The Stella Awards

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

The Stella awards are very similar to the Darwin awards, and are named after the 81 grandmother who successfully sued MacDonalds for making coffee too hot, after she had spilt it on herself.1. January 2000:Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000by a jury after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddlerwho was running inside a furniture store. The owners ofthe store were understandably surprised at the verdict,considering the misbehaving little ##### wasMs. Robertson's son. 2. June 1998:A 19 year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 andmedical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand witha Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice therewas someone at the wheel of the car, when he was trying tosteal his neighbor's hubcaps. 3. October 1998:A Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania was leavinga house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage.He was not able to get the garage door to go up since theautomatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn'tre-enter the house because the door connecting the houseand garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family wason vacation. Mr.Dickson found himself locked in the garagefor eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found,and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner'sinsurance claiming the situation caused him undue mentalanguish. The jury agreed to the tune of half a milliondollars.4. October 1999:Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas was awarded $14,500and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks byhis next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chainin it's owner's fenced-in yard. The award was less thansought because the jury felt the dog might have been justa little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who wasshooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun. 5. May 2000:A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carsonof Lancaster, Pennsylvania $113,500 after she slipped on asoft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on thefloor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend 30seconds earlier during an argument.6. December 1997:Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware successfully sued theowner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fellfrom the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out hertwo front teeth. This occurred while Ms Walton was tryingto sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoidpaying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000and dental expenses. 7. And the winner is:Mr Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City.In November 2000 Mr Grazinski purchased a brand new 32 footWinnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having joinedthe freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmlyleft the drivers seat to go into the back and make himselfa cup of coffee. Not surprisingly the Winnie left thefreeway, crashed and overturned. Mr Grazinski sued Winnebagofor not advising him in the handbook that he couldn't actuallydo this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a new Winnie. (Winnebagoactually changed their handbooks on the back of this courtcase, just in case there are any other complete moronsbuying their vehicles.)

[ChrisJake 0]

Tom...here in Ohio, i just heard reported that an a former state highway patrol officer is suing the OSHP for using excessive force in capturing him. not sure about the amount he's seeking.why would the OSHP be trying to capture him?? well, he killed his wife, stole a highway patrol jeep, led police on a 3 hour high-speed chase, forced the closure of I-71 for hours while holding police at bay, then was shot as he tried to run from the scene....and a lawyer is actually representing him!?!?! jeez.if he wins his judgement....he should definitely be given a Stella.chris

[Guest]

haha :-lol Nice ones Tom.Sheesh...I cannot believe waht some juries awarded. Maybe I should go buy a hammer and smash it on my head...then I can sue the hammer company for making the hammers too hard... :-rollMan...and the guy who leaves the car on speed control and leaves....he should not have a drivers licence. Someone else who should be a condidate is the guy in NY who is sueing McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and another fast food chain becasue their food made him fat :-lolTake careMike

[Guest KenG]

Uggghhh! Those things make me wretch! And to think, I spent 6 hours sitting around an auditorium last week on jury duty without ever seeing the inside of a court room. If they'd just let me on one of those juries, I'd stymie it long before any of those idiots got a red cent.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Unfortunately, most of these types of cases never get to the court room. An example that I am personally familiar with:A U.S. Navy Commander lost a thumb while using a periscope while deployed on submarine duty - he had his thumb where it should not have been when the scope was raised. Since there were (at the time) only two manufacturers of periscopes for the U.S. Navy, he sued both. Both settled out of court rather than incur the cost of litigation.The thing that gets me is that there is absolutely no holding anyone to personal responsibility anymore.

