And the Stella award goes to.....

[Guest disperse]

Proof of entitlement mentality

 

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 the 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

 

the past year:

 

To kick things off the right way, there was a three-way tie for 5th

 

place.

 

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 store owners were understandably

 

surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own

 

son.

 

===============================================================

 

6TH PLACE:

 

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California - you knew California had

 

to

 

be in the list somewhere, right? - who won $74,000 plus medical

 

expenses

 

when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman

 

apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when

 

he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

 

Go ahead, grab your head scratcher.

 

====================================================

 

5TH 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

 

subsist for eight - count 'em, EIGHT! - days 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...

 

==================================================================

 

4TH 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 pell et gun.

 

Grrrrr ... Scratch, scratch.

 

====================================================

 

3RD 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 (coccyx). The reason the soft

 

drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30

 

seconds earlier during an argument.

 

What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

 

Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there; there are only two more

 

Stellas to go...

 

====================================================

 

2ND PLACE:

 

Kara Walton, of Claymont , Dela ware , 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.

 

====================================================

 

1ST PLACE:

 

This year's runaway 1st 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, no less, having

 

driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calm

 

ly left the driver's! seat t o 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 - you are sitting down, right? $1,750,000

 

PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a

 

result of this suit, just incase Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who

 

might also buy a motor home.

 

 

[Flyer]

:;)2::;)2:;););):confused::confused:

 

Makes you wonder............

 

Regards

 

Phil

 

 

[Bigglesworth]

Question,

 

How come these are identical for the last few years?

 

Answer:

 

They are fake.

 

http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html

 

The true stella awards are even more interesting, since they are real.

 

 

[PaulN]

Bogus or not, each story is based in the US so all are quite believable ;).

 

Paul

 

 

[Guest disperse]

Question,How come these are identical for the last few years?

Answer:

 

They are fake.

 

http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html

 

The true stella awards are even more interesting, since they are real.

I dunno Biggles.... I just got a funny email and pasted it on

 

 

[Flyer]

These ones may be fake BUT they arent far from the truth and it is after all posted in the jokes pages...;)

 

Now the serious bit.... look at some of the law suites that almost put Cessna and Piper out of the aircraft game forever......

 

Regards

 

Phil

 

 

[Bigglesworth]

I dunno Biggles.... I just got a funny email and pasted it on

Sorry Disperse, I didn't want to stop anyone's fun, I know this is the jokes section, but as an email purist, if we let this past, soon someone with teenage daughters will post a thread called "LOL FUNNY, Pass this on" ending with "and if you don't pass it on to 5 people within 4 minutes, you will have bad luck for the next 21 years 2 days and 5 minutes"

 

I have gotten a fair few of those, and have lost friends by returning them with scathing comments.

 

Another form of SPAM:censored:.

 

Have a funny new year

 

 

[Guest Redair]

"LOL FUNNY, Pass this on" ending with "and if you don't pass it on to 5 people within 4 minutes, you will have bad luck for the next 21 years 2 days and 5 minutes"I have gotten a fair few of those, and have lost friends by returning them with scathing comments.

 

Another form of SPAM:censored:.

It's amazing how many people really do think that they must keep this kind of spam alive, and how right you are about them getting touchy about their efforts being deleted without opening, (my little trick) and then informing them that I will never open crap, (ooops, can I use that word?). Anything that has FWD and no message, other than the spam, gets the chop. I would strongly urge everyone else to do the same. It's not just spam, some of this junk contains spyware and other such nasties.

 

Not attacking anyone on here for posting funnies, (real or bogus) after all, that's the point of this section... just having a rant about chain emails.

 

And bogus or not, if it happens in the USA, there's every chance that it's for real!!!!!!!!

 

Redair.

 

 

[storchy neil]

if it has to be sent on it is deleted neil

 

 

[Mazda]

Maybe I should have taken action against Rebel Sport when I sprained my ankle on 23 December (a few years ago) when I tripped when trying on new running shoes that were cabled together. I'd booked an interstate houseboat holiday over Christmas. Try being in a car for 2 days with a leg the size of an elephant, trying to negotiate mesh jetties on crutches, and getting on and off boats. I couldn't even get to the toilet. Cost me a fortune in physio and I had to abandon the holiday.

 

Now that is a stella, and it isn't even fake!

 

 

[Guest Redair]

when I tripped when trying on new running shoes that were cabled together.

Maybe you should have had a longer cable put on the shoes BEFORE trying to run in them!!!

 

Having said that, I once fell off the back of a truck resulting in severe anke injury, 2 days before I was due to go on holiday to Spain... so I know all about not being able to get around easily, (never mind the pain) but it wasn't all bad though, I couldn't drive the hire car, so my wife had to do it all, and I had to drink for both of us to make up for it!!!;)

 

Redair.

 

 

[Mazda]

Great idea Redair, except the cable was a fixed thing attached at both ends with one of those anti-theft security plastic devices. It was about 50cm long.

 

Having a bad ankle is terrible isn't it? It made me feel so useless.