Everyone has heard of the Mc Donalds Spilled Coffee case, with what seemed like a stupid verdict. However, few know all the facts which support the underlying verdict …which led to the Stella Awards for crazy litigation. Likewise we don’t know all the facts in these cases, which on their face are ridiculous. Thus there is still hope for you if you caused an auto accident on Cinco de Mayo.
I don’t know of a lawyer who would have accepted any of these cases. One asks would Indio Juries have ruled the same? The awards are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald’s, where she purchased the coffee. You remember she took the lid off the steaming coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. How could anything go wrong?
The Stella awards are for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. These are the kinds of cases that make everyone ask, Why? What most people don’t know is that there were many complaints to Mc Donalds that their coffee was too hot, and they got burned.
During the trial, evidence was presented that McDonalds had learned they could get many more cups of coffee from a bag of coffee beans if they brewed it at very high temperatures. In order to punish Mc Donalds, the jury returned a very high verdict. It was reduced by the judge.
However, Stella was not the only crazy verdict. Here are some of the most outlandish Stella’s. However, note that we don’t know if there were appeals that reversed/reduced the verdict.
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.
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.
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.
He was forced to sit for 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.
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. You see, Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
THIRD PLACE
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania wins third place 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.
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 cover charge of $3.50, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000 and, oh yeah, plus dental expenses.
FIRST PLACE *
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 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.
DALE GRIBOW
Representing the Injured and Criminally Accused
“TOP LAWYER” – California’s Prestige Magazine, Palm Springs Life (PI/DUI) 2011-21
“TOP LAWYER” – Inland Empire Magazine 2016- 2019
PERFECT 10.0 AVVO Peer Rating
“DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE OR TEXT AND GET A DUI OR ACCIDENT… CALL A TAXI, LYFT OR UBER….THEY ARE A LOT CHEAPER THAN CALLING ME”
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE ARTICLE? CONTACT DALE GRIBOW 760-837-7500/dale@dalegribowlaw.com
