2013 Stella Awards...aaarrrggghhh!

WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH AND CRY AT THE SAME TIME.

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. Here
are the Stellas for year --2013:

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

I have tried everything I know to get the text to print on my normal Blogger background, but to no avail...oh to know something about html.  I apologize for my lack of computer skills,  and next time I will just re-type the paragraphs instead of trying to be lazy and copy them....NOT!!

 

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Linda