This just made me groan!! People.

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. Here are the Stellas for the past year:
> >> >
> >> > 7TH 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.
> >> >
> >> > 6TH 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.
> >> >
> >> > 5TH 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 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.
> >> >
> >> > 4TH PLACE: Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, 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.
> >> >
> >> > 3RD 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?
> >> >
> >> > 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: This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs.
Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, 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.