Stella Awards fo 2008 (1 Viewer)

[Mike375]

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. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head
scratcher handy.
Here are the Stella's 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 hub caps.

Go ahead, grab your head scratcher.

5TH 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 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...

4TH 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.

Grrrrr ... Scratch, scratch.


3RD PLACE :
Third place goes to 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?



Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there; there are only two more Stellas to go...


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 : (May I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please?)
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 onto 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.

 

[John Big Booty]

Always pays to Google these things to get the full picture. Check here if it sounds too silly to be try it probably is.

The "real" Stella's Case

May it please the court: We know quite well that not all of the cases we present will turn out to be frivolous abuse of the American Justice System. Many of these cases indeed involve real issues, real injuries, and deserve real compensation. And some don't. That's why we stress that you should read the cases before you judge.

How about, for instance, Stella herself? Much of the coverage about Stella Liebeck has been grossly unfair. When you have a more complete summary of the facts, you might change your mind about her. Or maybe not -- that's up to you. Did you know the following aspects of the Stella vs. McDonald's case?

* Stella was not driving when she pulled the lid off her scalding McDonald's coffee. Her grandson was driving the car, and he had pulled over to stop so she could add cream and sugar to the cup.
* Stella was burned badly (some sources say six percent of her skin was burned, other sources say 16 percent was) and needed two years of treatment and rehabilitation, including skin grafts. McDonald's refused an offer to settle with her for $20,000 in medical costs.
* McDonald's quality control managers specified that its coffee should be served at 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit. Liquids at that temperature can cause third-degree burns in 2-7 seconds. Such burns require skin grafting, debridement and whirlpool treatments to heal, and the resulting scarring is typically permanent.
* From 1982 to 1992, McDonald's coffee burned more than 700 people, usually slightly but sometimes seriously, resulting in some number of other claims and lawsuits.
* Witnesses for McDonald's admitted in court that consumers are unaware of the extent of the risk of serious burns from spilled coffee served at McDonald's required temperature, admitted that it did not warn customers of this risk, could offer no explanation as to why it did not, and testified that it did not intend to turn down the heat even though it admitted that its coffee is "not fit for consumption" when sold because it is too hot.
* While Stella was awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages, this amount was reduced by 20 percent (to $160,000) because the jury found her 20 percent at fault. Where did the rest of the $2.9 million figure in? She was awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages -- but the judge later reduced that amount to $480,000, or three times the "actual" damages that were awarded.

But...
* The resulting $640,000 isn't the end either. Liebeck and McDonald's entered into secret settlement negotiations rather than go to appeal. The amount of the settlement is not known -- it's secret!
* The plaintiffs were apparently able to document 700 cases of burns from McDonald's coffee over 10 years, or 70 burns per year. But that doesn't take into account how many cups are sold without incident. A McDonald's consultant pointed out the 700 cases in 10 years represents just 1 injury per 24 million cups sold! For every injury, no matter how severe, 23,999,999 people managed to drink their coffee without any injury whatever. Isn't that proof that the coffee is not "unreasonably dangerous"?
* Even in the eyes of an obviously sympathetic jury, Stella was judged to be 20 percent at fault -- she did, after all, spill the coffee into her lap all by herself. The car was stopped, so she presumably was not bumped to cause the spill. Indeed she chose to hold the coffee cup between her knees instead of any number of safer locations as she opened it. Should she have taken more responsibility for her own actions?

And...
* Here's the Kicker: Coffee is supposed to be served in the range of 185 degrees! The National Coffee Association recommends coffee be brewed at "between 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal extraction" and drunk "immediately". If not drunk immediately, it should be "maintained at 180-185 degrees Fahrenheit." (Source: NCAUSA.) Exactly what, then, did McDonald's do wrong? Did it exhibit "willful, wanton, reckless or malicious conduct" -- the standard in New Mexico for awarding punitive damages?

 

[ColinEssex]

Just an American thing is it? All the "winners" are Yanks.

Another example of how America ensures it wins - don't let anyone else compete. A bit like the "world" series.

Col

 

[David Eagar]

Just an American thing is it? All the "winners" are Yanks.

Another example of how America ensures it wins - don't let anyone else compete. A bit like the "world" series.

Col

Not necissarily, an oldy but a goody - in New Zealand many years ago, a man successfully obtained workers compensation for falling out of a window and breaking his leg.

He claimed that this was in his normal line of business - BURGLER

 

[John Big Booty]

Not necissarily, an oldy but a goody - in New Zealand many years ago, a man successfully obtained workers compensation for falling out of a window and breaking his leg.

He claimed that this was in his normal line of business - BURGLER

I'd be running that one through the Myth detector too. Sound rather apocryphal to me.

 

[David Eagar]

I'd be running that one through the Myth detector too. Sound rather apocryphal to me.

Fair comment, although I was living in NZ at the time and while it was 20 odd years ago, I do remember it getting plenty of coverage and the Workers Comp regulations got a serious overhaul because of it.

Perhaps some NZ members could confirm or deny

 

[ColinEssex]

Fair comment, although I was living in NZ at the time and while it was 20 odd years ago, I do remember it getting plenty of coverage and the Workers Comp regulations got a serious overhaul because of it.

