Stories" on the The Learning Channel (TLC) show tonight with my wife, it was presenting some urban legends including a 30-year old urban legend of the Choking Doberman. Before going to commericals, it had a question if it is true or false about a light bulb at a fire station has been burning since 1901. It turns out to be true, and I am sure some there are some folks in Cali who may be familiar with a city called Livermore, California. There is a fire station in that city that still has that light bulb burning since 1901.

Here are the links:

http://www.snopes.com/science/lightbulb.asp

http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm

Thinking about the Stella Awards brought me to this thread to let you all know about the light bulb. It was interesting to read about the fire chief telling the firemen that if any one of them ever break the light bulb, he or she may need to get his or her resume ready.