OT: Latest Stella Awards

[TAandy]

If these are true, it makes me wonder who picks the jury

Latest Stella Awards


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 of New Mexico who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.
Here are this year's winners:

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 owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

6th Place: 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbour 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 neighbour's hubcaps.

5th Place: 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 neighbour'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 neighbouring 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 runaway 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.

I've never heard of these before.
Weird

Taken from here

 

[petrusbroder]

Originally posted by: TAandy
... This year's runaway 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 ...

runaway winner... ? LOL and ROTFLMAO, NGAA, AD

(... not getting any air, almost died)

I'll send this to all my friends ... this is just too sweet. Thanks TAndy!

 

[networkman]

Having read this entire post, your sig is even more accurate than I realized! Our whole country must be nuts!

 

[Malak]

These aren't for this year. I've read these a few years ago. They are good examples of why the law system is terrible.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Reminds me of the Darwin Awards :laugh:

 

[petrusbroder]

Yeah, both are just great!

 

[Crazee]

People always bring up the McDonalds case as an example of lawsuit abuse, but rarely read the facts about the case.

Here are some facts about what really happened:

At the trial, it was revealed:

* McDonalds required their coffee kept at 185 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus 5 degrees, significantly higher than other establishments. [Coffee is usually served at 135 to 140 degrees]
* An expert testified that 180 degree liquids will cause full thickness burns in 2 to 7 seconds.
* McDonalds knew before this accident that burn hazards exist with any foods served above 140 degrees.
* McDonalds knew that its coffee would burn drinkers at the temperature they served it.
* McDonalds research showed that customers consumed coffee immediately while driving.
* McDonalds knew of over 700 people burned by its coffee, including many third-degree burns similar to Ms. Liebeck's.
* McDonalds had received previous requests from consumers and safety organizations to lower their coffee temperature.

There were many things McDonalds could've done to prevent injuries:

* lowering the holding temperature of their coffee,
* putting warning labels on the cups not to drink immediately,
* redesigning the cups to minimize tipping or prevent drinking in cars

McDonalds knew of the risk and knew scores of injured customers, but did nothing to mitigate the chance of injury.

Evidence showed that McDonalds served their coffee so hot to save money. This let them get away with a cheaper grade of coffee and cut down on the number of free refills they had to give away. McDonalds executives testified that they thought it would be cheaper to pay claims and worker's compensation benefits to people burned by their coffee versus making any of these changes.

Even the trial court judge called McDonalds' conduct willful, wanton, reckless and callous.

On to the situation at hand:

* Stella Liebeck, age 79, was a passenger in the car.
* The car was at a full stop so she could add cream and sugar to her coffee. [She was not the driver and the car was not moving.]
* The cup tipped and spilled over her lap.
* Within a few seconds, Ms. Liebeck suffered third-degree burns over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, genitals and groin.
* Ms. Liebeck was hospitalized for 8 days, and required skin grafting and debridement treatments.
* Parts of Ms. Liebeck's body were permanently scarred.
* Ms. Liebeck tried to settle with McDonald's for $20,000 to cover her medical expenses. McDonalds offered her $800. She sought mediation, but McDonald's refused.
* The jury initially awarded Ms. Liebeck the equivalent of two days worth of coffee sales for McDonalds as punitive damages.
* The trial judge reduced the verdict to something under $600,000.

Lawsuit abuse is a paper tiger in this country put forth by corporations who want to limit their liability for their willful misconduct. Many of the examples that people set out are often misrepresented like the one above. Also many times the amount
awarded is reduced by a judge or via appeal. Lawsuit abuse costs you far less than the actual willful misconduct that brings the suit about in the first place.

Link
Link 2

Also all the stuff mentioned above is FICTION

 

[Malak]

Our coffee vending machines at work were set to 165 degrees, and they were extremely hot. That was what they were supposed to be at though, because it was believed the warm temperature couldn't be maintained when dozens of people were hitting it at the same time. Well, those dozens of people all complained, because it stayed way too hot the whole time.