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Stella's Awards
The woman who sued McDonalds over the spilled
coffee
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.
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 , who 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 :
Amber Carson of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her
$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 Stellas to go...
2ND PLACE :
Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware
sued the owner of a night club 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 night club had to
pay her $12,000.....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.
1ST PLACE : (May I 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...? Ya think??!!
More than a few of our judge's
elevators don't go to the top floor either!
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