rantlust

Posted by anupcs on September 27th 2006 in Humor, Law
::  [Print This Post]

In 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79 year old woman, spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee on her lap and was well on her way to a cause célèbre. The resulting trial ended with her being awarded $2.9 million. Since then, any similar outrageous lawsuit has been eligible for winning a Stella award (just like the Darwin awards are for the unevolved). The 2005 list is now available. A sample [source: stellaawards.com]:

• Rhonda Nichols. She says a wild bird “attacked” her outside a home improvement store in Fairview Heights, Ill., causing head injuries. That’s right: outside the store. Yet Nichols still held the Lowe’s store responsible for “allowing” wild birds to fly around free in the air. She never reported the incident to the store, but still sued for “at least” $100,000 in damages. In January 2006, the case was thrown out of court.
• Christopher Roller of Burnsville, Minn. Roller is mystified by professional magicians, so he sued David Blaine and David Copperfield to demand they reveal their secrets to him — or else pay him 10 percent of their lifelong earnings, which he figures amounts to $50 million for Copperfield and $2 million for Blaine. The basis for his suit: Roller claims that the magicians defy the laws of physics, and thus must be using “godly powers” — and since Roller is god (according to him), they’re “somehow” stealing that power from him.

And then you wonder why insurance premiums are so high here.