2015 Stella Awards – Sept 2, 2015<\/p>\n
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 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?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Here are the Stella’s for 2015!!!!<\/p>\n
* SEVENTH PLACE *<\/p>\n
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000\u00a0by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a\u00a0toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store\u00a0owners were understandably surprised by the verdict,\u00a0considering the running toddler was her own.<\/p>\n
Start scratching!<\/p>\n
* SIXTH PLACE *<\/p>\n
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus\u00a0medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand with\u00a0a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was\u00a0someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal\u00a0his neighbour’s hubcaps.<\/p>\n
Scratch some more…<\/p>\n
* FIFTH PLACE *<\/p>\n
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a\u00a0house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately\u00a0or Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and\u00a0he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn’t\u00a0re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to\u00a0the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for\u00a0eight, count ’em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi\u00a0and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s\u00a0insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly,\u00a0the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000\u00a0for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.<\/p>\n
Keep scratching. There are more…<\/p>\n
Double hand scratching after this one..<\/p>\n
* FOURTH PLACE *<\/p>\n
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the\u00a0Stella’s when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after\u00a0being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbour’s beagle – even\u00a0though the beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard.\u00a0Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury\u00a0believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the\u00a0butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard\u00a0and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.<\/p>\n
Pick a new spot to scratch, you’re getting a bald spot..<\/p>\n
* THIRD PLACE *<\/p>\n
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered\u00a0a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on\u00a0a spilled soft dink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink\u00a0was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds\u00a0earlier during an argument.<\/p>\n
Only two more so ease up on the scratching…<\/p>\n
*SECOND PLACE*<\/p>\n
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night\u00a0club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to\u00a0the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms.\u00a0Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid\u00a0paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay\u00a0her $12,000…oh, yeah, plus dental expenses.<\/p>\n
Go figure.<\/p>\n
Ok. Here we go!!<\/p>\n
* FIRST PLACE * ~ absolutely brilliant!<\/p>\n
This year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv\u00a0Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot\u00a0Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football\u00a0game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at\u00a070 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of\u00a0the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor\u00a0home left the freeway, crashed and over turned. Also not surprisingly,\u00a0Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual\u00a0that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control\u00a0was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, ** ARE YOU SITTING DOWN ? **\u00a0<\/p>\n
***** $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. *****<\/p>\n
Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just\u00a0in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.\u00a0If you think the USA court system is out of control, be sure to pass this one on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2015 Stella Awards – Sept 2, 2015 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 coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n