Stella Awards

[Jerry Peck]

Have no idea if these are true or urban myths, but they are funny (unless true, in which case they are simply pathetic).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in USA ). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States . Here is this year's winners! (Keep in mind...These are supposed to be true!)

5th Place (tie):
Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas , was awarded $80,000 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.

5th Place (tie):
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 hubcaps.

5th Place (tie):
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. In my opinion this is so outrageous that it should have been 2nd Place !

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 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 had climbed over the fence into the yard and 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 , 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.

1st Place :
This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma . Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago (RV) motor home. On her first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The Winniebago company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.

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[Thom Walker]

As for the McDonalds case, here is the rest of the story. No one is a bigger oppenent of frivolous lawsuits that I am. This was not one of them. However, the media found its spin to be more interesting, so it has become urban legend as an example of a frivolous suit. For the details.
The Actual Facts about the Mcdonalds' Coffee Case

As for the rest of those examples, they're bunk. I wouldn't be surprised to find a department at every In sur ance Co titled Department of Myths to help sell Policies.

[Joseph P. Hagarty]

FALSE

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Stella Awards

[Bruce Breedlove]

. . . Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago (RV) motor home. On her first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. . . .

True story:

While attending Georgia Tech I knew a student from Iran. This was just before the Iranian Hostage Crisis. He related to me the story about a fellow Iranian student who purchased a new, fully-loaded conversion van. This was circa 1978-79 in the Time Before SUVs. All the Iranian students I knew at GT came from very wealthy families. Unfortunately most of them were very poor students.

This fellow took his new van out for a drive on one of Atlanta's freeways. While driving down the road at about 65 mph (the speed limit was 55 mph back then) he got thirsty so he set his cruise control, got up and went in the back to get a drink out of the refrigerator. Naturally, the van rolled several times in the median and was totalled. (I know - this doesn't say much for GT's admission standards.)

Along came the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the embargo against Iran. Most (if not all) of the Iranian students at Ga. Tech were sent back to Iran. I was watching the news coverage on TV when they reported on Iranians boarding a plane at Hartsfield to head back to Iran. Heading up the stairs to the plane was the guy I knew from GT. That was the last I ever saw of him.

[BARRY ADAIR]

02-06 actual awards

True Stella Awards: the 2005 Winners

[Jerry McCarthy]

Hey, we all know that those Stella Awards are a myth but they sure are fun to read.
Consumer Attorneys of California

[Bruce Breedlove]

Hey, we all know that those Stella Awards are a myth but they sure are fun to read.
[/url]

Kind of like pro wrestling is fun to watch.

[Jerry Peck]

Here's a true one:

An administrative judge sued a dry cleaner for losing a pair of his pants - for $67 MILLION.

After being laughed out of court and losing, he has had to pay the dry cleaners $1,000 in clerical costs and it is now being considered about making him pay the dry cleaners for their "TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS in legal expenses" to defend against his frivolous law suit.

And he was a ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE for crying out loud - how foolish can you get?

[John Ghent]

Here's a true one:

An administrative judge sued a dry cleaner for losing a pair of his pants - for $67 MILLION.

After being laughed out of court and losing, he has had to pay the dry cleaners $1,000 in clerical costs and it is now being considered about making him pay the dry cleaners for their "TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS in legal expenses" to defend against his frivolous law suit.

And he was a ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE for crying out loud - how foolish can you get?

Not only that, there is now a move afoot to have him taken off the bench.

[Rick Hurst]

Wow, those must have been some nice pants.

[Rick Hurst]

I read of a case a few years ago of a young lady suing the City of San Francisco because of losing her job.

Seems this young gal realized that the excessive vibrations on the trolley cars she rode on her lunch hour caused her to have excruciating orgasms.

She started being more and more late back to work from lunch everyday so her employer fired her.

Her attorneys said that the maintenance on the cars were not being performed as needed which led to the vibrations which in turn led to her client becoming obsessed with riding on these cars.

I heard she was awarded like 10+mil. settlement on the suit.

[Joseph P. Hagarty]

Here's a true one:

An administrative judge sued a dry cleaner for losing a pair of his pants - for $67 MILLION.

After being laughed out of court and losing, he has had to pay the dry cleaners $1,000 in clerical costs and it is now being considered about making him pay the dry cleaners for their "TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS in legal expenses" to defend against his frivolous law suit.

And he was a ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE for crying out loud - how foolish can you get?

Administrative law judge Roy Pearson leaves court after the second day of his lawsuit trial in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

[Jerry McCarthy]

Rick has a good memory. That case was made famous by famed attorney Melvin Belli, the King of Torts, who never saw a spotlight he wouldn't jump in. (He was retained to defend Jack Ruby) The case was eventually dismissed after much media attention and the outfall was that cable car riding by females tripled until expectations where not met and then fell off.

[Jerry Peck]

Joe,

I guess that photo does not show from the waist down for a reason?

[Mitchell Captain]

Jerry

Maybe you could submit Joe B. for the 2007 Stella awards?

[Jerry Peck]

Jerry

Maybe you could submit Joe B. for the 2007 Stella awards?

I was thinking 'The Darwin Award'.