>ONLY IN AMERICA! Time once again to review the winners of the annual
>Stella Awards. The Stellas are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck,
>who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That
>case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful
>lawsuits in the United States. Here are this year's winners:
>
>5th Place (tie): 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.
>
>5th Place (tie):
>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 while
>he was trying to steal his neighbour'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
>
>4th Place: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500
>and medical expenses after being bitten on the rear end 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
>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 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.
>
>1st Place: This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of
>Oklahoma City, OK. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot
>Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home (from an OU football game),
>having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and
>calmly left the drivers 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 explaining in the
>owner's manual that cruise control isn't automatic pilot. The jury
>awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home.
I agree with this completely.
