Stellaaaa

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:28 pm

It's time once again to consider the candidates for 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.

The following are this year's candidates:

1. Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a nightclub 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.

2. 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 was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3. A 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 hub caps.

4. A. Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 a! after she slipped on a soft drink spill 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.

5. 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.

6. A jury of her peers awarded Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, $780,000 after breaking her ankle by 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.

7. This year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, 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 R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $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 buying their recreation vehicles.

And now you know why things cost more than they should.

TheCops · Post by **TheCops** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:34 pm

lol.
the "non-personal responsibility awards"

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:37 pm

It is a disgrace to the legal system that juries this stupid are allowed to rule.

For that matter it is a disgrace to humanity that some people are that stupid period.

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:48 pm

woodchip wrote:And now you know why things cost more than they should.

And, you know, the frightening part is that these cases don't even begin to explain it. I had a friend who heard the stories coming from legal department of a large vehicle manufacturing plant. No matter how inane the lawsuit was, it is frequently cheaper to settle it outside of court than run it through the system.

Ka-ching, ka-ching, let the cash register ring.

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:15 pm

It would have been real justice if some of these Stella Award candidates had become Darwin Award candidates, if you catch my drift

.

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:36 pm

Who knows? Instant karma is gonna' get ya.

Zuruck · Post by **Zuruck** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 7:05 am

I wonder though, how many of these got juries. Usually, the company settles out of court to avoid more costs than the awarded amount. It's the american way, be stupid and get tons of money. Look at Bush

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:33 am

You know, #3 and 4 would make great animated "owned" pics when you think about it.

I hope for the guy in #5's sake that the emergency release on the door was also broken or missing, or there would be even more 'mental anguish' for thinking that he was stuck for 8 days but could have gotten out by simply pulling a pin out of the top of the door.

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 1:06 pm

I think I'll need to print this out

Drakona · Post by **Drakona** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 4:57 pm

The thing to be aware of in some of these is that there's more to the story than there appears. This is certainly true in the Stella Liebeck case, where the coffee she spilled wasn't just hot, but dangerously hot. It took a year or so for her to recover fully, if I recall correctly. (See here.)

I mean, I'm sure there are cases of people and juries being stupid, but a lot of stories like these do have another side. Just because people are doing stupid or illegal things doesn't mean the circumstances they're trapped or hurt by aren't legitmately dangerous. Like the Stella story, these tend to make funnier anecdotes when balancing information is omitted.

Though in these particular cases, that's all irrelevant. All of the stories posted here are listed by the Snopes as fabricated...

roid · Post by **roid** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 6:19 am

haha thx drac.
this tea party is over

Bold Deceiver · Post by **Bold Deceiver** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:07 am

Drakona wrote:Though in these particular cases, that's all irrelevant. All of the stories posted here are listed by the Snopes as fabricated...

Beat me to it Drak. Remember, folks, if it sounds too bizarre to be true, it probably is.

Juries do strange things, but there are a lot of corrective opportunities built into the system to keep weird results from sticking (remittitur, post-trial motions, appeal, etc.).

BD

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:06 am

Only if you're willing to fight back, though. What I said is true. Companies are often confronted with many frivilous and pointless lawsuits. Unfortunately for the sake of justice, it is often more cost-effective to settle the issue directly rather than paying the lawyers, seeing the judge, going through the appeals process, etc. So, some people are making out like bandits on this sort of legal escapade.

Tricord · Post by **Tricord** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:42 am

I know of a case where General Motors found out that the gas tank could possibly catch fire in some special cases of an accident, causing heavy burns to the passengers of the car.
They calculated that it was cheaper to just settle the actual cases in court rather than to recall and fix the cars suffering from this design flaw.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 10:35 am

True, I think I recall hearing something like that.

Bold Deceiver · Post by **Bold Deceiver** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 3:14 pm

Kyouryuu wrote:Unfortunately for the sake of justice, it is often more cost-effective to settle the issue directly rather than paying the lawyers, seeing the judge, going through the appeals process, etc. So, some people are making out like bandits on this sort of legal escapade.

Most civil suits are knocked out by a dispositive motion early on, or settled. Only a tiny percentage wind up going to trial.

It's true that some people are paid the settlement value of a case early on (say, 5K, please go away). This is particularly so in insurance defense work.

But the fictional awards listed above assume a trial occurred. Where a matter goes to trial and a ridiculous result is rendered by the jury, it's a lot easier to decide to file a couple of motions, or even an appeal, to try to knock it out.

We do need tort reform. I'm just not sure exactly where to begin.

BD

Bold Deceiver · Post by **Bold Deceiver** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 3:19 pm

Tricord wrote:I know of a case where General Motors found out that the gas tank could possibly catch fire in some special cases of an accident, causing heavy burns to the passengers of the car.
They calculated that it was cheaper to just settle the actual cases in court rather than to recall and fix the cars suffering from this design flaw.

Ford Pinto case. They teach it in law school. They probably teach it in business school too (How to Ruin Public Relations for 30 Years). There was a similar accusation against GM recently with the Chevy Stepsides == they had side-mounted gas tanks that were alleged to have a similar defect from side impact. It settled, and owners of said vehicles were issued $500 vouchers for new vehicles, versus something else (can't remember).

The reason I know is because I owned a '75 Scottsdale Stepside when the litigation was going on, and I got one of those vouchers just before I sold it.

Good truck, I miss it (sniff).

BD

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 8:29 pm

Bold Deceiver wrote:We do need tort reform. I'm just not sure exactly where to begin.

I would begin with the blueberry ones. The strawberry ones are much better

Stellaaaa

Stellaaaa

Re: Stellaaaa