US Stella Awards

[KnightElite]

It's once again time to review the winners of the
annual Stella awards. The Stella's are named after 81
year old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself
and successfully sued Macdonald's. That case inspired
the Stella Awards for the most frivolous successful
lawsuits in the United States.
Unfortunately the most recent lawsuit implicating
Macdonald's; The teens who allege that eating at
Macdonald's has made them fat, was filed after the
2002 award voting was closed. This suit will top the
2003 awards list, without question.
5th place (Tied).
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 in a
furniture store. The owners of the store were
understandably surprised at the verdict, considering
the misbehaving toddler was Ms Robertson's own son.
5th place (Tied).
19 year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and
medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand
with a Honda Accord. Mr Truman apparently did not
notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when
he was trying to steal its hubcaps.
5th place (Tied).
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 could not 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 8 days. He
subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large
bag of dry dog food. He sued the house owner's
insurance, claiming the situation caused him undue
mental anguish. The Jury agreed to the tune of
$500,000
4th place
Jerry Williams of Little Rock Arkansas was awarded
$14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the
buttocks by his next door neighbour's Beagle dog. The
Beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The
award was less than sought, however, because the jury
felt the dog might have been a little provoked at the
time since Mr. Williams, who had climbed over the
fence into the yard, was shooting it repeatedly with a
pellet gun.
3rd place
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.
2nd place
Kara Walton of Claymont Delaware sued the owner of a
Night Club in a neighbouring city when she fell from
the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out two
of her front teeth. This occurred whilst Ms. Walton
was trying to sneak out of the window in the Ladies
Room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was
awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.
1st Place
This year's runaway winner was Mr Merv Grazinski of
Oklahoma City Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a
brand new Winnebago Motor Home. On his trip home from
an OU football game, having driven onto the Freeway,
he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left
the driver's seat to go to the back and make himself a
cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the RV left the
Freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued
Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual
that he could not actually do this. The jury awarded
him $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago 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 vehicles.

EDIT: From information further down the thread, these cases are all false.

[CCW]

Out of interest, have these so called judges and jury heard of a thing called rationality?

[ctgilles]

1 smilie abou US justice:
:ROTF:

[st0nedpenguin]

I thought this thread was about some kind of Wife Beater based alcohol awards at first, but it's actually dumb american juries, I was disappointed, but not anymore. :D

[Thaddy]

Wow, if I was one of those judges, I would just laugh in their faces and tell them to get the fcuk out of my courtroom.

[Holst]

Originally posted by Thaddy
Wow, if I was one of those judges, I would just laugh in their faces and tell them to get the fcuk out of my courtroom.

They would sue you for unfair dismissal and some moron would award them compensation....

I think i can say this on behalf of everybody that greedy laywers suck a$$$/

[eddy]

all those lawsuits are fake

[docah]

Eddy: Thankfully you are correct. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/100602_s3.htm

[eddy]

Originally posted by docah
Eddy: Thankfully you are correct. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/100602_s3.htm
http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.htm

[KnightElite]

Interesting. Isn't the internet great? :D.

[Smizack]

I had a perfect chance a week ago. I was walking through Hastings aimlessly because they never have the games I want.
And I saw a small skateboard in the middle of the isle.

I thought about it, but I wouldn't want a crappy video store named after me.

[2fast4u]

Originally posted by Smizack

I thought about it, but I wouldn't want a crappy video store named after me.

LMAO!!!! Thank goodness you have high video gaming standards!!

[kokoro_kara]

Yep, a lot of misinformation out there about lawsuits.

When I took a business law course I found out why the legal system does what it does. The McDonalds example was brought up and it was amazing how distorted my view was. For one, if I remember correctly she wasn't awarded all of that money, but the court put in punitive amounts.

It was described as such to me. If you have a large enough corporation that is worth billions and possible receiving millions more by their neglegent behavior what sort of punishment is going to deter them. a few thousand, no way man. You got to hit them with the big bucks and punish them. So courts will award such high dollar cases and I believe the state pockets a bunch of it. Does anyone know about this part for sure? That's what I remember and here is a good example.


http://www.enbanc.org/archives/000338.html

[Smizack]

Originally posted by 2fast4u
LMAO!!!! Thank goodness you have high video gaming standards!!

Ya know.:D

[docah]

My only problem with the McDonalds case is that she got ANYTHING.

Edit: I ranted... but it's way off topic.

[Tedinde]

Man i cant wait to get run over by a car or something tomorrow. Im gettin paid!!!!!

And hopefully i'll go to the hospital and the doctors will remove something i really need by accident!!!

man im going to be rolling the dough!!!!

[st0nedpenguin]

A friend of my mothers got about £3000 because she tripped over a wonky paving slab, admittedly it should have been flat, but everyone else managed not to trip over it.

