stella awards 2011

[mookie1995]

It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'!


For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know the kind of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy


Here are the Stellas for this past year -- 2011


*SEVENTH PLACE*


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 store owners were understandably
surprised by 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 medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord.
Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

Scratch some more...


* FIFTH PLACE *

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting 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
of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's
insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all 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 the
Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.


Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..


* THIRD PLACE *

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a
Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a
spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their 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 a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.


Ok. Here we go!! Drum roll ...


* FIRST PLACE *

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv
Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home.
On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owners manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

 

[unofan]

Re: stella awards 2011

and if you believe any of these are real and not urban legends, i've got a bridge to sell you...

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

 

[HumRsky]

Re: stella awards 2011

Interesting note I recently heard on NPR about the McDonalds lady: she was not driving, she was a passenger, and the car was parked. She was in a car with no cup holders, was trying to remove the cap to add cream and sugar, which was not added for you at the time and McDonalds had already settled other cases because the coffee was not only hot, but kept at a temperature that would cause immediate 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The lady was also found 20% at fault. While still exorbitant, it was not as bad as people think.

 

[amherstblackbear]

Re: stella awards 2011

Interesting note I recently heard on NPR about the McDonalds lady: she was not driving, she was a passenger, and the car was parked. She was in a car with no cup holders, was trying to remove the cap to add cream and sugar, which was not added for you at the time and McDonalds had already settled other cases because the coffee was not only hot, but kept at a temperature that would cause immediate 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The lady was also found 20% at fault. While still exorbitant, it was not as bad as people think.

Caution: don't click the link below if you get queasy easily. Yuck.
http://images.google.com/search?tbm...40l4867l0l6952l17l17l0l6l6l0l174l1250l0j8l8l0

 

[Foxton]

Re: stella awards 2011

Interesting note I recently heard on NPR about the McDonalds lady: she was not driving, she was a passenger, and the car was parked. She was in a car with no cup holders, was trying to remove the cap to add cream and sugar, which was not added for you at the time and McDonalds had already settled other cases because the coffee was not only hot, but kept at a temperature that would cause immediate 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The lady was also found 20% at fault. While still exorbitant, it was not as bad as people think.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good poutrage story.

 

[duper]

Re: stella awards 2011

Now let's here some of the THOUSANDS of stories of people whose lives were destroyed, or even ended, by the stupidity and negligence of other people. Stories wherein the only recourse people had was the civil justice system.

Or better yet, the stories of those same kinds of people, but who drew juries full of knuckleheads who think all lawsuits are frivolous so that the millions of dollars worth of medical bills that insurance companies refused to pay on some technicality, combined with the physical impairment and loss of quality of life cause severe depression (resulting, often, in even more medical bills) for the rest of the person's life.

Yep, the civil justice system is a joke all right.

(Why the f do I keep clicking on threads started by mookie?)

Interesting note I recently heard on NPR about the McDonalds lady: she was not driving, she was a passenger, and the car was parked. She was in a car with no cup holders, was trying to remove the cap to add cream and sugar, which was not added for you at the time and McDonalds had already settled other cases because the coffee was not only hot, but kept at a temperature that would cause immediate 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The lady was also found 20% at fault. While still exorbitant, it was not as bad as people think.

So what you're saying is, the news stories didn't give us the whole truth? That darn liberal media bias!

(And for the record, I'm not a lawyer )

 

[pirate]

Re: stella awards 2011

At least the winnebago story is BS according to a quick google on same.

That isn't to say there is no such thing as a frivolous lawsuit.

If you were really a conspiracy theorist you'd say the lawyers put this out every year so it makes all such lawsuits sound like urban myths.



mookie - if you are being held captive and forced to put things on the internet against your will, reply with three 'eek' smilies

 

[FreshFish]

Re: stella awards 2011

That isn't to say there is no such thing as a frivolous lawsuit.

The one that follows did happen and was a catalyst behind Texas' tort reform. Years ago, Texas was one of the preferred states for forum-shopping. A man had too much to drink and drove his car off the road where it curved. He sued the engineering firm that designed the road for not having it banked high enough and he won.

There is another classic lawsuit story, in which the person who won the suit was granted $1 award. I wish I could recall enough details on that one to search for it.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: stella awards 2011

Now let's here some of the THOUSANDS of stories of people whose lives were destroyed, or even ended, by the stupidity and negligence of other people. Stories wherein the only recourse people had was the civil justice system.

