Hi Tony,
Perfect lead-in for an email I got the other day. The usual disclaimers as to reality vs. urban myth apply, but very funny reading nonetheless.
Jamie
> AMERICAN LAWSUITS
> It's time once again to consider the candidates for the annual Stella
> Awards. 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. 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 didn't notice there was
> someone
> at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbour'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 neighbour'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 neighbouring 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 favourite 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 RV 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
> vehicles.
>
> The winning story.......
>
> A Charlotte, NC, lawyer purchased a box of very rare
> and expensive cigars, then insured them against fire
> among other things. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile
of
> these great cigars and without yet having made even his
> first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed
> claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the
> lawyer stated the cigars were lost "in a series of
> small fires". The insurance company refused to pay,
> citing the obvious reason, that the man had consumed
> the cigars in the normal fashion.
> The lawyer sued and won.
>
> In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the
> insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The
> judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a
> policy from the company in which it had warranted that
> the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it
> would insure them against fire, without defining what
> is considered to be unacceptable fire, and was
> obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure lengthy
> and costly appeal process, the insurance company
> accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for
> his loss of the rare cigars lost in the "fires".
>
> Now for the best part ...
> After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance
> company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson. With
> his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous
> case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted
> of intentionally burning his insured property and was
> sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.
> This is a true story and was the first place winner in
> the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.
