[ SHOWGSD-L ] The Annual Stella Awards
- From: Susan Madlung <stormygsd@xxxxxxx>
- To: ShowGSD-l <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 06:58:58 -0700
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. That case inspired the
Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, but successful lawsuits in
the United States. I think we all would have enjoyed being in the courtrooms to
hear the presentations at these cases.
Here are this year's winners:
5th Place (3-way 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 who tripped her was Ms.
Robertson's son.
5th Place (3-way 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 (3-way 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. (In my opinion this is so outrageous that it should have been 2nd
Place!)
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 thought 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 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, having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and
calmly left the driver's 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 Owner's/Operator's manuals on the
basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.
Sue Madlung - Shadowacre Reg'd German Shepherds
http://www.shadowacre.com
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