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The Stella 2005 Awards
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Purple_Lee replied on Sun Dec 19, 2004 @ 5:32pm |
 Coolness: 238625 | It's time once again to review the winners of the annual "Stella Awards". The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonalds. The Stella Awards is for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States. Here are the winners:
7th 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. 6th Place (tie): A 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.Ca ] 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 (for good reason): This year's run away winner was Mr. Robert Metivier of Massachusetts. Mr. Metivier purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, (from an UMASS football game), having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Metivier sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $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 buying their recreation vehicles. Lee |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Nuclear replied on Sun Dec 19, 2004 @ 7:52pm |
 Coolness: 2603990 | I'm not sure if any of those people could really win... Guess it's possible... |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» A_Princess replied on Sun Dec 19, 2004 @ 11:56pm |
 Coolness: 61850 | I wonder if these stories are true. If they are the US truely is in a sorry state of affairs. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» mtl_mtl replied on Mon Dec 20, 2004 @ 2:15pm |
 Coolness: 55505 | you know that these small encapsulations of lawsuits in no way illustrate the details of what happened. In any case, that's the same list I have been seeing for at least 3 years. And the McDonald's lawsuit, if you actually examine the case and learn that the reason she had grounds to sue was that the temperature of the coffee was way hotter than it should have been and caused 3rd degree burns in tenths of a second, and that the mcdonald's employees knew this and ignored their safety regulations, then you might be a bit more sympathetic. It's not that the coffee was hot when she spilled it, it's that it was ultra mega hot, hot enough to melt polyester.... |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» A_Princess replied on Mon Dec 20, 2004 @ 3:09pm |
| Coolness: 61850 | Thats a bit more legit. And those damn styrofoam cups of tea that u get? Holy crap, they are seriously seriously way too hot sometimes!! |
The Stella 2005 Awards
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