TargetTalk

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 kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stellas for this year:

* 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, 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.

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!!


* FIRST PLACE *

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a 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 owner's 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.

All funny I suppose, but all very old fabrications.

http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html

The Stella Awards have been a running joke for years - sad because the original story is really quite serious.

You should look it up sometime. Suffice to say, the McDonald's franchise knew they were serving coffee well above the temperature that will seriously scald. They had received multiple complaints but continued to serve coffee far hotter than it needed to be (you should ask why - it involves $$$). Finally Stella received skin grafts and McDonald's received their comeuppance.

Rover, since I know the only topics that can hold your attention are alcohol and shooting, think about a company that sells .38 Special ammunition loaded to .357 Mag pressures. A couple of shooters damage their revolvers suffering no personal injury and inform the company of the problem. They do nothing, and another shooter blows up his revolver and loses a hand. That's Stella's case.

It's true, Stella's injuries were horrific and McDonalds was well aware of their error.

Joel

So, when does personal responsibility enter into this equation? Oh,... I forgot. In today's litigious society, never.

Dennis
Proud Arizonan

Shirking of Personal responsibility started with McDonalds wanting to make more coffee with lessmgrounds. Then refusing to help cover Stellas medical bills.
IIRC, some responsibility was attributed to Stella. And the award was infintessimally small compared to daily coffee sales.
Third degree burns to your groin are not what one expects from spilled coffee.

Rover, you are so funny

william wrote:Rover, since I know the only topics that can hold your attention are alcohol and shooting, think about a company that sells .38 Special ammunition loaded to .357 Mag pressures. A couple of shooters damage their revolvers suffering no personal injury and inform the company of the problem. They do nothing, and another shooter blows up his revolver and loses a hand. That's Stella's case.

And by "a couple of shooters" you mean >700 complaints.

If you got 700 reports that your ammo was blowing up guns or splitting rims, you'd do something about it before you permanently disfigured one of your customers.

Let me buy you guys a cup of coffee. I'm sure you'd rather have it than a beer.

And William, don't keep your cocked .38 between your legs on a bumpy road.