Time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards."
The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck,
whom spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's
in NM). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous,
ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States. If these are true, we are all in trouble - as are insurance carriers.
Here are this year's winners:
7th 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 owners of the store were understandably
surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was
Ms. Robertson's son.
6th Place :
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 :
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 because 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 originally 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
nightclub 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 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.
that just goes to show what kind of crap you can get awau with if you are STUPID and ballsy enough to sue because of your ignorance.
I think even more shameful than the Ordinary Americans that sue for such crap is the fact that there are attorneys that would take on such idiotic cases. Like a wise man once said, "99% of the attorneys give the other half a bad name".
I think that there aught to be a sign, given out by the Police to all those who are found in these situations
... A "Scarlet Letter" as it were, so everyone else in this world can acknoweldge their stupidity
.
bastards
I really hope those ain't true
That's why there are no snakes in Ireland...they all came to America and became judges.