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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 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 Stellas for this past year -- 2009.


*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. 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!!


* FIRST PLACE *


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 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 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 in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

*too busy laughing to comment*

But seriously. Some of the things people do today and get away with is so sad

Frazz, this has made me hate people so much right now.

God I hope I never have to face trial with a jury of my "peers".

that last one is an urban legend. Never happened.

When libertarians claim that the civil court system is sufficient to regulate industry, I always think of this.

kronk wrote:that last one is an urban legend. Never happened.

slander! Don't make me sue you cat boy!

Actually, snopes.com calls BS on most of these.

Sorry, Frazz.

Thats it, consider yourself served.

Frazzled wrote:

kronk wrote:that last one is an urban legend. Never happened.

slander! Don't make me sue you cat boy!

Oh yeah! Well drive down to Houston and say that to my face!

*checks location*

Crap. Uh, nevermind. You're stories are 100% accurate and I withdraw my earlier comments.

kronk wrote:

Frazzled wrote:

kronk wrote:that last one is an urban legend. Never happened.

slander! Don't make me sue you cat boy!

Oh yeah! Well drive down to Houston and say that to my face!

*checks location*

Crap. Uh, nevermind. You're stories are 100% accurate and I withdraw my earlier comments.

Smart move, smart move (twirls 'em cowboy fashion before reholstering his ivory handled full auto weiner dogs)

I'm not scared. Matrix Cat protects me. Woah.

Touche Kronk. Team Wienie permits your existence...for now...

Somerfield supermarkets were recently sued (case may still be going through) by an appauling chav (trailer trash to you Americans!) mother who's son died of a brain hemorrhage in one of there stores.
Apparently the little rat child had been swinging upside down on the metal bars which stop the shopping trolleys rolling into the car park.
This shining paragon of parenthood was standing literaly feet away and allowed him to do this until he fell off and landed on his head. Her argument is that these bars were clearly a health hazard and someone should have stopped her son from swinging on them.
Yes you dull bitch, that person was you, a parent so useless that you allowed your child to misuse a piece of safety equipment to the point where it killed him and now you are seeking to profit from your own gross negligence which led to the death of your child.
I can only hope that this has put the creature off wanting to produce more offspring and veiw this as one less potential dole monkey.

That was hilarious, how do people get away with stuff like that?!? It's too bad that several of those are fake though.

THE JUSTICE SYSTEM WORKS!!!

wait...

oh :(


Seriously, I vote for a New World Order, where justice is dispensed by Awesome Spider and his loyal Allies the Wiener Dogs.

The Justice System does work. It's just we Americans are too dumb to use it correctly.

Actually, even the infamous McDonald's coffee cup case is less crazy when you read all the facts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_coffee_case

Despite what wacky morning radio DJs would tell you, it was a pretty by the numbers product liability case. It's not a slam dunk by any means, but when you read the actual story the jury verdict makes more sense.

Having read what actually happened to her self, that is pretty damaging. I mean burns on more then 20% of your body? Two years of medical treatment and lost of 20lbs on an already thin woman is just... insane.

It makes the case seem like a pretty open and shut deal that just spiraled out of control.

Yeah, sometimes you just settle these things. Old ladies with horrific burns are what we like to call "sympathetic plaintiffs."

Five years ago, we had the case in France of a woman trying to sue McDonald. She claimed she broke her ankle slipping on a fry that dropped from her tray while she was emptying it in the bin...she got nothing but was lucky enough to avoid being sued for abusive procedure. It was the first, and as far as I know the last case of such a juridical attempt.

I didn't know about these awards. Thanks Fraz for showing me something along the lines of the Darwin Awards

Frazzled how much did you make in the Winnebago case.