Sued Michael Jordan, because he looks like him
The thing that gets me isn’t that these people actually sued. It’s America and you’re free to sue about anything. What gets me are the juries that agreed with many of them. At least we have the Darwin Awards for those who never had a chance to sue someone.
Sued after getting stuck on the house he was robbing
In October 1998, A Terrence Dickson of Bristol Pennsylvania was exiting a house he finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up, because 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, so 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. This upset Mr. Dickson, so he sued the homeowner’s insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of half a million dollars and change.
Other examples:
– Sued after being bitten for a beagle he provoked
– Sued against fast-good giants for being fat
– Pedo priest sued his victim for warning others about him
– Policeman confused a Taser with a gun, killed a suspect, then sued Taser
– Sued Radio Shack for misspelling her town
– Sued the rescue workers who saved her
Sued Mazda because it failed to provide instructions about the seatbelt
Mary Ubaudi of Madison County, Ill. Ubaudi was a passenger in a car that got into a wreck. She put most of the blame on the deepest pocket available: Mazda Motors, who made the car she was riding in. Ubaudi demands “in excess of $150,000” from the automaker, claiming it “failed to provide instructions regarding the safe and proper use of a seatbelt.” One hopes Mazda’s attorneys make her swear in court that she has never before worn a seatbelt, has never flown on an airliner, and that she’s too stupid to figure out how to fasten a seatbelt.
Can I Sue You For Being Too Stupid To Be Alive? It wouldn’t hurt to try.
Damn lawyers
I think the Terrence Dickson story is an urban legend.
I would check one of the urban legends sites on these. I have seen some of them before and have also seen them debunked as not true.
Damn judges
These are all urban legends. I don’t think any of this list is true. If they were, there should be a case number accompanying them. Instead, they are meant to demean the entire legal profession.
Judges routinely throw out silly law suits like these. They are called frivolous suits. The aim of the promoters, such as “The Stella Awards” is to have Congress change the laws so people that are injured lose their right to compensation. It happened with medical malpractice, look forward to it happening with other cases as well.
For debunking info see :
Snopes.com or
overlawyered :
http://tinyurl.com/ybqxqo
Congrats on calls of “urban legend,” y’all. When stuff just doesn’t make sense, it’s amazing how often it shows up in a Google search along with the phrase “urban legend.”
Organizations that whine about the need for tort reform tend to undermine support for their goal when they start concocting false cases to promote fear of “out-of-control” juries, but it sometimes works. Fear is a very motivating emotion.
pedro,
Your recollection of it almost certainly qualifies as urban legend. During the trial, McDonald executives admitted that they kept the temperature at a dangerous 180 degrees, because it reduced consumer demand for refills, figuring it was cheaper to settle out of court and pay workmens comp claims for injuries caused, then it was to provide refills. Before the judge reduced the claim to about what McDonalds offered as a pre-trial settlement, the award was only about 2 days worth of McDonalds coffee sales. Shouldn’t a punitive award be… punitive?
To refresh your recollection of the matter, 140-150 degree coffee is hot. 180 degree coffee causes third degree burns. After the trial, McDonalds lowered the holding temperature of their coffee…
Remember, that lady had third degree burns, and needed an 8 day hoospital stay, because McDonalds didn’t want to make good on their offer of free coffee refills. Seems like they could have prevented the whole situation, been honest, and charged people for coffee refills, like every other coffee vendor in the USA.
Another site to check out is http://www.stellaawards.com/. Randy Cunningham (also does http://www.thisistrue.com) has made it a personal mission to expose stupid lawsuits… and point out when they’re not so stupid. And he goes into great depths on the “hot coffee” case too, if you’re interested.
The one about the priest.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=104895
The Not gay kid suing the school.
http://www.tonganoxiemirror.com/section/breaking_news/story/8135
So some of them are true.
Most are not or at least I couldn’t find good data in the 10 minutes I allotted.
To hell with suing them for being stupid. I am deathly afraid for my life that these stupid asses will procreate, and last I heard that if you were in fear for you life you could take stronger measures…
A quick search for the the two top cases found that one (Terrence Dickson) is indeed an urban legend while the other (Mary Ubaudi) does not appear to have a published conclusion. I guess you can’t believe everything your read on the internet. Who Knew!
Now I will take this opportunity to rant on the lawyers and the American jury system. I am doing this purely from my own bias against the legal system as it exists now.
As I said in a previous post, all too often, justice in America relies on the ability of your lawyer to manipulate the jury (and judges). As is often the case, the more money and social standing (which unfortunately can still be related to race) you have, the better lawyer you can afford. A better lawyer can manipulate the jury and find loopholes to eliminate evidence. Key to much of this is the jury system itself. A typical jury is “largely” made up of people that were either not intelligent enough to get out of jury duty or have nothing more useful to do in their life. These type of people are often biased and are easily swayed (manipulated) with emotional speeches delivered by a skillful lawyer. The system of a “Jury of your peers” was a noble concept but is fatally flawed and naive.
Steve
American Justice Strikes Again!
After reading so many of these so-called cases…..I have come to the conclusion that what really makes them shocking isn’t if they are true or not, but the fact that so many people in the US and elsewhere actually believe they COULD be true, based on what they know of our system of laws, and our courts.
#16 joshua, maybe that perception is the real reason why we have such an immigration problem — they want the chance to someday sue for a big jury award in a silly American court 😉
#17..Gary Marks…..lmao….they don’t have to wait for *someday*….they already are suing and winning against the border ranchers in Arizona for impeding their orderly progression across our borders. How dare those hicks stop them and threaten them with guns……thats the Goverments job….oh, wait….THEY aren’t doing it. 🙂
Uncle Dave — I think you should rewrite this post and make it abundantly clear the majority of these “lawsuits” never happened and/or were dismissed. A quick check of “snopes.com” for the “stella awards” proves this.
Is it the stupidity of the person launching the lawsuit or of the jury for awarding the “damages”.