2006 Stella Awards (Ridiculous Law Suit winners)
These are unbelievable!
> >>It’s time once again to review the winners of the Annual “Stella Awards.”
> >>The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled
> >>hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald’s (in NM). That case
> >>inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful
> >>lawsuits in the United States.
> >>
> >>Here are this year’s winners:
> >>
> >>5th Place (tie):
> >>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 owners of the store were understandably
> >>surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was
> >>Ms.Robertson’s son.
> >>
> >>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 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. 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 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:
> >>
> >>This year’s run away 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 around