What are you Americans like? Sorry some of you!

Mel39 · February 28, 2008

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?

That's right, 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 sit 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 $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

Keep scratching. There are 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 m otor 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.

pnutbutrsangwich · February 28, 2008

Americans aren't quite that bad...

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

:-D

Mel39 · February 28, 2008

» Americans aren't quite that bad...

»

» http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

»

» :-D

Cheers Pnut.

Shouldn't believe all I receive in emails then. Doh!

joeypots · February 28, 2008

» 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?

»

» Disgusting. The truth about 81 year old Stella Liebeck is that the coffee did spill on her. What is mis represented here is what actually happened. Mcdonalds had been repeatedly sited, hundreds of times, for serving coffee so hot that it would scald, yet McDonald's never looked into the matter or made any effort to correct what was an obvious safety issue. Even though Ms Liebeck suffered third degree burns on her legs, thighs and private parts, she did not initially want to sue McDonald's, she asked for help with hospital expences. You should see the pictures of the burns she sustained, horrific is an understatement. This case is so often cited in moronic internet chain mails and stupid things like the Stella Awards that is it used in law schools specifically to show how terribily wrong public perception can be with regard to the civil legal system in the US.

Read this:

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

Or this:

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

joeypots · February 28, 2008

» » 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?

» »

» » Disgusting. The truth about 81 year old Stella Liebeck is that the

» coffee did spill on her. What is mis represented here is what actually

» happened. Mcdonalds had been repeatedly sited, hundreds of times, for

» serving coffee so hot that it would scald, yet McDonald's never looked

» into the matter or made any effort to correct what was an obvious safety

» issue. Even though Ms Liebeck suffered third degree burns on her legs,

» thighs and private parts, she did not initially want to sue McDonald's,

» she asked for help with hospital expences. You should see the pictures of

» the burns she sustained, horrific is an understatement. This case is so

» often cited in moronic internet chain mails and stupid things like the

» Stella Awards that is it used in law schools specifically to show how

» terribily wrong public perception can be with regard to the civil legal

» system in the US.

»

» Read this:

» http://www.stellaawards.com/stella.html

»

» Or this:

» http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

or this:

http://www.atla.org/pressroom/FACTS/frivol...Coffeecase.aspx

BlackFriar · February 28, 2008

Reminds me of an old joke.

Why does California have all the lawyers and New Jersey all the toxic waste dumps?

New Jersey got first pick.

n2advnture · February 28, 2008

» Cheers Pnut.

» Shouldn't believe all I receive in emails then. Doh!

ROFLAMO! Does this me we can start a "Mel Award" for which country unfairly pics on Americans the most each year?

2008 Nominations:

UK

Australia

Micronesia

~Mark

BobLobLaw · February 28, 2008

» » Cheers Pnut.

» » Shouldn't believe all I receive in emails then. Doh!

»

I thought the same thing about that case until my buddy studied it in law school. Said the pictures of the burns caused by the coffee were so bad he almost puked.

Miami101 · February 28, 2008

I got a little something for you!!!!! Say hello to my little friend!

JK

Yea I think the world is crazy.................and we are just stars on it's stage...........................................................................

.......

Fishhound · February 29, 2008

» Americans aren't quite that bad...

»

» http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

»

» :-D

Nice catch.

Mel by the way Miss Stella lost her award in the appeal, so she never saw a single cent of that million dollars.;-)

csgrip · February 29, 2008

» » Americans aren't quite that bad...

» »

» » http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

» »

» » :-D

»

» Nice catch.

»

» Mel by the way Miss Stella lost her award in the appeal, so she never saw

» a single cent of that million dollars.;-)

From what I understand, Stella had her award reduced on appeal.

Bob - i read this case in lawschool as well. What is omitted in the short story is that McDonald's was warned about the temp of its coffee being beyond human tolerance when it was served. Others had brought suit prior to Stella about burns they received from McD's coffee.

Somewhere in these previous suits is was disclosed/determined that when they dropped the temp of the coffee to less than scalding, sales decreased. An expert also testified that McD's coffee was significantly higher than other's in the industry.

So, they did a quick cost/benefit and determined that settling these suits were less expensive than absorbing the declining sales.

Stella's award was mostly punitive damages against McD's for taking the "corporate" response rather than the "human" response.

Wiley · February 29, 2008