This has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. Of course it is Californian.
You think that's dumb, check these out...
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. 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 kinds of cases that make
you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.
Here are the Stella's for the past year:
**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 inside a furniture store. The store
owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering
the running toddler was her own son.
**6TH PLACE****:**< / FONT>
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.
Go ahead, grab your head scratcher.
**5TH 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 t o 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 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...
**4TH 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 hav e 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.
Grrrrr ... Scratch, scratch.
**3RD PLACE****:**
Amber Carson of Lancaster , Pennsylvania because 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. What ever happened to people being
responsible for their own actions?
Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there; there are only two
more Stella' s to go...
**2ND PLACE****:**
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delawar e 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.
**1ST PLACE****:**
(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, 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.
Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and
overturned.
Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not put
t ing 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, are you sitting down, $1,750,000
PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals
as a result of this suit, just incase Mrs. G razinski has any
relati ves who might also buy a motor home.
**Are we, as a society, getting more stupid...?**
