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Title: 2012 Stella Awards
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Published: Feb 19, 2013
Author: .
Post Date: 2013-02-19 10:36:16 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 355
Comments: 13

For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-yr-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.

* 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 8, 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 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. (Whatever 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 , OK, who purchased a new 32-ft 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.

If you think the court system is out of control and America has lost ALL common sense, be sure to pass this one on!!!

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#1. To: christine, 4 (#0)

Truly unreal given all the legitimate suits that never see the light of day.

Jethro Tull  posted on  2013-02-19   10:57:48 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

This list is fake. These lawsuits are imaginary.

www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html

The real Stella was severely scalded over much of the lower half of her body by McDonald's coffee which had been deliberately kept (on instructions from McD HQ) about 40° hotter than anything produced by a normal kitchen coffeemaker. (She was not driving, she was a passenger.) She went into shock, was near death, and required six or seven bouts of surgery and prolonged hospitalization. The crucial bit of evidence in her lawsuit was that McD was deliberately keeping its coffee so hot despite having already received many complaints and accident reports of people around the country seriously scalded by their coffee. She sued McD only for a few thousand dollars - the amount of her hospital bill, but the jury determined that only a huge damage award would persuade McD to turn down its percolators. It was no record-breaker, she actually got less than a half-million. So the real Stella was no flake, no con, but someone whose life had been put in jeopardy by a large corporation that deliberately ignored a long list of people already injured by their policy.

www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/07/truth-about-stella-liebeck

Shoonra  posted on  2013-02-19   13:55:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

Anyone who sues someone because they got burned because of their mishandling of something they should KNOW was hot is a flake and a con. Coffee is supposed to be hot, not fit to drink lukewarm.

Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.

Paul Craig Roberts

James Deffenbach  posted on  2013-02-19   14:06:52 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

The coffee was so excessively hot that it couldn't be drunk until some minutes had passed, yet it was handed out at the McD service window to people in vehicles. Combined with the more than 700 complaints & accident reports already received at McD's HQ, established that McD was deliberately giving people in vehicles something which McD knew was inherently dangerous. Coffee at a more normal temp would not have caused as much damage.

abnormaluse.com/2011/01/s...mcdonalds-hot-coffee.html

and

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_ Liebeck

And, from the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, 2003:

www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/fulltime/diamond/papers/HarvardP ublicPolicy.pdf

There's a method to the madness of inventing or exaggerating stories of what seem to be absurd personal injury cases; apart from the usual humor of a tall tale, these fables are used by the lobbyists and lawyers for big corporations to try to persuade legislation that removes the real teeth from punitive judgments so that big corporations can continue to ignore the defects in its products and nickle-and-dime to death anyone daring to sue for recovery.

Shoonra  posted on  2013-02-19   15:28:30 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

People who can't manage a cup of hot coffee--which, as I said, is SUPPOSED to be hot--shouldn't be drinking it. If I was such a moron that I stuck a cup of hot coffee between my legs and burned myself I think I would probably be too embarrassed to talk much about it, let alone sue someone over my own stupidity.

Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.

Paul Craig Roberts

James Deffenbach  posted on  2013-02-19   15:48:35 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

Anyone who sues someone because they got burned because of their mishandling of something they should KNOW was hot is a flake and a con. Coffee is supposed to be hot, not fit to drink lukewarm.

I disagree my friend.

McD kept the coffee hot so that runners from construction sites and businesses could fill large breakfast orders and the coffee would still be steaming when it arrived back on the job-McD's ways of edging out 7-11 and other competition for the morning coffee rush. (Dunkin Donuts offers insulated cartons to tote quarts of coffee back, and McD couldn't compete with that on the cheap)

But there is definitely a diff between hot and scalding coffee, just as there's a diff in the temp of summer and winter supply water for domestic water heaters. And folks who turn the thermostats up in winter to keep showers hot and fail to reduce the temp in summer are not held blameless if children (or unsuspecting adults) are scalded when washing their hands while visiting. And a water heater or domestic coil in a boiler will easily heat water to 180 degrees in summer-way too hot for coffee or washing.