[Guest Iain Spowart]

Tom,Is this a sad reflection on modern society?Iain Spowart,Scotland.Webmaster and photographer,Scottish Claymores 2002Cheerleaders Fan Sitehttp://avsim.iainspowart.com/2002-s.jpghttp://www.claymorescheerleaders.comhttp://www.iainspowart.com

[Guest]

Finally! The get rich quick scheme I've been searching for just popped into my head after all these years... THANK YOU Tom for jiggling it loose!You'll be hearing from my lawyer shortly...:-lolhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/Boycott-RIAA.gif]"A musician without the RIAA, is like a fish without a bicycle."[/font://http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/B...cle."[/b][/font://http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/B...cle."[/b][/font

[Guest JonP01]

Or how about this true story:August 2001A 71 year old man was walking across the street at a pedestrian crossing. He had a green "walk" light so he had right of way. While he was crossing the road (still with the green right of way) a driver knocked him down. He received critical injuries including a broken neck, pelvis, leg and severe brain injury. He died 10 months later from his injuries. The driver pleaded guilty in the court case. The driver subsequently received a conviction.The total compensation the man received (excluding the medical and treatment expenses) was $6000 for the cost of his funeral.I can vouch for the truthfulness of this story because the man was my father.Incidentally, if he had lived 6 more weeks, he would have been entitled to $296,000 for pain and suffering. Under the law in Australia, you have to suffer pain for 12 months or more in order to receive compensation. Too bad if you only live 364 days.I should add that Dad had a trasnport accident insurance policy and he received a relatively small death benefit from this. However the point of this thread is ridiculous compensation - not insurance payouts from a policy you previously purchased and paid yearly premiums upon.

[Guest]

yes, in most countries outside the USA the amounts are a lot lower (and sometimes too low).But the world is catching up, sadly. These insane claims which are usually warranted are driving the cost of liability insurance to levels that almost noone in a responsible job can bear.It is in the US leading to a rapid decline in the willingness of people to enter jobs where there is a risk of damage to others.The number of doctors for example is dropping at an alarming rate, especially emergency physicians. They can expect to pay half a million or more a year in liability insurance.

[Guest JonP01]

The are still a fair few "american style" cases in Australia though. Like this (make sure you read it all) :http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2002/05/...FX06HB8V0D.html

[alastairmonk 0]

I'm sure there are equally daft rulings over here in the UK, but not every case gets this far.I know of at least one instance when an individual was injured in an accident, and the paramedics had to cut off their clothing (as they do) in order to staunch the bleeding and thereby save their life. Later, after the casualty had recovered, he attempted to sue the Health Authority for the damage to his clothes.He didn't get very far ! As I understand it he was almost literally laughed out of court and nearly invoked a fine for wasting the Court's time.Talk about ingratitude !

[Guest]

Hmmm the ones that get me is when "criminals" sue their victims:The thief shot by Tony Martin whilst burgling is sueing him, and a man who got back to his house and found two burglars, gave chase and caught one (with no "excessive force") is being sued for assault......just as well it wasn't me, if I caught someone burgling my house and caught them then methinks they would be in for a bit of a hiding.

[Guest]

Actually, that happens more often than you think.In the Netherlands it happened several times last year. In at least cases the intruder brought criminal charges against the person catching him, including assault and kidnap (the home owner in one instance locked the burglar in a closet until the police arrived).The owners were both sentenced to several months in prison, only to find their property looted when they returned (the burglars of course knew it was safe...).In other cases, criminals sued home owners for injuries obtained from falling over loose doorstops and once a skateboard that was sitting in a hallway.And here we don't even have a jurysystem, it's judges deciding on their own...

[Tabs 2,790]

Umm guys, I hate to break up the party, but most of these are false urban legends...http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.htmAnytime I hear something outlandish on the Internet or through email, snopes.com is the first place I check. You can spend hours browsing through this stuff and you'll be amazed at the things you throught were true, but actually aren't...

[Guest JonP01]

Well I know my two stories are true and I'm sure Alastair has insider knowledge of his story. The Bondi beach story gained an awful lot of press and television here time here in Oz. It had many fair-minded people seething. Whilst a lot of these things might be fabrications there are, however, still enough true stories around to amply illustrate the injustices that occur as a direct result of many of the outcomes.