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It's time again for the annual " Stella 
Awards"! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 
81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled
 hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New 
Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off 
the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would
 ever think one could get burned doing that, right?

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. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stella's for this year:

·         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, 
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 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 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.

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