o/t This Year's Stella Awards

Are we, as a society, getting more stupid or is it just the juries that the
> lawyer selects??
>
> 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?


So, 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 Stella's for the past year:
>
> 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 store owners were understandably surprised by
> the verdict, considering the running toddler was her OWN son .
>
> 6TH 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. (Go ahead, grab your
> head scratcher.)
>
> 5TH PLACE:
>
> Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania 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 live for
> eight, count 'em, EIGHT days 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
> $500,0 00 for his anguish. (We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep
> scratching there is more.)

4TH 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... (Grrrrr ..
> Scratch, scratch.)
>
> 3RD PLACE:
>
> A jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay Amber Carson of
> Lancaster, Pennsylvania $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? (Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there. There are only two more
> Stella's to go.)
>


2ND PLACE:
>
> Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a nightclub 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 nightclub had to pay her $12,000 (oh yeah, plus
> dental expenses.) Go figure!!!
>
> 1ST PLACE: (May we have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos, please.)
>
> 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 on to 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.
>
> Are we, as a society, getting more stupid? Or is it just the juries that the
> lawyers select?
>
> PLEASE, IF YOU HAVE A BRAIN IN YOUR HEAD OR HAVE GOOD COMMON SENSE, START
> SHOWING UP FOR JURY DUTY! PLEASE!
>
>
>