just got this email
>Do we have any need for Tort reform?
> >
> > It's time once again to review the winners of the
> > annual "Stella
> > Awards." (The Stellas are named after 81-year-old
> > Stella Liebeck, who
> > spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued
> > McDonald's.) That case
> > inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous
> > successful lawsuits in
> > the United States.
> >
> > 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 while
> > he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
> >
> >
> > 5th Place (tie):
> >
> > Terrence ******* 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. ******* 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 rear end 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 runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski
> > of Overland Park, KS.
> > Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot
> > Winnebago motor home. On
> > her first trip home (from a KU basketball game),
> > having driven onto the
> > freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and
> > calmly left the
> > drivers seat to go into the back & make herself a
> > sandwich. Not
> > surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and
> > overturned. Mrs.
> > Grazinski sued Winnebago for not explaining in the
> > owner's manual that
> > cruise control isn't automatic pilot. The jury
> > awarded her $1,750,000
> > plus a new motor home.
Edited, Thu Sep 9 18:22:03 2004 by SmashingJroc