The Stella Awards

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by alexb123, Nov 1, 2005.

  1. alexb123 The Amish web page is fast! Valued Senior Member

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    2,238
    God Bless America and its legal system.

    The Stella Awards

    The 'Stellas' 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. Unfortunately, the most recent lawsuit implicating McDonald's, the teen's who allege that eating at McDonald's has made them fat, was filed after the 2002 award voting was closed. This suit will top the 2003 list without question.

    Here are this year's winners:

    5th Place (tie)
    Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 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 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 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 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 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 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.

    1st Place
    This year's run away winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, (from an OU football game), 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 recreation vehicles.
     
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  3. GodlessEvil God is dead Registered Senior Member

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    Madness, absolute madness, this is not the people involved fault, they are just utilising the system, if you knew you could get money you would no matter how silly the claim.
     
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  5. rob k Registered Senior Member

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    What is going on???

    Not everyone thinks like this... but reading through those awards makes me realise how crazy the legal system can be. Not sure how jury duty works in the U.S. but surely some sort of basic inteligence test is required.
     
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  7. wmgurst Registered Member

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    2
    Seen all of these before, various posts through the years. All bogus. We may be screwed up as a society, but we're not that screwed up.
     
  8. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    23,053
    Surely you jest! While the posted incidents might be bogus, the reality is even more strange and weird! Humans have done such stupid, idiotic things that if we were to post all of them, we'd be horrified. In reality, humans can, and do, things that even good fiction can't equal.

    But, ya' know, ye're somewhat correct: "We may be screwed up as a society, but in reality we're even MORE screwed up than anyone can imagine!"

    Baron Max
     
  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    54,036
    The MacDonald's lawsuit was NOT frivolous, heartless morons. Some facts of the case:

    1: Stella Liebeck was a 79-year-old grandmother who was the passenger in her grandson's car.

    2: McDonalds served the coffee at roughly 190 degrees. 190 Degree liquid will cause third-degree burns within 2-7 seconds of contact with the skin.

    3: Stella was wearing cotton jogging pants, and the 190 degree liquid soaked into the pants. She received third-degree burns to her thighs and genitals. This is what a third-degree burn looks like:

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    4: McDonalds admitted that the coffee was not fit for human consumption at the temperature they served it.

    5: Over 700 men, women, and children had been burned prior to Stella's lawsuit.

    6: Stella offered to settle with McDonalds just for her medical bills. They refused.

    http://www.corpreform.com/corpreform/2003/10/the_truth_about.html
     
  10. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    Stella Liebeck is real, the incident is real, the lawsuit is real, and the verdict is real.

    However, the "Stella Awards" are an urban legend. None of them are real. One version includes the "poodle in the microwave" myth with a new twist: the poodle owner sues the microwave manufacturer and wins damages.

    Snopes.com is the best source for busting urban legends. Always check there before falling for this kind of stuff. What's sad is that even though these stories are false, snopes.com presents a whole list of suits similar to these--not as spectacular but just as stupid--that were actually brought to court. The plaintiff lost or the case was dismissed every time, but the fact that our legal system, including FAR too many lawyers looking for something to do, actually allows these cases to get that far is a sad commentary.

    My dear SciForums friends: You people are INTELLIGENT and EDUCATED. That's why you're here in this oasis of intelligence and education, taking a break from the madness out there. Use your critical skills! How can you believe this kind of drenn? It's barely half a step up from the tabloid headlines.

    The McDonalds case was well publicized and drew a reaction of public outrage at the time. Rarely has a corporation received such an outpouring of sympathy. It was pathetic but it was just barely believable. The facts in these other cases are simply not. I mean really, do you actually believe that a judge or jury would take the side of a man who not only TAKES HIS HANDS OFF THE WHEEL and LOOKS AWAY FROM THE ROAD, but actually LEAVES THE DRIVER'S SEAT? He would be in a psych ward! Or an adult that trespasses on someone's property, shoots their dog, and is bitten in self defense? The ARFs would have him doing time for animal cruelty! Children have been forgiven for doing all kinds of stupid and cruel things under the "attractive nuisance" principle (wrongly in my opinion because it's our job to teach children to be responsible for the consequences of their own actions), but it doesn't apply to adults!
     
  11. curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

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    2,429
    Gee, whether these are real of fake, they sure give me some chuckles XD
     
  12. Constantine Registered Member

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    6
    Do those judge even have common sense???
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    54,036
  14. Roman Banned Banned

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    11,560
    The cruise control legend is about as old as cruise control.
     
  15. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    23,053
    So MacDonald's somehow forced her to spill her coffee on herself? Even if the coffee was "regular" temperature, it would have burned her skin. How can anyone find MacD's guilty of someone else's stupidity?

    Should they have had a sign on the coffee cup that said "Caution: Do Not Spill Coffee on Yourself!"???

    The lawsuit was frivilous ....it made someone else responsible for someone else's stupidity and/or carelessness.

    Baron Max
     
  16. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    6,442
    Interestingly, such law suits seem to be very very rare in Europe. I wonder how come.
     
  17. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    54,036
    MacDonalds regularly dispensed coffee at an extreme temperature, which burned many people before this particular lawsuit. If it was at a drinking temperature, it may have been uncomfortable, but it wouldn't have led to third degree burns. MacDonalds had a business interest to serve coffee at an undrinkable level, since people don't complain about hotness unless they spill it on themselves, and "to go" customers tend to drink it at a later time, after it cools off.

    It is within the power of judges to dismiss frivilous lawsuits, and they do. But this case was judged in favor of public safety.
     
  18. Roman Banned Banned

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    11,560
    It was the degree of the burn. Had it been regular temp coffee, she may have got 1st degree burns at worse. However, they served her scalding hot coffee. It was not that she spilled it on herself, it was that McD's served really, really hot coffee.
     
  19. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    54,036
    They generally sit down to drink coffee, and there are few drive-throughs. Even in the gas station convenience stores, you get ceramic cups and a little table to stand and drink it.
     
  20. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,053
    Europeans understand that they should take responsiblity for their own actions. Plus in Europe, attorneys aren't such scumbags as they are here in the USA.

    I think it's funny ...laughable! We have "watch groups" here that FORCE lawnmower manufacturers to put caution signs on the mowers that say: CAUTION: DO NO PUT HANDS OR FEET UNDER MOWER WHEN MOWER IS RUNNING See? Europeans are smart enough to know not to do that ....Americans obviously ain't that smart!!

    Baron Max
     
  21. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,053
    Well, if she hadn't spilled it, she wouldn't have gotten burned at all. It doesn't matter if the coffee had been 4,000,000 degrees, one simply shouldn't spill the hot coffee on themselves. Y'all just aren't wanting anyone to take responsibility for their own actions ...you want to hold someone else to blame (and dole out the money, too!).

    Baron Max
     
  22. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    6,442
    That is true. We tend to take our time with eating and drinking.

    But what puzzles me is that some frivolous lawsuits, as mentioned in the OP, are taking place in America. We don't seem to have such things here; or they at least don't make it into the public much.
     
  23. Roman Banned Banned

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    11,560
    I think if McDonalds served 4 million degree coffee and it burnt my leg off, I should get to sue them. I wanted goddamn coffee, not a disability.

    If you ordered food, and it had broken glass in it, but it came with a little tag that said "Eat around the broken glass" and you cut your gums, what would you do?
     

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