It juust makes me sick...
Hot damn, 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 the coffee

That's right, these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and
verdicts that happened in the U.S. during 2005. You know, the kinds of
cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratchers
handy. Here are the Stellas for the past year:

To kick things off the right way, there was a three-way tie for 5th
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 Ms. Robertson's son.

Also in 5th place is Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California - you
knew California had to be in the list somewhere, right? - who 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. Go
ahead, grab your head scratchers.

The last of the 5th Place winners was 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 subsist for
eight - count 'em, 8! - days 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.

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the
Stellas 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 it's 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. Grrrrr ... scratch, scratch.

Third Place went to Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because a
jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she
slipped on soft drink and broke her tailbone (coccyx). 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? Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Hang in there, there are only two more Stellas to go.

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.

Finally, (may I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please) 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, no less -
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 - you are sitting down, right? - $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 buy a motor
home.

MORONS!!!!!!!!!!!

they make me want to cry.... :(

It juust makes me sick...
Hot damn, 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 the coffee

That's right, these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and
verdicts that happened in the U.S. during 2005. You know, the kinds of
cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratchers
handy. Here are the Stellas for the past year:

To kick things off the right way, there was a three-way tie for 5th
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 Ms. Robertson's son.

Also in 5th place is Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California - you
knew California had to be in the list somewhere, right? - who 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. Go
ahead, grab your head scratchers.

The last of the 5th Place winners was 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 subsist for
eight - count 'em, 8! - days 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.

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the
Stellas 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 it's 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. Grrrrr ... scratch, scratch.

Third Place went to Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because a
jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she
slipped on soft drink and broke her tailbone (coccyx). 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? Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Hang in there, there are only two more Stellas to go.

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.

Finally, (may I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please) 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, no less -
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 - you are sitting down, right? - $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 buy a motor
home.

MORONS!!!!!!!!!!!

they make me want to cry.... :(