Lawsuit awards

Randy Berg_3

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The Stella Liebeck Awards

It's once again time to review the winners of 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.

Unfortunately the most recent lawsuit implicating McDonalds, the teens
who allege that eating at McDonalds has made them fat, was filed after the
2002 award voting was closed.

This suit will top the 2003 awards list without question.

5th place (Tied)
Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000 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 toddler was Ms. Robertson's Son.

5th place (Tied)
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 did not notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when
he was trying to steal the hubcaps.

5th place (Tied)
Terrence Dickson of Bristol Pennsylvania was leaving a house he had
just finished robbing by way of the garage door. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He could not reenter 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 8 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 dog. 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 a little provoked at the time as Mr. Williams, who had climbed over the fence into the yard, 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 sued the owner of a nightclub in a
neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and
knocked out two of her front teeth. This occurred whilst Ms. Walton was
trying to crawl in through the window of 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 Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a new Winnebago motorhome. On
his trip home from an OU football game, 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 RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he could not actually do this.
The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago Motor Home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit just in case there were any other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles







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John R. Hall

Not so Hot Rod

These are all fabricated stories. Check this out:

http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html

Firedragon_4

And people in this trade think I'm a PITA

because I try to warn them of this stuff, yeah right!!!
The PITA is when you find yourself being sued not only by morons like these, but also legitimate claims and only because 'I made a mistake, okay' or the now classic 'but we always did it that way'. God Bless America and the best legal system in the world that proves once again that the best defense is a strong offense.

Mad Dog

These may be bogus, John, but there are so many

true ones out there that I wouldn't doubt it. Mad Dog

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LEAD PIPE

Stella

This case sounds crazy but when I looked into it I found I could see Stellas point. Yea she spilled coffee on he lap and got a lot of $ from Mcdonalds. But did you know after she spilled the coffee she got 3rd degree burns on 30 % of her body and spent 7 days in the hospital. She had 6 operations which were more painful than the spill itself. She spent weeks recoperating. If I spilled coffee on myself I would not expect anyone to pay, but I wouldn't expect to be scared for life either.
Now Stella was out about $2000 that her insurance didn't pick up so she went to mcdonalds for the money. They offered to pay $800. She didn't have the other $1200 to pay so someone told her to talk to a lawyer. Yes the jury gave her a million somthing but the judge knocked it down to 600,000. all she was looking for was her medical co-pay of $2000. Smart move Mcdonalds. Now my cheese burgers are 3 cents more.

Tony_8

No way

It's still NOT McDonald's fault. How about personal responsibility ? So what if she didn't have the $1200 ? Make payments, I would. How is it that McD's is responsible for ANY of her costs ? She was holding it between her legs ! DUH... How did she live this long ?

Actions, consequences.

Nothing personal, just my opinion. I believe it's one of the very few things anyone is entitled to.

Tony

Tim Kelley_2

Same old propaganda over and over and over again

Tony,
The fact that McDonalds insisted on having the hottest coffe around, 170-180 degrees. try your pot at home, it won't be that hot. Also the fact that this was the 700th time it had injured some one. That is what the jury lashed out at. The reward was reduced to the point where after Lawyers fees, medical costs and such, she got virtually nothing. Except for the abuse from Items like this. If you ran your business purposely creating an unsafe condition and were made aware 700 times, what do you suppose would happen?
TK

LEAD PIPE

I see

and understand your point but its not as cut and dry as you hear. "Woman spills coffee on herself and wins millions from mcdonalds" The jury felt Mcdonalds was at fault because if the coffee could cause 3rd degree burns then it was to hot to drink.experts said that the coffee was close to boiling temp. which was to hot for people to drink an dangerious.
Like I said I'm not agreeing with the award I didn't hear all the facts in the case. But I do see the case a bit differently. Let me ask you what if it was a child who spilled hot coco on herself and got these injuries? Mcdonalds, after the case, lowered the temp on hot coco as well as their coffee. Does hot coco need to be 190 degrees?

Aidan (UK)

The facts

The facts about the Stella case are on the Association of Trial Lawyers of America website.

http://www.atlanet.org/image/ConsumerMediaResources/Con_PressRoom.gif

Also see the Snopes Urban Legend Reference pages about these cases and some others that are genuine but similarly daft.

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp#coffee

Troy_3

Frivolous lawsuits

The sad part is that the only ones that make out are the lawyers. Did you read the case of the woman who won millions and lost her house to the IRS because the taxes owed on the settlement put her in a negative balance. I don't remember all the details. It seems to me that things are a little out of wack. Someone needs to bring back some common sense to our system. Why should ones bad fortune turn your lawyer into an instant millionare while you go on suffering. Why should companies be so afraid of our legal system that it inhibits the well being of all mankind. I think it will go back to the wild west before it gets better. People will get fed up and take back the law from the nuts.

Pat Clark

lawyers

marketing, marketing, marketing. Hey guys we're all in this together. We have a business, so do they. They are doing better marketing than us. Need a table at Wetstock on this. We are all retailers now, whether we want to be or not.

Pat

Uni R

Actually... #1 winner was...

"And the winner of the 2003 True Stella Awards: The City of Madera, Calif. Madera police officer Marcy Noriega had the suspect from a minor disturbance handcuffed in the back of her patrol car. When the suspect started to kick at the car's windows, Officer Noriega decided to subdue him with her Taser. Incredibly, instead of pulling her stun gun from her belt, she pulled her service sidearm and shot the man in the chest, killing him instantly. The city, however, says the killing is not the officer's fault; it argues that "any reasonable police officer" could "mistakenly draw and fire a handgun instead of the Taser device" and has filed suit against Taser, arguing the company should pay for any award from the wrongful death lawsuit the man's family has filed. What a slur against every professionally trained police officer who knows the difference between a real gun and a stun gun! And what a cowardly attempt to escape responsibility for the actions of its own under-trained officer."

http://www.stellaawards.com/2003.html