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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. The following are this year's candidates: 1.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 little toddler was Ms. Robertson's
son. 2.A
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 didn't
notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his
neighbor's hub caps. 3.Terrence
Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished
robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up
since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter 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 eight 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. 4.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. 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
just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting it
repeatedly with a pellet gun. 5.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. 6.Kara
Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a
neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked
out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak
through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge.
She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses. 7.This
year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first
trip home, 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 R.V. left the freeway, crashed and
overturned. Mr.
Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he
couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new 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
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Title: FW: Unbelievable!
