Time for some Stella Awards and laughs and scratching your head!!

[Cindylou]

You know why they're called the Stella Awards, right? Remember that lady, Ms. Stella....I am not recalling her first name at the moment. But she's the lady who won the lawsuit years ago, for suing McDonald's, with her cup of hot coffee. She put the hot coffee between her legs while she was driving her car and got burnt really bad. I mean really, who would know NOT to put a hot cup of coffee between their legs, while driving, no less? So, sit down and read and enjoy, and yep, they are true!

This year's runaway first place Stella Award goes to 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 on to the freeway, she set her cruise control at 70mph 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 our court system is out of control, now you know it is!! I have more if you want 'em! Crazy, huh? CL

[Cindylou]

Ok, I just knew you wanted another one! haha This one garnished 3rd Place in the Stella Awards. (I didn't like 2nd Place): Amber Carson, of Lancaster Pennsylvania, won, 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: Mr. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier, during an argument! Whatever happened to people being responsible for their own actions? My next one is really good. CL

[KBear]

Wow... stupid people out there.

[Hooch]

she set her cruise control at 70mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich.

ahahahaha

I hope she got to finish that sandwich!

Reminds me of the Darwin awards, tho that is often a fair bit more mean spirited.

[Gilbert P]

LOL
And some pilots fall asleep at the wheel and over fly the airports?

Gil

[Cindylou]

haha.....exactly Gil! Ok, here's my next one: This one garnered 5th Place in the Stella Awards: Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage, ran into a slight problem. Unfortunately for him, 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 8, count 'em, 8 long 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, a jury said the insurance company must pay him $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish! (although most of us don't go around burglarizing homes for a hobby!) I just cannot believe some of these lawsuits went through! Unbelievable. And yet when I tried to sue a local bike company, my first and only lawsuit of my entire life, because they sold me a faulty new bike whose rear brakes failed when I went down a hill for the first time on it and I went ass over tea-kettle, breaking my back in 2 places, tearing my rotator cuff, and starting my downward spiral in dealing with my chronic spine pain issues, my suit amounts to nothing and my lawyer ends up taking a kick-back from the bike company and dropping me. I lost complete faith in our judicial system the day that happened. And yet, frivolous lawsuits such as these, go through. Crazy. CL

[KBear]

Wow, had that happened in Texas, the homeowner would have came home and shot him.... hazard of the 'job' in my opinion. There is a shop owner in the DFW area who killed 2 burglars on 2 separate occasions in a matter of a month or two. No charges were filed, because he was protecting his property. The families were all pissed and on tv and I'm thinking, well, if they wouldn't have been taking sh*t that didn't belong to them, they wouldn't have been killed.

[Hooch]

hehe, only in Texas. We can't use undue force. Mind you it's a bit hard to tell the difference between a home invasion and a burglary in the dark of the night, and they've been some god awful cases of home invasions where shoot first ask questions later would've done the world a favour. But guns are strictly controlled here, you can't have one under the pillow.

We've had cases over here of a bloke injuring himself trying to escape through a window after robbing a pub and successfully suing, for god knows what reason. This crap happens everywhere. Honestly, they should get the crap kicked out of them and limp home, they're all young healthy blokes who have nothing wrong with them except a bad attitude.

large bag of dry dog food

[KBear]

hehe, only in Texas. We can't use undue force. Mind you it's a bit hard to tell the difference between a home invasion and a burglary in the dark of the night, and they've been some god awful cases of home invasions where shoot first ask questions later would've done the world a favour. But guns are strictly controlled here, you can't have one under the pillow.

My parents always said "I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6" My dad is an avid gun collector, and literally has 100's of them. He also participates in the concealed carry, where he is generally armed at all times. I just read a funny joke on this the other day, will have to see if I can still find it.....

Found it, here it is:

A Texas man, cruises thru a stop sign and gets pulled over by a local policeman.

The man hands the cop his driver's license, insurance card, and his Concealed Handgun License.

"Okay, Mr. Smith," the cop says, "I see you have a CHL permit. Are you carrying today?"

"Yes, I am."

"Well then, better tell me what you’ve got."

Smith says, "Well, I got a .357 revolver in a shoulder holster, a 380 in my coat pocket. There's a 9 mm in the glove box.
And, I've got a .22 mag derringer in my right boot."

"Okay," the cop says. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, back in the trunk, there's an AR-15 and a shotgun. That's about it."

"Mr. Smith, are you on your way to or from a gun range...?"

"Nope."

"Well, what are you afraid of...?"

"Not a damn thing..."

God Bless TEXAS

[Justin]

Wow, those stories are funny CL...it's nuts what gets paid out in a lawsuit these days.