2005 Stella Awards!
Time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards."
The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who
spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM).
That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous,
successful lawsuits in the United States.
Here are this year's winners:
5th Place (tie):
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 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 neighbor 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 neighbor'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
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 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.
In my! opinion this is so outrageous that it should have been 2nd Place!
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.
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 neighboring 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,
Oklahoma. 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 driver's 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 advising her in the owner's manual
that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $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 around.