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. Here are the Stellas for year -- 2013: * SEVENTH 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 Start scratching! * SIXTH 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. Scratch some more... * FIFTH 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 and survive 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... Double hand scratching after this one.. * FOURTH 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. Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot.. * THIRD 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. Only two more so ease up on the scratching... *SECOND 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. Ok. Here we go!! * FIRST PLACE * This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased 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. If you think the USA court system is out of control, be sure to pass this one on.
Even worse the Judge in case #6 or civil jury, did so probably with a Civil Lawsuit. In 96, the CA. voters, passed a law, stating: No person in the process of committing a crime, can never benefit if they hurt themselves while committing the crime. Goes to show how bad CA. Judicial Systems are, the worst in the Nation? The Law was passed, due to a challenge by citizens, who saw on the News, a Thief who snuck into a house, while the residents were sleeping, tripped and broke his leg. His Lawyer won a Liability Lawsuit, and payed the Thief off a helluva lot more, than a years worth of thievery would pay out. The Home Owners, Home Insurance, paid off and out. The owners then went out and bought a alley sweeper of a shotgun, double aught buck shot....!
I had a co-worker tell me that motor home cruise control story back in the eighties and a couple of variations since. The same individual also told me how he survived a German Shepard Dog attacking him by snatching the dogs open muzzle mid leap, snapping its jaws killing it by breaking its neck. An additional story he told was that he punched a horse in the nose so hard that it did nothing in defense. The cruise control story was funny, had my doubts on the horse but on the dog story I had to call him a liar.
A horse wouldn't attack from the from, he'd kick his hind legs, so to say a horse did nothing when face to face isn't surprising.... The dog... You'd be awfully lucky not to have your hand shredded trying that, but I have heard to try to put your hand as far back as possible to get a dog who's snapped to stop....
Horses strike from the front as well....know a ranch hand that got punched in the chest by a stallion and broken his sternum. The discipline of dressage is based upon war horse training, where the forward and reverse jumps/strikes simulate calvary moves to kill infantry.
I saw German Shepard in action when stationed in Berlin, in addition to speed and tenacity they also have a bite pressure that ranks right up there. The individual who told me that story was built like a stick, 6 feet plus maybe 150 tops. I seriously doubted his ability to do that to a G Shepard ditto punching the horse and yep those rodeo cowboys can sure probably relate to a horses aggression when provoked. My own theory with animals is to pretty much leave them alone unless you encounter a situation that is life threatening and if you mistreat one and get your ass kicked you get what you ask for,
If they are trained to do so, sure... but their first instinct is to run, if they can't, then they try to kick with hind legs, then bite... this would be the 4th choice for a horse in all likelyhood
Geezus Christ, that broad in #1 actually thought Winnebago, built a hands free auto-pilot vehicle. Shit, now this one takes the cake, no wonder its #1. What's even stranger is the Insurance pay off. The entire US Judicial system is to outdated, to not have a clause to throw out frivolous lawsuits of ambiguity.... Seems this generation of children are being taught, if anything goes awry, and your the reason why, then Sue, Sue. (A generation that sheds ALL self-responsibility). Yep, if your black scream foul, or as my wife heard all the time in the school systems from Elementary to High School. "you're only picking on me, cuz I'm black". Sad but this IS the way black Kids in the majority have been, and still are being raised. Hopefully, I'll still be around when the Civil War, or racial wars, come prior to the Information Wars, then Revolution, as long as the morons currently running DC, are brought out on the carpet, and charged with Treason, providing false information to Congress, as well as flat out lying to Congress.
