Post by sandsman1 on Feb 1, 2007 22:04:52 GMT -5
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 the coffee
>>
>> That's right, these are awards for the most outlandish
>> lawsuits and verdicts that happened in the U.S. During 2005. You
>> know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep
>> your head scratchers handy, and here are the Stellas for the past year:
>>
>> To kick things off the right way, there was a three-way tie
>> for 5th 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
>> Ms. Robertson's son.
>>
>> Also in 5th place is Carl Truman, 19, of Los
>> Angeles,California - you knew California had to be in the list somewhere,
>> right? - who 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.
>> Scratching your head yet?
>>
>> The last of the 5th Place winners went to Terrence Dickson,
>> of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he has just robbed 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 subsist for
>> eight - count 'em, 8! - days 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.
>>
>> 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 it's 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 was repeatedly shooting the dog with a
>> pellet gun. Grrrrr . Scratch, scratch.
>>
>> Third Place went to Amber Carson of Lancaster,Pennsylvania,
>> because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500
>> after she slipped on soft drink and broke her tailbone (coccyx). 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?
>> Scratch, scratch, scratch.
>>
>> Hang in, there are only two more Stella's to go.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> Finally, (may I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please)
>> this year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs. Merv
>> Grazinski,
>> of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor
>> home. On her first trip home - from an OU football game, no less -
>> 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.
>>
>> Don't look so incredulous, remember, we're talking about
>> Oklahoma here. 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
>> - $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 buy a motor home.
>> 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 the coffee
>>
>> That's right, these are awards for the most outlandish
>> lawsuits and verdicts that happened in the U.S. During 2005. You
>> know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep
>> your head scratchers handy, and here are the Stellas for the past year:
>>
>> To kick things off the right way, there was a three-way tie
>> for 5th 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
>> Ms. Robertson's son.
>>
>> Also in 5th place is Carl Truman, 19, of Los
>> Angeles,California - you knew California had to be in the list somewhere,
>> right? - who 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.
>> Scratching your head yet?
>>
>> The last of the 5th Place winners went to Terrence Dickson,
>> of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he has just robbed 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 subsist for
>> eight - count 'em, 8! - days 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.
>>
>> 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 it's 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 was repeatedly shooting the dog with a
>> pellet gun. Grrrrr . Scratch, scratch.
>>
>> Third Place went to Amber Carson of Lancaster,Pennsylvania,
>> because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500
>> after she slipped on soft drink and broke her tailbone (coccyx). 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?
>> Scratch, scratch, scratch.
>>
>> Hang in, there are only two more Stella's to go.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> Finally, (may I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please)
>> this year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs. Merv
>> Grazinski,
>> of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor
>> home. On her first trip home - from an OU football game, no less -
>> 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.
>>
>> Don't look so incredulous, remember, we're talking about
>> Oklahoma here. 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
>> - $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 buy a motor home.