Excellent reminder. I worked for a trial attorney for awhile, he was very picky about which cases he took on. He only accepted cases that looked like a sure-fire winner that also had a big payout attached. In that state, he could get all expenses reimbursed, AND 40% of the judgment as well.

One case was a man whose wife and daughter were run off the road and killed by a commercial trucker on amphetamines. Another was a guy who contracted an infectuous disease through a bone marrow transplant.

Certainly the victims here deserved some compensation. At the same time, I always wondered if the proceeds were divided appropriately, in that the victims received slightly more than half of the total judgment.

My own view has been colored by direct personal experience. I was on crutches waiting to be seated at a restaurant when a man approached me and asked about my injury (I had hurt it playing volleyball in a co-ed league). He wanted to sue the school district in which the game took place. I was reluctant to do so, because I did not want the league to be kicked out of the school. He told me not to worry about it, the case would never go to court, they'd settle for $10K (which would come from the schools' liability insurance), he'd get $3K and I'd get $7K just for signing a few forms. As soon as he left I wanted to wash my hands.

 

[amherstblackbear]

Re: stella awards 2011

I don't teach law, but I have to imagine the Mickey D's case is actually kind of interesting. From what I know, they received a number of complaints regarding the temperature of their coffee, which was often straight from the perc, just below boiling.

Yes, the old cup between the legs trick is dubious. And surely that confers a healthy dose of responsibility on the customer. But if your business runs tens of thousands of drive-thrus, serving beverages in disposable cups with occasionally poor-fitting lids*, then maybe handing out a coffees at north of 200 degrees through a drive through window, to a customer reaching up through their car window, is not such a good idea. The whole idea of "normal accidents" . . . you can't reasonably expect not to have spillage, so why not serve from thermal carafes at hot (but not 3rd degree burn inducing) temperature, like most other retailers? I'm not a burn expert, but a google image search turns up some stomach-turning images for the McD's coffee woman. If that were my mom / grandmother, I'd be on the legal warpath, too.

*Who here hasn't grabbed a cup of coke from a drive-thru only to have the lid pop off and some of the Coke slosh out?

 

[Old Pio]

Re: stella awards 2011

http://www.dumbwarnings.com/warnings/food/

 

[Kepler]

Re: stella awards 2011

and if you believe any of these are real and not urban legends, i've got a bridge to sell you...

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

It's almost as if this was an obvious political agenda to undermine all lawsuits of companies that injure people with their malfeasance.

 

[True Blue Fan]

Re: stella awards 2011

Interesting note I recently heard on NPR about the McDonalds lady: she was not driving, she was a passenger, and the car was parked. She was in a car with no cup holders, was trying to remove the cap to add cream and sugar, which was not added for you at the time and McDonalds had already settled other cases because the coffee was not only hot, but kept at a temperature that would cause immediate 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The lady was also found 20% at fault. While still exorbitant, it was not as bad as people think.

HBO played a documentary within the last year called "Hot Coffee". It was about tort reform laws and had an emphasis on the McDonald ladies case. Really interesting piece, you may be able to find on HBO on Demand etc.

 

[pirate]

Re: stella awards 2011

It's almost as if this was an obvious political agenda to undermine all lawsuits of companies that injure people with their malfeasance.

If we created a matrix in which one axis was size of judgment and the other was severity of issue I believe we would see problems in the "big issue, small judgment" and the "small issue, big judgment" categories.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: stella awards 2011

If we created a matrix in which one axis was size of judgment and the other was severity of issue I believe we would see problems in the "big issue, small judgment" and the "small issue, big judgment" categories.

Excellent point.

While those two quadrants get the headlines, based on my limited anecdotal experience, the most questionable activities seem to occur in the "small issue, small judgment" category (what might be described in another context as "death by a thousand cuts"), in which a relatively spurious suit is brought merely in hopes that it is cheaper to pay them to go away than it is to contest it (those "as soon as our lawyer picks up the phone we owe him $10K while they will go away if we give them $6.5K" deals). These are the ones that drive up everyone's liability insurance premiums; and these are the ones where proponents of tort reform argue that if the initiator of a civil suit loses at trial, he (she) should have to pay the defendant's legal costs.

