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You
won't believe this!! |
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2004
Stella Awards |
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It's time once again to review the
winners of the Annual "Stella
Awards."The Stella Awards are named
after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck of New
Mexico who spilled hot coffee on herself
and successfully sued McDonald's. That
case inspired the Stella awards for the
most frivolous, ridiculous, successful
lawsuits in the United States. |
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Here
are this year's winners: |
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7th 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 owners of the store
were understandably surprised at the
verdict, considering the
misbehaving little toddler was Ms.
Robertson's son. |
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6th Place:
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. |
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5th Place:
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 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. |
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