>>> Think the USA court system is out of control
>>> Are these good or WHAT!!

>>> 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 Stella's 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 smeone 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.
>>>
>>> If you think the USA court system is out of control, be sure to pass this one on.
>>>

True or not, there are plenty of stupid people out there doing stupid stuff that backfires and plenty of stupid jurors that figure what the heck, it’s only an insurance company.

And then there are true stories like that of one of my biking buddies. He stepped out the sliding glass door onto the porch and was flogged by an unseen hornet’s nest. Flailing his arms wildly, he tried to go back in the house but his wife locked the door to keep the hornets out of the house. After beating on the door to no avail while being stung, he ran around the yard until the hornets got tired, after-which his wife let him in. Being stung so many times, he started feeling very hot and was having an allergic reaction. He stripped off and got into the shower to cool off, passed out in the shower and fell, splitting his scalp and bleeding profusely. The now concerned wife called 911, EMTs came out to his country home, finally got his slick, wet, feverish, naked and overweight body out of the shower and onto a gurney. Rolling the gurney down the outside steps, the lead EMT walking was backwards, tripped and fell, dumping Bob off the side of the steps and onto the concrete pad in front of the garage, breaking his arm. At least he was unconscious when they dropped him. When he woke up at the hospital he couldn’t figure out how hornet stings resulted in a stitched up scalp and a cast on his arm.

If that wasn’t enough, the next year he was riding his motorcycle on an Illinois interstate when a strong wind blew an empty plastic construction barrel in front of him. Luck had it that he ran his front wheel into the open end of the barrel. Having a plastic barrel stuck over your front wheel at 55 mph has the exact results one would expect, yet another trip to the hospital.

There are other bike dumps and hospital stays I could tell about Bob, but none of us have the time. In this world there are winners and losers and Bob is one of the latter. In addition, some stuff you simply can’t make up.

>>> Think the USA court system is out of control
>>> Are these good or WHAT!!

>>> 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 Stella's 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 smeone 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.
>>>
>>> If you think the USA court system is out of control, be sure to pass this one on.
>>>