On Fri, Feb 10, 2006 at 09:27:17AM -0500, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> > 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 who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued
> > McDonald's (in NM). That case inspired the Stella awards for the most
> > frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.
> >
> > Here are this year's winners:
> >
> > 5th Place (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 was Ms. Robertson's son.
> >
> > 5th Place (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 (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.
> >
> > 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 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 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 run away 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.
> >
> > MrsGrazinski 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.
> >
> >
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu