the stella awards -believe it or not

[goober]

Wahoooo what hope have ya got?lol



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 inNew 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 Stellas for this past 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 someone 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 , who 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. What ever happened to people
being responsible for their own actions?

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 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 court system is out of control, be sure to pass this one on.

 

[mission_fail]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ch'e</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?</div></div>
That says it all.

Glad you said court system and not justice system.

 

[k20350]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

My cousin knows a guy that passed out drunk and coming down from Cocaine left the roadway and crashed into the "Welcome" sign for their town. He sued the city and got $250,000 because the sign was supposedly too close to the road.

 

[The Mechanic]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

Great stories if they were true. Not to say stuff like this couldn't happen but you just need to "snopes" the First Place and you can see it was made up.

 

[leagle2]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

Here are the real facts:

"There is a lot of hype about the McDonalds' scalding coffee case. No one is in favor of frivolous cases of outlandish results; however, it is important to understand some points that were not reported in most of the stories about the case. McDonalds coffee was not only hot, it was scalding -- capable of almost instantaneous destruction of skin, flesh and muscle. Here's the whole story.

Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of her grandson's car when she was severely burned by McDonalds' coffee in February 1992. Liebeck, 79 at the time, ordered coffee that was served in a styrofoam cup at the drivethrough window of a local McDonalds.

After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from the cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents of the cup spilled into her lap.

The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and held it next to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonalds refused.

During discovery, McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks. This history documented McDonalds' knowledge about the extent and nature of this hazard.

McDonalds also said during discovery that, based on a consultants advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste. He admitted that he had not evaluated the safety ramifications at this temperature. Other establishments sell coffee at substantially lower temperatures, and coffee served at home is generally 135 to 140 degrees.

Further, McDonalds' quality assurance manager testified that the company actively enforces a requirement that coffee be held in the pot at 185 degrees, plus or minus five degrees. He also testified that a burn hazard exists with any food substance served at 140 degrees or above, and that McDonalds coffee, at the temperature at which it was poured into styrofoam cups, was not fit for consumption because it would burn the mouth and throat. The quality assurance manager admitted that burns would occur, but testified that McDonalds had no intention of reducing the "holding temperature" of its coffee.

Plaintiffs' expert, a scholar in thermodynamics applied to human skin burns, testified that liquids, at 180 degrees, will cause a full thickness burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other testimony showed that as the temperature decreases toward 155 degrees, the extent of the burn relative to that temperature decreases exponentially. Thus, if Liebeck's spill had involved coffee at 155 degrees, the liquid would have cooled and given her time to avoid a serious burn.

McDonalds asserted that customers buy coffee on their way to work or home, intending to consume it there. However, the companys own research showed that customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while driving.

McDonalds also argued that consumers know coffee is hot and that its customers want it that way. The company admitted its customers were unaware that they could suffer thirddegree burns from the coffee and that a statement on the side of the cup was not a "warning" but a "reminder" since the location of the writing would not warn customers of the hazard.

The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages. This amount was reduced to $160,000 because the jury found Liebeck 20 percent at fault in the spill. The jury also awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages, which equals about two days of McDonalds' coffee sales.

Post-verdict investigation found that the temperature of coffee at the local Albuquerque McDonalds had dropped to 158 degrees fahrenheit.

The trial court subsequently reduced the punitive award to $480,000 -- or three times compensatory damages -- even though the judge called McDonalds' conduct reckless, callous and willful.

No one will ever know the final ending to this case.

The parties eventually entered into a secret settlement which has never been revealed to the public, despite the fact that this was a public case, litigated in public and subjected to extensive media reporting. Such secret settlements, after public trials, should not be condoned."



Don't you just hate it when the facts get in the way of a great internet story.

 

[Maggot]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

Puh-fucking-leaze tell me this isnt true. Person spills coffee on self....gets rich for it...........

Welcome to America.

 

[jericho]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

And then my wife only gets $2500 from the womens insurance who drove into her while she was cycling and then fled the scene. Her hip still hurts from it 2years later.

 

[65nut]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

wtf, these people have to sit down with smart lawyers and think "how can we fuck the system today?"

 

[Early Cuyler]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

I agree that Stella Liebeck's injuries were severe and that the story has been contorted to just about every point of view. I also agree with large punitive damages being awarded when companies are not only liable but knowingly putting their consumers at risk (e.g. 185 degree coffee). However I don't believe all the punitive damages should go to the individual. Yes they should be compensated for their medical bills, lost wages, and even "mental anguish", but the lion's share of the 2.7 million punitive damages should have gone to a charity of some sort (children's burn ward, perhaps?). Again, that's my opinion.


I remember when I was 4-5 and shopping with my family. It was time to leave the mall and we were going through a JC Penny or Macy's. My parents were walking the path, but I just HAD to race them by running through the store (not unlike a mini-mall-ninja). Well I'm getting close to the exit doors, turn at the final shirt table and BAM! Face first into a mannequin display and as if in slow motion I just watched these white giants tumble to the ground and break apart. I had a nice bruise on my forehead after that. Then plenty on my ass from my dad when we got home, haha.

I guess I could've sued the department store for lack of signage or some crap.

 

[smokshwn]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

What's really amazing is the same people win these every year.......or wait maybe it's just there is a large batch of idiots who repost the same shitty joke over and over....that must be it

 

[goober]

Re: the stella awards -believe it or not

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: smokshwn</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What's really amazing is the same people win these every year.......or wait maybe it's just there is a large batch of idiots who repost the same shitty joke over and over....that must be it

</div></div>guess some people still know how to have a laugh- you should try sometime