Stella awards

[ironglow]

  A youngster, raised as an orphan & sibling to my Dad many years ago, was interested in and vigorously studied law from a child up..had a favorite saying concerning the law (about 70 years ago).  His phrase?  .. "Nine tenths of the law is common sense."  He finished his career as a state supreme court justice.
  I say that to introduce the "Stella's list" I recently recieved through my e-mail transom.
         
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
       Stella Awards............
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
coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it
between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could
get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards for the
most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know the kind of
cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy


Here are the Stellas for this past year -- 2011


* SEVENTH 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 her own son.


Start scratching!


* SIXTH PLACE *

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California 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.
Scratch some more...


* FIFTH PLACE *

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house
he had just burglarized 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 sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive 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.

Double head scratching after this one..


* FOURTH PLACE *

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 its 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 repeatedly shot
the dog with a pellet gun.


Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..


* THIRD PLACE *

Amber Carson of Lancaster , Pennsylvania - A jury ordered a
Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a
spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone.
The reason the soft drink was on the floor?  Ms. Carson had thrown it
at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. Whatever
happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
Only two more so ease up on the scratching...



*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.



Ok.. Here we go!! Drum roll ...


* FIRST PLACE *

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv
Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased 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
driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a
sandwich.  Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed
and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago
for not putting in the owners manual that she couldn't actually leave
the driver's seat while the cruise control was set.
The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $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 also
buy a motor home.
If you think the court system is out of control and America has lost
ALL common sense, be sure to pass this one on!!!
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
  Auf Weidersehen..."common sense!"  [/size]
!

[vabeachman]

Unbelievable. 

[Dixie Dude]

Do you know if any of these are being appealed?  Is there any common sense in America today?  Probably not since most kids graduating high school can't read and write, much less operate a budget and balance a checkbook.

[rkeltner]

a lot of this is about the ambulance chasers! about 20 yrs. ago, i was working as a service tech at a local toyota dealership, rainy nasty da. well, since we only had 1 car at the time, i had to go out the service drive to get in the car to leave. being in a hurry, i ran through the service drive to get to my wife, who was waiting for me. this required a right turn, on wet pavement, and, you guessed it.... my feet came out from under me. laying on the floor, trying to figure if i wanted to laugh or cry, a man comes out from the hall leading from the sales floor and hands me a card, saying that he's a lawyer, and informing me that i could own this dealership!!! after trying not to laugh in his face, i sent on his way. this guy was dead serious. he wanted me to sue my employer for my own stupidity!!! this underscores why we've got the stupid lawsuit problems!

[Dixie Dude]

I've read somewhere that we have more lawyers than are necessary, so they are all looking for business.  Wish we had more doctors than necessary, maybe health care costs would come down.  I know of someone who was digging holes for a chain link fence around his yard.  Someone took a shortcut across his yard, stepped in a hole, and sued the owner, even though he was tresspassing. 

[Oldshooter]

Yep the gene pool has been polluted to be sure.
 
I love the one where the lady sues cause she tripped on her own kid. 
 
DonT put your life in the hands of an American jury. They let oj go and gave these people money.
 
I remember the jury statement when they gave Stella the Money for the coffee burn. " We want to send a message to Mcdonalds that their coffee is too hot." 

[ironglow]

  Using a bit of logic and common sense, and hearing the same kind of fraudulent suits being brought against the medical profession, one would think that when designing Obamacare, the Democrats would have posted tort reform..reining in such frivilous, costly suits.
  But no..Obamacare doesn't even address tort reform..they left the trial lawyers free to sue the snot out of doctors, clinics and hospitals...
     I think we ALL know why the Democrats coddled the trial lawyers...

[two-blocked]

Common sense would tell you that this is a hoax! (since 2001)
But hey, it does provide for an excellent segue into  Obama bashing!

[Oldshooter]

Who needs a segue into barry bashing he is the segue! Sometimes its like shooting over a baited field.  as to this being a hoax I sure as heck hope so! But people are stupid. Need I remind of the last two elections.