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YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

I received this E/m from a friend I believe it originally came from the USA

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. 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. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stella's for the past year:


7 TH 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.

6 TH 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.

Go ahead, grab your head scratcher.


5 TH PLACE :

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 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...

4 TH 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.

Grrrrr ... Scratch, scratch.

3RD PLACE:

Third place goes to 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. What ever happened to people
being responsible for their own actions?

Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there; there are only two more Stella's to go...

2ND 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.


1ST PLACE : (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,
having driven onto 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...?


Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Yes, these have taken on the status of urban myth.

I vote! Do you?

Sounds like a job for the Myth Busters.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Thanks for the info Shinigami, I enjoyed reading how stupid we are here in the states. Got a question for you all what do you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?


I tell you the answer tomorrow,

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

what do you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start.

Lol wow. i actually remember when The rv one happend. Guys ever heard of the darwin awards? The slightly more deadly version of the stellas i guess.

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we dont know what to do.

Note to self: "cruise control" is not "auto pilot"
Yup goddit.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

I look forward to reading the Darwin Awards. Also Weird News. Both are great, and sometimes a Weird News article becomes a Darwin Award too.

mts.gif" border="0"> I vote do you?
My Tanks at Photobucket

* wants to sit in someone's garage for 8 days *

Alpo anyone ?

The Amazon Nut...

Amazing reading! It's all a down right SHAME & GREED.......is what it is! And STUPIDITY ought to fit in there somewhere too.