To suggest that water hot enough for industrial cleaning that's used for coffee shouldn't constitute a willful tort when burns predictably result makes it appear that you have a thing about frivolous lawsuits and you've simply grown accustomed to including the McD case in your list. (I expect it from Rush, but you?) It was the horrified jury's decision to award millions (after viewing the scarring and in light of multiple surgeries on the woman's legs and genitalia) an amount that was later reduced by the trial judge. McD could have been held blameless if their flimsy styrofoam cups didn't collapse when folks put them between their legs when trying to get away from the drive through window in a hurry. (I've spilled their coffee this way-they could have put even single cups in car caddies to prevent this but caddies cost money)

All of these details add up to negligence which their lawyers didn't feel the need to address until a jury hit them where it hurts. Like it or not when you sell hot coffee you must take reasonable steps to make it as idiot proof as possible.

HOUNDDAWG  posted on  2013-02-19   16:00:23 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

you must take reasonable steps to make it as idiot proof as possible.

There is not a thing on this earth that can be made idiot proof because some idiot will surely overcome whatever precautions are taken. Assume for the sake of discussion that the coffee was indeed scalding hot. Would a relatively sane person who should be able to feel that kind of heat through the cup put it between their legs?!?! I don't think so and I know for sure I wouldn't.

Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.

Paul Craig Roberts

James Deffenbach  posted on  2013-02-19   16:15:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

McDonalds was the idiot in this story.

McD already had over 700 complaints and accident reports about injuries resulting from its super-hot coffee, and yet they did nothing. Other fast food places would provide some sort of insulation for their normally-hot coffee, but McD decided it was cheaper to make their coffee too damn hot to drink and then jerk around everyone who was injured trying to drink it.

Most sensible people would have come up with a safer alternative by the time accident report # 698 rolls in.

Shoonra  posted on  2013-02-19   16:56:03 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

You sound like you might have been one of their unfortunate victims. I have a cure for getting burned with McDonald's coffee. Don't buy the damned stuff! I haven't bought anything from McDonald's in years and haven't missed it whatsoever. I have no use for Mickey D's but I don't hold them responsible for the woman putting an obviously hot item between her legs and getting burned. People should know better.

Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.

Paul Craig Roberts

James Deffenbach  posted on  2013-02-19   17:15:49 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

All of these details add up to negligence which their lawyers didn't feel the need to address until a jury hit them where it hurts. Like it or not when you sell hot coffee you must take reasonable steps to make it as idiot proof as possible.

This is the first time that I've not echoed your thoughts; but, this time, you're way off-base.

Anyone who would stick a cup of hot coffee in their crotch is the only one who's responsible for whatever happens thereafter.

If you a such a moronic spaz that you cannot control your coffee in your car, realize it; and go the hell inside to drink, slurp, sip, or otherwise ingest it indoors while seated on your stupid ass.

Nothing personal, mind you; just saying.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Lod  posted on  2013-02-19   17:26:23 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

you must take reasonable steps to make it as idiot proof as possible.

There is not a thing on this earth that can be made idiot proof because some idiot will surely overcome whatever precautions are taken. Assume for the sake of discussion that the coffee was indeed scalding hot. Would a relatively sane person who should be able to feel that kind of heat through the cup put it between their legs?!?! I don't think so and I know for sure I wouldn't.

My friend, this is a side of you to which I'm unaccustomed and somewhat uneasy.

I really hate to fence with you publicly, too.

But please allow me to apply your argument to this:

Simple guards made from aluminum or steel brake metal and fitted over moving machinery could have prevented countless avoidable injuries when child labor was the primary engine of production in America. And, needless to say they're required today on potentially hazardous moving parts because adults also have lapses of diligence. I've worked in plants where the owners flatly refused to install guards until ordered to do so in the next OSHA inspection! They too, were inexplicably angry and had misplaced priorities....

