Thread: Stella Awards

Stella Awards. . . Its time again for the annual Stella Awards! For those unfamiliar withthese awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilledhot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonalds in New Mexico ,where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffeeand put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever thinkone could get burned doing that, right? Thats right; these are awards forthe most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kindsof cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcherhandy.

Here are the Stellas for the past year:

SEVENTH PLACE Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of herpeers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was runninginside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprisedby the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son. Start scratching!

SIXTH PLACE Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medicalexpenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Trumanapparently didnt notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when hewas trying to steal his neighbors hubcaps. Scratch some more...

FIFTH PLACE Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house hehad just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, theautomatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garagedoor to open. Worse, he couldnt re-enter the house because the doorconnecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut.Forced to sit for eight, count em, EIGHT days and survive on a case ofPepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowners insurancecompany claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said theinsurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We shouldall have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more.. Double hand scratching after this one..

FOURTH PLACE Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in theStellas when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after beingbitten on the butt by his next door neighbors beagle - even though thebeagle was on a chain in its owners fenced yard. Williams did not get asmuch as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have beenprovoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed overthe fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun. Pick a new spot to scratch, youre getting a bald spot..

THIRD PLACE Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered aPhiladelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on aspilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink wason the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlierduring an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible fortheir own actions? Only two more so ease up on the scratching.....

SECOND PLACE Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in anearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor,knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying tosneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 covercharge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah,plus dental expenses. Go figure.

Ok.. Here we go!!

FIRST PLACE This years runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. MervGrazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebagomotor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, havingdriven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmlyleft the drivers seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself asandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed andoverturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for notputting in the owners manual that she couldnt actually leave the driversseat while the cruise control was set. TheOklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a newmotor home. Winnebago actually changed theirmanuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has anyrelatives who might also buy a motor home.

Didn't have much hair to begin with, now I'm bald!

Think I'll have a sammich. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by peculiarmike

Think I'll have a sammich. :rolleyes:

don't run in the ditch, mike!

Un believable. To be honest that is one thing if changed (making people responsible for there own actions) would do wonders for the economy.Imagine how much taxpayer dollars are spent on court cost for all these suits, not to mention insurance premiums to cover them.

i'm feeling the urge to do something stupid, anyone know a good lawyer who will take my case?

See the yellow pages. there are more than we all need.

some one should have put some chlorine in those folks gene pools !!!!!!!!!!!!!!