Here are the Stella Awards - Unbelievable!

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Subject: Here are the Stella Awards - Unbelievable!

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 kind of cases
that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy


                       Here are the Stellas for this past year -- 2011

*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,  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, if 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. What ever happened to people being
responsible for their own actions?

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!! Drum roll ...

 * 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 owners
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.

                     Think the court system is out of control??