[Iridium192_217]

LOL

our legal system is so great...

[x-kid]

hehe can't believe so many people get money for their own stupid mistakes

[antipop]

Thank god it's all fake, it's not because it's not in the manual that means that you can do it and getting paid after
Like the story of the woman who put her cat in the microwave to dry it, is completely false. If there was a lawsuit she would have lost.
However it's true that the us penal system often gives large amount of money, like the tobacco lawsuits. In europe no one would get that much money. If it's the company faults, they have to pay, but i never heard that you get money because you're a moron, otherwise there would be way less poor people in the world!

[sky]

yup over here the judge would flip you a bird for trying to pull something like that off. some weeks ago, there's been a guy who used to smoke a lot and tried to sue the tobacco industry for making him an addict (yeah, right). and as a result of that 'forced' addiction his lungs went to hell (and some other 'parts') so he decided it's time for the tobacco industry to pay their dues.

well his lawsuit was rejected - and rightfully so (imo). i don't know for how long, but it's been at least 10 yrs now that the tobacco industry has to put warning tags onto their packs - stuff like 'smoking is bad for your health, smoking during pregnancy can harm your child, ...'. and lately they put some pretty bad pictures on it, blackened lungs and stuff like that. so for anyone to come up and say they made him an addict is pretty ridiculous, because he should have known right from the start what he was in for. - and it's not that the media doesn't report about the bad consequences of smoking either.

my favorite quote on that topic:

"the reason why common sense (isn't working):
the idiots that should have been killed whilst hunting their food now just buy it in the supermarket"

[st0nedpenguin]

Exactly, thanks to modern medical science, all the ridiculously dumb people actually make it to breeding age, so much for natural selection...

[gobbo]

I am still amazed by the near "stupidity" of the American legal system, hopefully our British one won't go that far!

[antipop]

The only countre were the tobacco industry paid heavy fine was in the usa, in europe pretty all of them were won by the firm. I think in france only one guy won, and only for the period before there were marks on the packs that it's harmful for the health.
Now on every pack, i think that on 1/3 of the space there must be message like smoking kills or other stuff like that. The pack of cigarette is now around 5€ (6-7$)

[eddy]

Originally posted by sky
yup over here the judge would flip you a bird for trying to pull something like that off. some weeks ago, there's been a guy who used to smoke a lot and tried to sue the tobacco industry for making him an addict (yeah, right). and as a result of that 'forced' addiction his lungs went to hell (and some other 'parts') so he decided it's time for the tobacco industry to pay their dues.

well his lawsuit was rejected - and rightfully so (imo). - Sky, you live in Germany? If you do, how much of the money, that those companies earn, goes to the government? If the majority of the money goes to the government, that's why the cases are thrown out.
In the United States, the majority of the money stays with the company. That's why people in the U.S. can get away with it.

[sky]

Originally posted by eddy
- Sky, you live in Germany? If you do, how much of the money, that those companies earn, goes to the government? If the majority of the money goes to the government, that's why the cases are thrown out.
In the United States, the majority of the money stays with the company. That's why people in the U.S. can get away with it.

i'm not a smoking joe myself, so i don't read up on the tax-percentage for cigarettes that much, but it must be huge. ~10 yrs ago a pack was 4dm (~2 euros, ~$2.5). last thing i heard it was around 3-3.5 eur. and the number of cigs per pack is decreasing aswell.. anyway.. my assumption would be a good 50% is tax (hidden aswell as regular). same with fuel on cars..

onto the earnings. i don't really know how much they earn and what is taken of them... it might help them being us-owned in most cases, so taxes might not be their biggest prob over here.. or do i mess stuff up right now (regarding the individual taxes)?.


ahh. i'm sleepy atm. will get back to this tomorrow and do a little research before posting :D

[kokoro_kara]

Originally posted by antipop
If it's the company faults, they have to pay, but i never heard that you get money because you're a moron, otherwise there would be way less poor people in the world!

LOL

[kokoro_kara]

So, curious:D :D :D


Let's say you backed your vehicle into a tree. Should you sue the manufacturer of that vehicle?

And if so, should you win?


Now what if you did the same thing and the vehicle exploded and caused major damages to you, not to mention the poor tree :eek: ?

So should you sue the manufacturer?

And if so, should you win?


The reason I ask these questions is in both examples it was obvious the person driving the vehicle fault. However, if the damages are above and beyond a normal circumstance would yield, then maybe some other factors/responsibility come into the picture.

So, staying with my second hypothetical example (the vehicle blowing up): What if upon further investigation it is learned that a support bushing for the gas tank was in the design of the vehicle, however due to cost, management decided not to include it so they could save 24 dollars per vehicle. The engineer told management if they did that they would be greater likley hood of fatal accidents and such. Management did it anyway.

