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Shylah
Spanko
Username: Shylah
Post Number: 603
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 05:18 pm: | 
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THE STELLA AWARDS
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It's 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 (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 neighbour 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 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 buttocks 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 run away 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 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 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.
Take my heart and soul. But please don't step on it, it breaks easily.
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Tammynx
Spanko
Username: Tammynx
Post Number: 231
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2006 - 11:41 pm: |
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OMG...I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry. |
Katie_spades
Spanko
Username: Katie_spades
Post Number: 280
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 09:41 pm: |
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I'm with Tammy on that one, LOL
I'm sorry, but not as sorry as I'm gonna be.
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Ma_vie_en_rose
New member
Username: Ma_vie_en_rose
Post Number: 15
Registered: 01-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2006 - 03:20 am: |
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o.O ...It makes me want to think up some ingenious stupidity before I hop the pond for grad school so I can live at ease.
...Something incredibly stupid, but not horribly disfiguring or emotionally damaging. ^_^; I'm such a wimp |
Bethie
Moderator/Spanking Aficionado
Username: Bethie
Post Number: 654
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2006 - 01:55 pm: |
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I know this email has been floating around for about 4 years, but just in case anyone didn't know it was a joke chain email:
http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/lawsuits.html |
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Everyday Life