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?
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> 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.
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> Here are the Stella's for this year:
> · SEVENTH PLACE
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> 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.
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> Start scratching!
> · SIXTH PLACE *
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> 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.
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> Scratch some more...
> · FIFTH PLACE *
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> 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...
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> Double hand scratching after this one.
> · FOURTH PLACE *
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> 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
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> Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot.
> · THIRD PLACE *
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> 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.
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> Only two more so ease up on the scratching..
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> *SECOND PLACE*
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> 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
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> Ok. Here we go!!
> · FIRST PLACE *
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> 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?
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> $1,750,000.
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> 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.
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> If you think the USA court system is out of control, be sure to pass this one on.
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Not for nothing there is a documentary on that McDonald’s coffee spill, pics of her injuries were gruesome.

Moral of the story don't stick it between your legs

The juries that awarded these amounts should be shot.

they probably fell of their chairs and sued the court

none of that is true. not even the burned mcdonalds customer. the decision was appealed and she never got any money

X2. Talk about Fake News

Here's one that is true:

In my early years as an insurance agent I remember a claim that was submitted to a company I represented at that time.
This happened in Rockford, IL. A trucker spent a lot of time out of town on the road. There had been a lot of break-ins in recent years in his neighborhood. Concerned for his wife being left home alone a lot, he felt she should have some protection. He bought her a little Browning semi-automatic, 25 caliber. The silver kind with the pearl grips.

One night, her husband on the road, she was awakened by an intruder who had broken into her apartment. When the man realized the woman was awake, he jumped on top of her in her bed. Fearing for her life, she managed to get hold of the Browning and fired several shots. One hit the man dead center in the knee cap. The ruckus alerted the neighbors who called the police. The would be burglar was arrested.

About 6 months lapsed and the woman was sued by the man who claimed she disabled him for life when she shot him. When the case went before a judge who was blessed with common sense, he threw the case out. With some of the judges we have today, not so sure that would happen.

That's what appellate Courts are for.

I would not be surprised if some, most, or all of those lawsuit results are true, but the namesake Stella Awards from the McDonald coffee lawsuit: is absolutely incorrect.

Stella was not driving when she spilled the coffee. She did have the coffee cup between her legs. Her son was at the wheel and they were stopped in the parking lot. She spilled the coffee while trying to remove the lid so she could add cream and sugar (notice McDonalds now asks if you want cream and sugar in your coffee). She was not merely scalded, she received 3rd degree burns to her groin area that required skin grafts.

McDonalds coffee is served at around 190 degrees. This causes severe burns in less than 5 seconds. Lowering the temperature by 30 - 40 degrees (the approximate temperature of most home coffee makers and convenience store warmers) increases the burn time to 20 - 30 seconds. By the time Stella was burned, McDonald's had already been sued/settled out of court hundreds of burn cases. If I remember right, one of these involved a 3 year old who also required skin grafts.

Stella sued McDonald's for $ 20,000 to cover her medical bills. The JURY awarded her millions. Most of this was punitive damages and represented a couple of days worth of coffee sales. The settlement was later reduced to around $ 600,000. If I am not mistaken, McDonalds still serves it's coffee at 190 degrees, so you can enjoy drinkably hot coffee 30 minutes later while stuck in traffic. They now rely on a larger warning label on the side of the cup too avoid future litigation. Well, the label and the stigma that has been attached to this lawsuit.

The story of Stella's frivolous lawsuit is the same one I held up for years as an example of a flawed judicial system. I only ran across the "rest of the story" a few years ago. From what I have read, the reason this fantasy about the Stella case is so pervasive is that after the lawsuit; McDonalds spent tens of millions of dollars on a public relations campaign to cast Stella as a villain.

Don't get me wrong here. I have a severe dislike of frivolous lawsuits. Just because a person or company had a good deal of money does not mean they should have a giant target painted on their back. However, the smear job perpetrated against Stella is not right. She pursued a somewhat reasonable settlement ($20,000). After hearing the facts of the case, the jury awarded the millions that resulted in Stella being ridiculed in the news, on late night TV shows and presumably in person for the rest of her life.

I thought the coffee was closer to boiling.

Why are you Americans so fast to sue everyone?

Should have been Darwin awards.

Too many people looking for a free ride and plenty of lawyers to help them out.

Jp- we have too many lawyers. Whole billboard asking if u been hurt in accident or at work etc etc It's spreading like CWD!!!