Perhaps some NZ members could confirm or deny

I see you're having a heatwave down there. Here it's snowing in Essex and bloody freezing.

Col

 

[David Eagar]

I see you're having a heatwave down there. Here it's snowing in Essex and bloody freezing.

Col

Mercifully, where I am is OK (30-35) but Melbourne & Adelaide 43-45!!
ps Centigrade

Global warming - what a myth!!

 

[John Big Booty]

It's been a long time since I studied any sort of law. But from memory I'm pretty sure that most contract can be nullified if one of contracting parties engages in illegal behaviour. So I'm very suspicion that this was covered under Workers compo.

That is not to say that the burglar could not have sued the home owner's insurance, for personal injury, if he fell down the stairs, or something equally as mundane. This I think you will find is a far more likely scenario. The out here is that the burglar was not a party to the contract, between the home owner and the insurer, who would have undertaken to insure the home owner against injury incurred by any person on his property.

 

[John Big Booty]

I see you're having a heatwave down there. Here it's snowing in Essex and bloody freezing.

Col

Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum

It's played havoc with train services, and despite government assurance, there just wasn't enough power to run everyone's air conditioner.

 

[David Eagar]

Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum

It's played havoc with train services, and despite government assurance, there just wasn't enough power to run everyone's air conditioner.

If boiling monkey bum's your idea of entertainment??????????

 

[John Big Booty]

If boiling monkey bum's your idea of entertainment??????????

It's a quote from Monty Python's Flying Circus

Second Bruce Goodday, Bruce!
First Bruce Oh, Hello Bruce!
Third Bruce How are yer Bruce?
First Bruce Bit crook, Bruce.
Second Bruce Where's Bruce?
First Bruce He's not here, Bruce.
Third Bruce Blimey, s'hot in here, Bruce.
First Bruce S'hot enough to boil a monkey's bum!
Second Bruce That's a strange expression, Bruce.
First Bruce Well Bruce, I heard the Prime Minister use it. S'hot enough to boil a monkey's bum in 'ere, your Majesty,' he said and she smiled quietly to herself.
Third Bruce She's a good Sheila, Bruce and not at all stuck up.
Second Bruce Ah, here comes the Bossfella now! - how are you, Bruce?

 

[David Eagar]

Personally, found koala bums much more entertaining!

 

[John Big Booty]

Personally, found koala bums much more entertaining!

There's not a lot amusing about koalas. Dirty noisy animals, of their nuts on eucalyptus oil (allegedly). Never camp under a Koala tree.

 

[statsman]

Most commercial coffee retailers do the same thing as outlined above. Thier coffee making machines are set to prepare the water at a very high temperature.
Why?
By having the water at a very high temperature, they can use less actual coffee to produce a beverage that is at the "strength" of the community standard. This saves them money.
Since they are producing a "coffee" that is dangerous to the public, they deserve to be sued when this practice results in physical harm.

 

[John Big Booty]

Most commercial coffee retailers do the same thing as outlined above. Thier coffee making machines are set to prepare the water at a very high temperature.
Why?
By having the water at a very high temperature, they can use less actual coffee to produce a beverage that is at the "strength" of the community standard. This saves them money.
Since they are producing a "coffee" that is dangerous to the public, they deserve to be sued when this practice results in physical harm.

What is considered a very high temperature? 90°C (200°F) is considered the ideal temperature for Espresso machine operation. Any higher and you will end up with the coffee having a burnt/bitter taste. Lower and you won't extract the full range of flavours from the grounds and it will be weak and insipid.

 

[statsman]

You coffee maker at home (assuming its a standard home coffee maker) will heat the water to about 80 degrees C. Your personal taste for coffee requires you to put 4 scoops of coffee into the basket to get the coffee you like.

A commercial coffee maker will heat the water beyond 100 degrees C. Higher than the boiling point. Where before you had to put 4 scoops of coffee into the machine, you now only have to put 3 scoops. The higher water temperature extracts a higher concentration from the coffee.

Coffee shops and the like use the commerical machine because they use less actual coffee to brew a beverage that is at the community taste for coffee. As I stated, if you are using a machine that lets you make more money on less coffee and results in a water temperature that can do actual physical harm, you deserve to be sued.

One of the main problems with the "Stellas" is that most companies don't counter sue for PR reasons. If the night club where the lady was sneaking out to avoid paying the cover had counter sued for the $3.50, the jury would probably have sided with them. As it was, the jury had no alternative as there was nothing else before them to deal with or to take a counter position.

 

[Rich]

A commercial coffee maker will heat the water beyond 100 degrees C. Higher than the boiling point.

How?

 

[MSAccessRookie]

How?

I imagine that the coffee maker uses some sort of pressurization chamber to boil the water before dispensing it. When Boiling Water is pressurized, it can reach temps of over 100 Degrees C.

 

[Alc]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2005-01-30-tort-reform_x.htm

http://www.vamedmal.com/library/Debunking_Urban_Legends_About_the_Civil_Justice_System.pdf