Chrisreyn

Time once again to review the winners of the annual Stella Awards. The Stellas are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States.



Here are this year's winners:





5th Place (tie):

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 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.

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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 while 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.

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4th Place:

Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the rear end 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.

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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.

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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.

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1st Place:

This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, OK. 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 explaining in the owner's manual that cruise control isn't automatic pilot. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home.





ONLY IN AMERICA!

DONT YA LOVE JURIES?????

crobtex

DPG

I find those cases a disgrace to our justice system. What happened to common sense?

Chrisreyn

It is a disgrace and is so ludicrous!! ya got to laugh, what else to do?
and an old law enforcement axiom: Common sense is extremely uncommon...

MCMLV

Words can hardly describe whan any person with basic decency and common sense feels. Having said that I can also help but ask: Who are those people on those juries? Aren't they us, our neighbours, our coleagues? And considering that the verdicts are from all over the country we can't even say that they are a local fenomenon. Now I stand with Mexstan and alos shout "WAKE UP AMERICA" we are destroying ourselves!

BigBlue

That's pathetic. What's wrong with the lawyers as well? Nevermind, their lawyers. This is their job. I'm gonna go into the nicest hotel I can find and stub my toe and sue them on the grounds that I didn't see the big concrete pillar in the middle of the hallway. Maybe then I can afford to BOMB my truck. That's just sickening.

jthorpe

Pathetic is right, and this is the kind of thing that John Edwards represents.

ramlovingvet

This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, OK. 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 explaining in the owner's manual that cruise control isn't automatic pilot. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home.





This Urban Legend has been around for years. When i was in High School it was a rich Iranian Kid going to school here.

Eskimo

yeah, I kinda wonder if any of those are real... only the one in L.A. do I believe, since it's in Kommie Kali...

cmnspwr

Here is one that is totally true from my hometown back when I was in high school. A Dominoe's pizza deliverer parked his car outside the hospital lobby to deliver pizza inside. He did not leave the car running, nor leave the keys in the ignition. Well not-so-well educated man hot wires the car and steals it. A few blocks down the road, he crashes the car and almost dies.

When he recovers, he turns around and sues Dominoe's and the driver for "leaving the car where he could steal it", saying it was the driver's fault he almost died. He won the case thanks to a "minority" jury.

DSjockey

Looks like there are a couple of "Stella award" sites, the first place winner on this site is pretty scary (not sure I believe it though)

Nevada

Although it is very unfortunate, this list is belivable based on the current state of our legal system.

However, this list is pure urban legend.

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

jfpointer

Like Nevada said, urban legends but far too believable. Here's a link to a site that tracks true cases: http://www.overlawyered.com/ Poke around long enough and you'll find plenty of absurdities, I'm sure.