Stupid Lawsuits

[Arnabas]

From an email my friend sent me:

Believe it or not!

It's time once again to consider the candidates for the annual Stella
Awards. The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who
spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonalds. That case
inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in
the United States. The following are this year's candidates:

1. Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury
after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside
a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandable
surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was
Ms. Robertson's son.

2. A 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 hub caps.

3. Terrence Diekson 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.

4. 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 was
shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma purchased a brand new
32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having driven onto
the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the
drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not
surprisingly, the R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr.
Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that
he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new
motor home. The company actually changed their manual on the basis of
this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons buying
their recreation vehicles.

[Timber Loftis]

Well, first off I wonder how many of these would stand up to a good snopes-ing.

Other than that, I demur.

[Jeffi0]

LOL! Those are the stupidest lawsuits ever. Makes me wonder about the American legal system...

[pritchke]

I really hope these are not true, especially the jury one. I can forgive the decisions of a senile old judge. But a jury that says more about people than I would really like to know.

If they are true than lets hope the appeal system worked. No one should be rewarded for their own stupidity.

[ 01-28-2003, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Actually, Timber, I was wondering if you would be able to "shed some light" on these decisions from a legal standpoint.

One thing I've learned over the years from hearing about frivolous lawsuits and the outrageous awards people receive is that winning the lawsuit is one thing...actually collecting the damages awarded is another matter entirely.

For example, O.J. Simpson lost the civil suit filed against him and the family of his ex-wife received a huge award - but do you think O.J. actually paid any of it? Nope. He claimed his money was "tied up" and that he couldn't liquidate enough assets to cover the settlement. So the victim's family won a moral victory, but little else.

Some of the above examples sound similar to me. For instance, the burglar who won $500,000 for being locked in a garage for 8 days. Do you think the family actually has $500,000 to pay the guy. I doubt it, and I'm sure they appealed the ruling before leaving the court room.

Could you provide any realistic insight (from an "insider's" POV) as to how often awarded damages are actually collected?? It would be interesting to learn, I think.

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

ONLY IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!1

[VulcanRider]

From Snopes.com:
Origins: This "and you wonder what's wrong with the world today?" appeared on the Internet in May 2001. All of the entries in the list are fabrications -- a search for news stories about each of these cases failed to turn up anything, as did a search for each law case.

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.htm

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric: Some of the above examples sound similar to me. For instance, the burglar who won $500,000 for being locked in a garage for 8 days. Do you think the family actually has $500,000 to pay the guy. I doubt it, and I'm sure they appealed the ruling before leaving the court room.

Well, Snopes proved them all wrong - so they're nice urban legends. But, Cerek, just to let you know - in the homeowner instance you'd get the policy limit of the homeowner's insurance - which may be up to and above the market value of the house. Knowing where the money lies is half of being a lawyer.

[Kakero]

interesting..maybe I should migrate to Amerika so that I can sue people for money.

[Lavindathar]

So glad I live in England.

I'd get sued for so much shit If I lived over there. I just dont do sensible.