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 amuck inside a furniture store.
The owners of the store were understandably surprised at
the verdict, considering the misbehaving tyke was Ms.
Robertson's son.
Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000
and medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand
with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice
someone was at the wheel of the car whose hubcap he was
trying to steal.
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. 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. Mr. Dickson 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.
Jerry Williams of Little Rock Arkansas was
awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being
bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbour's
beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's
fenced-in yard, as was Mr. Williams. The award was less
than sought, because the jury felt the dog might have
been provoked by Mr. Williams who, at the time, was
shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania $113,500 after
she slipped on soft drink and broke her coccyx. The
beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at
her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware
successfully sued the owner of a night club in a
neighbouring 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.
Igor
Lehnberg, a Swedish man who was friends with a lesbian
couple, wanted to help the ladies have children so he
donated sperm for artificial insemination and soon the
women had three kids. After breaking up with her
significant other, however, the mother of the children
filed a lawsuit against Lehnberg for child support - and
won. In early 2002, the Swedish court ruled that the man
was undeniably the biological father and was therefore
condemned to pay a monthly allowance of approximately
$280 US.
Robert Lee Brock claimed that he violated his own civil
rights and religious beliefs by getting drunk enough to
commit crimes and getting arrested. He wanted $5 million
and demanded that the monies be paid by the state on his
behalf since he didn't have an income while incarcerated.
While trying to steal a soft drink from a vending machine
in 1998, 19-year-old Kevin Mackle was rocking it
dangerously. Suddenly, the weight shift was too much and
the contraption fell on him. The man died following the
accident. His relatives sued Coca-Cola Co., two other
companies, and Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec
(for about $660,000 in damages and funeral costs)
alleging that the machine was not secured and bore no
warning signs.
College student Hank Reinfeld was larking around with
some friends near a third-floor dormitory window.
Unexpectedly, the window gave way and the young man fell
out. After having suffered fractures, cuts and bruises,
he sued the University of Idaho stating that the
institution did not provide a safe environment and that
he hadn't been warned of the dangers of such activities.
In 1995, Dr. Ira Gore, the proud owner of a new BMW 535i,
discovered that parts of his car had been repainted after
having had it detailed in 1990. He found out that the
Alabama dealership had done so to conceal damage due to
acid rain, so he filed a complaint and was awarded the
amount of $4 million. BMW of America appealed the verdict
but the German car aficionado still walked away with
$4000 in damages and $2 million in punitive damages.
During his own bachelor party in September 1996, Paul
Shimkonis, a physical therapist from Florida, got
whiplash while getting a lap dance from a stripper
sporting a 69-HH chest. The 38-year-old claimed she
assaulted him with her breasts, slamming them on his head
and almost knocking him out. He said it felt like cement
blocks had hit him, and claimed he suffered bodily injury
and mental anguish, among other complaints. Still in
pain, he sued the topless club for $15,000.
In 1993, a New Jersey man thought he was making great use
of his time by eating and driving at the same time.
Having propped a milkshake between his legs, he leaned
over to the passenger seat to get his food from a
McDonald's bag. As he did so, his thighs inadvertently
squeezed the frozen liquid out of the cup. The sudden
shock distracted the driver and the car veered into
another. The blame was put on the fast-food chain, which
should have warned the man against eating while driving.
It was March 1995 and Robert Glaser was pretty excited
about attending a Billy Joel and Elton John concert at
Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. When his bladder called
for him to relieve himself, he was confronted with the
stadium's unisex toilet policy. Approaching the urinals,
he noticed a woman using one. He visited a number of
other toilets in the stadium but discovered women in all
of them. He was embarrassed and claims that emotional
distress prohibited him from being able to
"go", and he therefore had to hold it in for
around four hours. He sued the stadium and the city for
$5.4 million.
An author was sued for $60 million because of what he had
written. Surprisingly, this wasn't a libel suit. The
writer was telling the truth. The plaintiff was a
convicted killer and he alleged that he was innocent of
the 16 murders the author had written about, making it
quite thorny for him to find employment in the future.
A 27-year-old man from Michigan was involved in a
rear-end collision. Four years later, he sued the owners
of the truck that was responsible for the accident.
Having suffered minor injuries, he stated that from then
on, his sexual relationship with his wife deteriorated,
as he was unable to maintain their sex life. He claimed
he had been so affected by the crash that his personality
had been changed. In fact, he maintained that the
accident turned him into a homosexual. He left his wife,
moved in with his parents, began hanging out in gay bars,
and became a fervent reader of gay literature. He won his
case and was awarded $200,000, while his wife received
$25,000.
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