The Stella Awards??

[dysfunction]

The "Stella Awards" are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck of New Mexico who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That case inspired the "Stella Awards" for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States

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 around 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 neighbour 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 neighbour’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 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 neighbour’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 neighbouring 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.

And in 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

I think Trem deserves this award and a potential Darwin award as well...

 

[Chilly]

I'm sorry, but I simply dont believe half of those. In a country where its legal to shoot someone on your property without permission (in certain states, anyway) I find it improbable that a burglar would have any legal rights whatsoever (im talking about the locked in garage one) to complain.

 

[babs]

Doesn't anyone check snopes any more?

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Stella Awards

 

[dysfunction]

I usually do but I didnt in this case

but still Trem must get a Darwin award very soon!

 

[bob269]

And in 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

This incident has been posted on various forums for the last 5/6 years

 

[babs]

I usually do but I didnt in this case

but still Trem must get a Darwin award very soon!

He can't now, he has trem-spawn, his genes are back in the evolutionary soup.



I for one won't be having the soup, I saw how he put them in there.

 

[Lazarus]

you watched him whacking off?

 

[Kryten]

Hardly suprising though is it. Why else are we warned that the cup of hopefully steaming hot coffee you get in Costa/Macdonalds/Whereever has "WARNING - HOT LIQUID INSIDE" and packets of Ready Salted Peanuts warn us that they may in fact, contain nuts.

I could quite imagine someone trying to sue Ron Jeremy/Jenna Jameson because they went blind/got RSI, someone taking KFC to court because they ate a Boneless Box before realising that those lumps of grease may actually contain chicken and that person is in fact a strict vegan.

The world is moronic.