Outrageous recent court cases...
1.) January 2000: Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000.00
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.
2.) June 1998: A 19 year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000.00 and
medical expenses when his neighbor ran his
hand over 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.
3.) 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, the automatic door opener was
malfunctioning. He couldn't reenter 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.
4.) October 1999: Jerry Williams of Little Rock Arkansas was awarded
$14,500.00 and medical expenses after being bitten
on the buttocks by his next door neighbor'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 after because the jury felt the dog
may have been provoked by Mr. Williams who, at
the time, was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.
5.) May 2000: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of
Lancaster Pennsylvania $113,500.00 after she
slipped on a spilled 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.
6.) December 1997: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware successfully sued the
owner of a night club in a neighboring 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 lady's room to avoid paying the
$3.50 cover charge. She was awarded
$12,000.00 and dental expenses.
7.) And just so you know that cooler heads do occasionally prevail: Kenmore
Inc., the makers of Dorothy Johnson's
microwave, were found not liable for the death of Mrs. Johnson's poodle after
she gave it a bath and attempted to dry it by
putting the poor creature in her microwave for, "just a few minutes, on low,"
The case was quickly dismissed.
--
Frank Clarici
Toms River, NJ
Lots of Sprites
http://www.exit109.com/~spritenut
|