Now the point is, managment would then be liable for the above normal damages.

So, when you spill coffe on your lap that is ultra F'n hot...

Or when you might be the target of add campaigns as a child and you were able to shoplift cigarettes from the counter. Where it was found out later the company purposely targeted children and even enticed store owners to put cigarettes accessible to young shoplifters to create adult addicts...... Maybe then, just then you should loose in a lawsuit :D :D

Again, many of these lawsuits are paid to the State to punish LARGE COrpoarations.

The point is, we are all responsible, even the person making the car, pooring the concrete, or boiling the coffee.

Now, please let me clarify: If you are really dumb, it is no one else's fault. But if you are normally dumb ;) then maybe there is a percentage where someone else is liable too.

That's what the USA's legal system is trying to achieve. And to think we are labeled as ultra corporate :p:

Also I have to add. After traveling in some 3rd world countries, I am very proud of this system. It makes everyone make sure they have their crap together.

Maybe I'll see if I can find my picture of a train in Thailand and you guys will know what I mean.

:toast:

[antipop]

I agree with you but what i think can be devastating is like someone suing you because you sold him a muffin containing nuts without telling him and the guy has an allergy against nuts. That kind of lawsuits can costs you your business. Who's should win the allergic guy who didn't asked if that contain muffins or the shop owners who didn't mentionned it?

[eddy]

Who's should win the allergic guy who didn't asked if that contain muffins or the shop owners who didn't mentionned it? No one should win. The lawsuit shouldn't go to court. The court system has turned out to be a complete joke when it comes to lawsuits. 20 years ago, this stuff rarely happened. People need to take responsibility for their own actions. You should look at what you're buying first before you buy it. If it's not what you wanted, take it back.

[Smizack]

Originally posted by kokoro_kara
So, curious:D :D :D


Let's say you backed your vehicle into a tree. Should you sue the manufacturer of that vehicle?


Damn right.

Anti tree bumpers my ass...:rolleyes:

[sky]

Originally posted by eddy
No one should win. The lawsuit shouldn't go to court. The court system has turned out to be a complete joke when it comes to lawsuits. 20 years ago, this stuff rarely happened. People need to take responsibility for their own actions. You should look at what you're buying first before you buy it. If it's not what you wanted, take it back.

yea, exactly my point of view. the only reason for any such lawsuits would be what happened with ford and their pinto (dunno if i remember this right). when the gastanks ruptured on impact and immediately started burning, making it impossible for anybody to escape - and that was known to the company. then in that case the company should pay, and big time to serve as a reminder.
but with cases like that ever so often quoted mcdonalds chick, i wouldn't give her any money. after all coffee is served hot. and if you're too f***ing stupid to get it to your table or to drink it without spilling it all over you, that's tough luck.

i could sue the who made my oven for not giving me the info that food taken right out of it might be too hot to touch - or eat.

i regard most of these lawsuits as scam. some dumb people trying to get rich by doing dumb stuff - maybe even intentionally, after all who is to tell the difference? why can't the just kill themselves instead of making others suffer for them? ;)


smizack..
nah the guy who planted the tree right there should pay... wtf was he thinking just planting his darn tree where that guy wanted to drive?
:D

[eddy]

is there anyone here who works at a place where they serve coffee? I heard people aren't allowed to hand people a cup of coffee. They have to put it on a counter or a table and let the customer pick the coffee up themselves. I just wanna know if that's true or not.

[antipop]

eddy i worked in a coffee place and i never heard of such a rule but i always put the coffe on the counter because it's easier this way and you don't risk to spill it while handing or waiting for the customer to take it. Usually you have someting else to do at the same time (like taking care of the cashier,...)
The coffe was always hot but never to the point you could burn yourself with it

ps i read alot of people here saying that the system was wrong,... I think that you can't judge a system on this kind of points but rather on it's ability to sentence the right guy and not an innocent and mostly the fact that no one is over the system, then each systems has it's flaws. In the usa, there's this culture of "you'll receive a letter from my lawayer" thing but it's often only a matter of talking

[AngryAlpaca]

I like the British and Canadian way, where, if it's incredibly stupid, it's just thrown out, and the person who tried to do it has to pay any and all expenses.

[kokoro_kara]

Cool rap on the ole Topic,

I see people can see the grey, or maybe ghey ;) , in the system.

One thing I would like to add, even though we may hate them, lawyers are medium in which we have civilization. And with civilizations with well developed laws and freedoms there has been historically great Golden Eras of Civilization.

And, we are at one of them NOW! Man isn't great the time we are living in, and to think lawyers helped it happen....

Still, the only good lawyer is a ........

:toast:

PS. I'm to tired, but hopefully soon I will post that train picture from thailand....