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Annual Stella Award

2K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  sar02 
#1 ·
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 Stella Awards.... 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.
We should all have this kind of anguish.


Keep scratching. There are more...

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 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?

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 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 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 attorneys and the court system is out of control and America has lost ALL common sense, be sure to pass this one on!!!


Ya can't clear up the water... till ya git the hogs outta the creek!
 
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#3 ·
Yeah, they are made up, but knowing how the legal system works believable!

Incidentally there is more to the McDonald hot coffee story then the headline. Apparently the coffee at that McDonald's was scalding hot and many people had complained about it to the management over a long period of time, so they knew about the problem and did nothing about it. The amount of the award was probably out of line, but not the judgement. I think the managers should have lost their jobs...more in line with a just punishment.
 
#5 ·
Our tort system would be greatly improved if people were reimbursed only for their actual damages and that any punitive damages awarded by the jury were to go to the state and not to the lawyers and plaintiff.
 
#6 ·
Yeah, it turns into a bunch of political talk pretty quickly, doesn't it.

I can see both sides on tort reform... I just wish society didn't appear to have less and less touch with honor, personal responsibility and true justice.

A commercial on the radio this morning telling me 'my family deserves the best' has my goat! My family doesn't 'deserve' anything... I work hard to give them the best... but I'm sick of people telling me I 'deserve' something. I got news for ya pal... you don't deserve nuttin.' You're blessed for what you're given and should work hard to go from there... and help others when you can. I don't think ANY political system works without those principles in play. The entitlement mindset ultimately leads sheeple to feel entitled to somebody else's stuff... and then the politicians make an industry out of exploiting fools with that mindset. And then while the 'people of walmart' aren't looking... the politicians head to the Riviera with the spoils.



{end rant} :crylarf:

 
#7 ·
In UK we have tv adverts for money lenders using loan shark rates, charity adverts for every thing under the sun (just £3 a month) and of course compensation adverts, the ambulance chasers are out in force, remember the old days when they advertised Fairy Liquid and Vim!.
 
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