[Vision2020] Intersting stuff part two

[Pat Kraut]

As I said, the jurys, lawyers and courts are really at fault.
PK


Stella Awards....lawsuits...CRAZY
>
>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 McDonalds.  That case inspired the Stella
>Awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United  States.
>
>Unfortunately the most recent lawsuit implicating McDonalds, the teens who
>allege that eating at McDonalds 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
>inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably
>surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving toddler was Ms.
>Robertson's Son.
>
>
>5th place (Tied)
>
>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 did not notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when
>he was trying to steal the hubcaps.
>
>
>5th place (Tied)
>
>Terrence Dickson of Bristol Pennsylvania was leaving a house he had  just
>finished robbing by way of the garage door.  He was not able to get the
>garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning.
>He could not reenter 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
>homeowner'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 neighbor's
>Beagle dog.  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 a
>little provoked at the time as 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 nightclub in a
>neighboring 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 crawl in through the window of 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 new Winnebago motorhome.  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 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 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.






"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long
at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."
Helen Keller