Now, reducing the injuries by better than 99% does indeed justify the measures doesn't it? Even if some idiots overcome whatever precautions are taken?

Your seemingly aggressive posture on this issue tells me that you probably don't work in proximity to cranes, presses, furnaces, etc.,. and (if I read your views correctly) you would hold all industry blameless for all injuries rather than compel remedial measures that cost money. ATTENTION FOREMEN: Deposit child digits, extremities and limbs here, and send final paychecks with injured employees (who are uninsured) in ambulance. BE SURE TO INSPECT AND "POLICE" (wink wink) THE AREA WHERE INJURY OCCURRED BEFORE ARRIVAL OF OSHA, CORONER AND THEM NEW YORK UNION COMMIES WHO ARE TRYING TO CLOSE THIS MILL DOWN. REMEMBER, MAH FINANCIAL SECURITY IS EVERYBODY'S RESPONSIBILITY__BEAUREGARD DEEP POCKETS, PRES. KLAN KUNTREE TEXTILES, INC.

And, in my case, I was working outside in blizzard conditions and wearing my Artic Carhartt coveralls when I hit the McD drive thru, and when I pulled away and operated the clutch and brake together I squeezed the cup and BAM! Fortunately I wasn't burned because of the insulated coveralls and multi layers (blue jeans and thermal long johns) between me and the DEATH COFFEE of IRRESPONSIBLE CORPORATE AMERICA! (heh heh)

It was something I didn't anticipate, and it doesn't make me stupid. And any drive thru coffee is now transported in a caddy on the passenger seat. Needless to say I have to ask for the caddy. (and creamer, sugar, and any condiments I may use on the mysterious food that doesn't biodegrade.)

When Homer Simpson's backyard trampoline resulted in a dozen broken arms the first day he allowed kids to use it, his solution was a sign that read "Bounce At Your Own Risk", and keeping all of the profits he collected from unsuspecting kids.

Surely you wouldn't agree to be parodied by supporting Homer's solution to otherwise preventable cartoon injuries, would you?

When I was a kid there was a nearby laundry operated by the state to provide occupational training and employment for adults with special needs. The steam press required the operator to push two adequately spaced buttons in order to prevent it from closing on the operator's hand. Well, once when two mildly retarded women teamed up to press bedsheets (Klan robes?) one of them was burned when the press was closed on her hand. (Both were operating a button with one hand and smoothing out wrinkles with the other thereby defeating the safety buttons) The Mgr, a retired navy man with no commercial laundry experience just didn't spot the hazard in the busy laundry.

This one injury was the exception that proved the rule, and rather than arguing against the two button safety measure it showed that safety is not a nuisance expense at all. We'll never know how many injuries it prevented.

The state paid those poor people about $2 an hr and the least their employer could do was accommodate all of their special needs including those potential hazards in the workplace, even hazards that mildly retarded people work together to create. Safety measures coupled with due diligence (and YES that may cost money for training and retrofitting equipment) is an employer's obligation and an employee's right.

Dupont's Powder Mills ...."On the banks of the Brandywine, were built in 1802 and were the first DuPont Powder Mills in America. Powder was manufactured there for the United States Government in War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War and Great War, and they've manufactured propellants and explosives ever since...."

This extreme example underscores an employer's responsibility and commitment to safety. Through a process of trial and error Dupont learned to minimize explosions, including those caused by mysterious static electricity. (Hercules has 50 yr old batches of modern, smokeless nitrocellulose gun powder stored underwater, a precaution not available when charcoal based black powder was the primary military propellant)

Despite the best brains' dedication to safety, explosions killed not only lowly workers but bigshots, too. And the company certainly didn't want stocks of product to detonate and cut into the profits while destroying outbuildings with high replacement costs.