That's why there is pre-trial discovery, after all (or so I've been told, at least): so that both sides can settle at a mutually-agreeable number before ever going to trial. If the plaintiff's suit has any merit at all, they will get something; but cases with no merit whatsoever will no longer be paid merely to go away (how many times to you see blaring headlines of a $50 million suit being filed; then weeks later read on p 25. of section D that the suit was settled for $125,000??)

 

[duper]

Re: stella awards 2011

http://www.dumbwarnings.com/warnings/food/

I love the inclusion of "This product contains nuts" on a packet of peanuts. While I would imagine that most processing plants that process peanuts also process nuts, it makes me wonder if the person who compiled the list is the one person on Earth who still thinks peanuts are nuts.

It's almost as if this was an obvious political agenda to undermine all lawsuits of companies that injure people with their malfeasance.

I don't think it's political, I think it's corporate. Although political in the sense that I assume that the Congress members leading the tort reform charge are heavily financed in one way or another by the insurance industry.

 

[duper]

Re: stella awards 2011

Excellent point.

While those two quadrants get the headlines, based on my limited anecdotal experience, the most questionable activities seem to occur in the "small issue, small judgment" category (what might be described in another context as "death by a thousand cuts"), in which a relatively spurious suit is brought merely in hopes that it is cheaper to pay them to go away than it is to contest it (those "as soon as our lawyer picks up the phone we owe him $10K while they will go away if we give them $6.5K" deals). These are the ones that drive up everyone's liability insurance premiums; and these are the ones where proponents of tort reform argue that if the initiator of a civil suit loses at trial, he (she) should have to pay the defendant's legal costs.

That's why there is pre-trial discovery, after all (or so I've been told, at least): so that both sides can settle at a mutually-agreeable number before ever going to trial. If the plaintiff's suit has any merit at all, they will get something; but cases with no merit whatsoever will no longer be paid merely to go away (how many times to you see blaring headlines of a $50 million suit being filed; then weeks later read on p 25. of section D that the suit was settled for $125,000??)

Cases with no merit whatsoever are generally dismissed by the judge.

 

[pirate]

Re: stella awards 2011

I love the inclusion of "This product contains nuts" on a packet of peanuts. While I would imagine that most processing plants that process peanuts also process nuts, it makes me wonder if the person who compiled the list is the one person on Earth who still thinks peanuts are nuts.

I don't think it's political, I think it's corporate. Although political in the sense that I assume that the Congress members leading the tort reform charge are heavily financed in one way or another by the insurance industry.

Oh, I would suggest that the bar is a far bigger influence than you are recognizing.

Also, relative to a different comment, the budget for a corporate legal department is focused on settlements. There are few times a company really wants to spend 2 years and millions of dollars fighting a case.

A back and forth on examples could fill a whole thread...we all know there are cases that are completely with merit and the company should be held responsible. The opposite it true as well, and not all judges are quick to take the side of the big bad corporation. So, the cases get settled. Ask the company and they'd say it is basically extortion. There have been quite a few instances of law firms getting caught hiring people to create class action suits with little to no merit, just so they could threaten enough action to get a settlement, of which the law firm keeps most.

 

[Wol4ine]

Re: stella awards 2011

Jessie Dimmick, Former Colo. Kidnapper, Is Suing His Former Hostages For Breach Of Contract

I'm not sure how long before this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/29/jessie-dimmick-is-suing-h_n_1119317.html got tossed out.

Woman Sued Carnival Claiming Cruise Ship Was Too Fast

You'd think as long as it didn't catch fire and go dead in the water, or worse, CAPSIZE, she'd be grateful. But NOOO!!! http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/03/23/woman-sued-carnival-claiming-cruise-ship-was-too-fast/?loc=interstitialskip

A friend told Hohenberg that, nutritionally, Nutella resembles a candy bar, and Hohenberg—shocked and angry—filed a lawsuit against Nutella.

Evidently this woman beleived the the chocolate-hazelnut spread was more nutritious than chocolate and hazelnuts eaten seperately.http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2011/08/go_ahead_eat_chocolate_for_breakfast.html

I don't know if any of these were thrown out immediately. But I do think they are real. I could be wrong though.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: stella awards 2011

It's almost as if this was an obvious political agenda to undermine all lawsuits of companies that injure people with their malfeasance.

I think the idea is to undermine all frivolous lawsuits by lawyers who injure our society, by among other things, increasing the cost of business, thus consumer prices, with their rapacious desire for mo money. It's a racket.