We Wonder Why?- This Is Now Our Society

Subject: THE ANNUAL STELLA AWARDS...

Stella Awards
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? 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 and say WTF. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stellas for the 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.

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.

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.

Are we, as a society, getting more stupid ....

or are more members of Congress

serving on juries these days?

Wow....Awards from 2001 -- in 2011. You have to go back 10 years to find something for your outrage-of-the-day?

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

Status: False

Origins: This "and you wonder what's wrong with the world today?" whinge appeared on the Internet in May 2001. All of the entries in the list are fabrications: a search for news stories about each of these cases failed to turn up anything, as did a search for each law case.

Have you even read it you ignorant witch?

Yes... The other 15 times it made the rounds...

Since it's false, it would appear that I'M not the one who's "ignorant."

Also, these are all false and debunked many times over the years. Just check with Snopes.
http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp


I hereby nominate Nmysis for the "Dumbass" awards for repeatedly posting "outrages" that have been widely debunked as absolutely false. I could nominate others for this award as well, but will leave the nominations open for now for others.

I second the nomination for "dumbass award."

(I suppose we could give him at least a point or two for not getting it from foxnews.com )

And Apparently you still believe that Snopes is worthy as a verification tool. How many times has it been proven to be a tool of the LEFT?

People like you and LJ and Archer can't even see the value of a little humor at a time like this. You can take your nomination and stick it where the sun don't shine jerkoff. Common reoccurrence here is

obvious "outrage of the day"

Ah... The standard: "I've been busted for posting bullsh**, so I'd better switch to: 'It was only HUMOR...' [but I didn't identify it as such because I'm ignorant.]" response.

Got it...

I guess it was the subject line: "This Is Now Our Society" that threw us off.


PS: Snopes has NEVER been "proven to be a tool of the LEFT", but you keep trying...

You are correct on one point though, since Snopes is a well known source for accurately determining fact vs. bullsh**, it is a tool of those seeking truth and facts, which appears to be only the "left".

Yes, the concept of "reality" has always seemed to have a Leftist slant...