Stella Awards

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Begin forwarded message:



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 -- 2012


* 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 hand 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!!!
 
True or not, the sad part is that here in America, stupid people abound and they DO WIN idiotic lawsuits...

Only in America :headache:
 
OK, so I snoped it and turns out they're not true, however, I do know that frivolous lawsuits do force companies to provide the most insane disclaimers on their products to avoid being sued for "false advertising" or "being misleading"...

CAUTION, COFFEE IS HOT is the first a long line of stupid warnings nowadays...
 
To borrow a qoute from another forum........"I'm not sayin lets kill all the stupid people, just remove all the warning labels and let it work itself out".:laugh:
 
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