The 2004 Stella Awards
It’s time once again to review the winners of the annual Stella Awards.
The Stellas are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald’s. That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States.
Here are this year’s winners:
5th Place (tie):
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little Toddler was Ms. Robertson’s son.
5th Place (tie):
19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car while he was trying to steal his neighbor’s hubcaps.
5th Place (tie):
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner’s insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.
4th Place:
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the rear end by his next door neighbor’s beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams, who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.
3rd Place:
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.
2nd Place:
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge.. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.
1st Place:
This year’s runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Overland Park, KS. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home on her first trip home (from a KU basketball game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not explaining in the owner’s manual that cruise control isn’t automatic pilot. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home.
November 18th, 2004 at 4:26 pm
Have you ever even read about the case of Stella Liebeck? Obviously not.
Liquid at 190 degrees, such as freshly poured McDonald’s coffee, causes 3rd degree burns which burns human flesh to the bone. Stella’s legs were burned to the bone. She had to have months of intensive therapy just to be able to walk again.
If I recall correctly, Stella did not even spill the coffee on herself. It was spilled on her by the server handing it to her.
She initially wrote nicely to McDonald’s simply asking them to pay her medical bills. When they refused, she was forced to take them to court.
Because this had happened in the past and McDonald’s refused to lower their temperature to a more reaonable 160 (which is what Starbucks serves at), the jury decided to punish them with an extremely harsh fine.
Next time, why don’t you look into things a bit deeper? Oh yeah, because people like you generally don’t care enough.
Tell me the part about the black prison population again?
November 18th, 2004 at 5:49 pm
as matter of fact, I have read about the case. Obviously you have not, to the same degree.
All the following info can be found with a google search, which you neglected to perform before commenting.
A. Stella was not driving the car. Her grandson was. She spilled the coffee after stopping to add sugar and cream.
B. The “extremely harsh fine” you refer to was $640,000. Quoth the site: “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.”
C. The amount of burns documented by Stella’s lawyers in 10 years of McDonald’s operation amounted to 1 cup in 24 MILLION which caused a burn. 23,999,999 managed to escape without months of therapy.
D. “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”.”
Next time, perhaps YOU should look into things deeper before making an ass of yourself on someone’s website. At least you had the cowardly foresight not to leave a name or email address, you liberals are good at that, though.
January 12th, 2005 at 8:16 pm
great stories!
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:56 pm
Get real, ian. 205 degrees is seven degrees shy of BOILING. Let’s see you heat up some water to 205 degrees (be sure to measure it with a thermometer now), and then drink it “immediately.” If that experiment doesn’t sound appealing to you, then go ahead and pour that 205 degree liquid ON YOUR GENITALS. Then you’d be re-creating the Stella Liebeck experience.
June 24th, 2005 at 9:07 am
get real how? By telling you what I already posted above, which is that “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”.”? I personally don’t drink coffee, or any other hot beverages, so the chances of me burning my pisser are slim to none.
My point here isn’t that Stella Liebeck wasn’t injured. I’m sure she WAS injured. My point is that McDonald’s was not liable for her injury. The coffee was no hotter than it had been on previous occasions when she ordered it, and contrary to popular belief, the lid was not placed on the cup loosely. She spilled it as she was trying to get the lid off to add condiments. Please, explain to me how McDonald’s is liable for that.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:25 am
I’m wondering if any morons believe the cases mentioned are actually real.