Dupont provided employment to surviving family members, giving their rep as a "family company" a new meaning. (Compare that to WALMART'S Draconian "Dead Peasant Insurance" policies- please tell me that their employees aren't obligated to die according to actuaries to protect the company's "investment")

There were only so many jobs for wives and kids of dead employees, and no one had to convince Dupont of where their responsibility to employees (and residents within a blast radius- Dupont worked on The Manhattan Project here) began or ended. So, there's at least one company that with no prompting tries to eliminate all hazards on their sites. As a contractor I was required to tie off a safety harness when working above the third step on a ladder. And, if caught twice without my helmet I was invited to leave the job site and my employer was informed of my persona non grata status with Dupont.

McD didn't move to solve their problem as long as it wasn't newsworthy and the bean counters assured the company that paying off occasional nuisance settlements was the way to go. (Dunkin Donuts uses solid sippin' lids and cardboard cups with Java Jackets-a dynamite arrangement compared to the cheap McD bastards even now)

There could have been a hundred thousand "isolated scalding incidents" as long as the media didn't snitch. So you see, McD didn't share your philosophy at all. Like all corporations they were only responsive to the bottom line and in the corporate culture that doesn't change if it's scalding coffee or exploding Pintos or Mustangs. (Those who own a cherished, 60's vintage Mustang should spend a few hundred bux and retrofit the thin steel plate between the fuel tank and the back seat so a rear end collision doesn't result in additional immolations)

HOUNDDAWG  posted on  2013-02-21   2:44:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

This is the first time that I've not echoed your thoughts; but, this time, you're way off-base.

Anyone who would stick a cup of hot coffee in their crotch is the only one who's responsible for whatever happens thereafter.

If you a such a moronic spaz that you cannot control your coffee in your car, realize it; and go the hell inside to drink, slurp, sip, or otherwise ingest it indoors while seated on your stupid ass.

Nothing personal, mind you; just saying.

Thank you for your thoughts my friend.

I often carried my travel mug there, and it only took one mistake to realize that zooming through the drive thru and clutching and braking would crush a flimsy styro cup. The plan was to get to a parking place and season the java to taste, and I was hurrying to work after duck hunting before dawn.

My spartan Ford pickup had no console and I don't use those door cup holders.

So now I buy the coffee inside then pour it into my no spill travel mug (and leaving lots of slosh room) before motoring happily away....

HOUNDDAWG  posted on  2013-02-21   2:58:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

But please allow me to apply your argument to this:

Simple guards made from aluminum or steel brake metal and fitted over moving machinery could have prevented countless avoidable injuries when child labor was the primary engine of production in America. And, needless to say they're required today on potentially hazardous moving parts because adults also have lapses of diligence. I've worked in plants where the owners flatly refused to install guards until ordered to do so in the next OSHA inspection! They too, were inexplicably angry and had misplaced priorities....

Now, reducing the injuries by better than 99% does indeed justify the measures doesn't it? Even if some idiots overcome whatever precautions are taken?

It seems to me that our disagreement on this issue differs in both degree and in kind. Of course any company has a duty to make their workplace as safe as possible with the understanding that nothing is ever completely safe (at least not anything worthwhile). There are risks in everything but sometimes people make bad choices. Apparently you made a bad choice squeezing that flimsy cup and Stella made a bad choice sticking a cup between her legs which, assuming she didn't have nerve damage in her hands, should have known was too hot to put there. I am not unsympathetic to people who have accidents, we all have them. You had one and what did you do? Sue McDonald's? No, you took precautions against it happening again. But this Stella woman did something pretty lame and then sued someone else over something she did herself. I don't hold anyone blameless when someone is hurt through negligence and sure, McDonald's should have used better cups. But I don't want anyone to hand me a lukewarm cup of coffee just because some woman didn't know better than to stick a styrofoam cup full of hot coffee between her legs. That just doesn't make any sense to me.

And once again, just so there is no misunderstanding my position, I don't GAS about McDonald's. It's been years since I have eaten anything in one of their establishments or bought anything at all from them. I don't particularly like McDonald's to be perfectly honest. But I don't blame them for Stella's accident.

Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.

Paul Craig Roberts

James Deffenbach  posted on  2013-02-21   8:00:43 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

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