Re: Carter Zerbe commentary

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:46 pm

Open the yellow pages and you'll find tons of lawyers willing to work for free.

A contingent fee in the United States or conditional fee in England & Wales is any fee for services provided where the fee is only payable if there is a favourable result. In the law is defined as "[a] fee charged for a lawyer's services only if the lawsuit is successful or is favorably settled out of court...Contingent fees are usually calculated as a percentage of the client's net recovery."[1].

source

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:47 pm

ziggy wrote:
Aaron wrote:Getting arrested is not quite as simple as there is burden of proof before someone can be charged, fingerprinted, and booked.

Why do you refuse to acknowledge the difference?

You have it back asswards, again. The burden of proof part comes AFTER somone has been "charged, fingerprinted and booked".

Recently a WV state trooper charged a guy just for fartin' in his presence. What so-called "frivolous" civil lawsuits are any more frivolous than that?

You'll have to prove that before I call it anything other then Bullshit.

by ziggy Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:57 pm

Correction-it was a city police officer. Either way, do civil lawsuits get any more frivolous than this:

Man arrested for battery after passing gas
September 24, 2008 @ 08:32 PM

The Associated Press

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia man has been charged with battery on a police officer for allegedly passing gas toward a patrolman.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1488613584/Man-arrested-for-battery-after-passing-gas

by ziggy Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:23 pm

In the not very distant past parents often had teachers arrested on criminal charges for administering paddlings to their children. These charges were almost always dismissed by the Court. Unless a child were physically injured beyond maybe having red butt cheeks, Prosecuting Attorneys usually considered such arrests as frivolous- leaving it up to parents to prosecute these charges. Prosecuting Attorneys would even move that the Court dismiss the charges- often upon the charging parents' request. But the teacher still had to post a bond, endure the stigma of public arrest- sometimes being handcuffed and taken away directly from the classroom.

Buden of proof before someone can be charged, fingerprinted, and booked my ass. All it takes is for a police officer or anyone else willing to sign a warrant to get pissed at someone else.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:06 pm

And there can and often is consequences for that police officer.

Can the same be said for many of the frivolous lawsuits we see in our court system?

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:11 pm

ziggy wrote:Correction-it was a city police officer. Either way, do civil lawsuits get any more frivolous than this:

Man arrested for battery after passing gas
September 24, 2008 @ 08:32 PM

The Associated Press

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia man has been charged with battery on a police officer for allegedly passing gas toward a patrolman.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1488613584/Man-arrested-for-battery-after-passing-gas

Why didn't you post more of the article? Had he not failed a field sobriety test he wouldn't have been in the police station to begin with, now would he!!!

As is often the case, when you post something, it’s more often then not a partial truth or half lie and you’ve been purposefully misleading. That's why you have very little credibility Ziggy.

Thirty-four-year-old Jose Cruz of Clarksburg is also charged with driving under the influence, driving without headlights and two counts of obstruction.

Cruz was pulled over by South Charleston police Tuesday for driving without headlights. After failing field sobriety tests, Cruz was taken to the station for a breathalyzer test.

by ziggy Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:51 pm

Everything I posted was true. You challenged me to put up, and so I did.

You are the one who said it was easier to file a lawsuit than to charge someone with a crime. I am showing you that it isn't so. All it takes is for someone- almost anyone- to be pissed at you to be charged with a crime.

by ziggy Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:55 pm

Aaron wrote:And there can and often is consequences for that police officer.

Can the same be said for many of the frivolous lawsuits we see in our court system?

Aaron, you are the one who said:

Getting arrested is not quite as simple as there is burden of proof before someone can be charged, fingerprinted, and booked.

But in actual practice, no "burden of proof" is necessary until AFTER someone is arrested.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:13 pm

ziggy wrote:Everything I posted was true. You challenged me to put up, and so I did.

Your statement inferred a man was arrested only for passing gas. Par the course it was typical Ziggy; misleading.

As for arresting someone for no reason, it may be plausible but it’s unlikely. If an officer or department were to make a habit of it of arresting and charging citizens without just cause, there will most certainly be consequences regardless of what you think.

by ziggy Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:18 pm

Where is the "burden of proof" that was established before this person was arrested and, 'cuffed?

The false arrest of an elected official in San Francisco for using a $100 bill that police wrongly thought was counterfeit has evolved into a potentially precedent-setting legal struggle over police accountability.

The San Francisco City Attorney's Office is seeking to appeal the case all the way to the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court, an expensive fight that could overturn what would seem a welcome ruling in liberal San Francisco. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last August affirmed in the case that citizens have the right to sue police officers after being unreasonably arrested for a crime they didn't commit.

After a federal district judge refused to grant qualified immunity to the officers and throw out the lawsuit, City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office insisted on repeated appeals argued by deputy city attorney Scott Wiener, rather than settling for a few thousand dollars and accepting that the cops simply screwed up.

"There are some people who would say 'Why don't you just pay a little money to settle it?" Wiener told the Guardian. "But we have to take a broader institutional perspective, because if you start settling cases that don't have merit, you're going to wind up with a lot more cases like that than you would have otherwise."

At the center of the story is attorney Rodel Rodis, a Filipino activist and elected trustee of City College of San Francisco, who was arrested in the spring of 2003 and dragged to a police station for supposedly trying to buy a handful of items from a Walgreens with a counterfeit $100 bill. The bill turned out to be real.

But by the time the officers came to that conclusion, Rodis had suffered what he regarded as the terrible embarrassment of being shoved into a squad car with his hands behind his back in front of neighbors and constituents. It also occurred just around the corner from his longtime law practice and the main campus of City College, where he's been an elected trustee since 1991.

Rodis promptly filed a $250,000 claim against the city, former Police Chief Alex Fagan Sr., and two officers at the scene alleging false arrest, excessive force, and the negligent infliction of emotional stress, among other things. He later offered to settle the suit for $15,000, but the City Attorney's Office refused to accept the deal.

Five years and innumerable legal bills later, the case just keeps getting worse for the city — even before it lands in front of a jury to determine if indeed the police should compensate Rodis.
"Part of my mind was saying ... 'I'm not going to argue. I'm not going to resist,’" Rodis said of the arrest. "I put my hands behind my back but I'm thinking 'This has got to be a mistake. Somebody here has to have some sense.’"

Rodis was suffering from minor allergy symptoms on Feb. 17, 2003, when he headed to a Walgreens on Ocean Avenue he'd been going to for 20 years. It was located near his Ingleside home and a law office he's had in the neighborhood since 1992.

He picked up some cough syrup, Claritin, toothpaste, and a few other things. The total came to $42 and change, so he tried to pay with a $100 bill.

"I just happened to have it in my wallet," Rodis said.

The drugstore clerk used a counterfeit detection pen to be sure the bill was legit. It was, according to the marking, but the bill was printed in the 1980s before watermarks and magnetic strips were used to help stop counterfeiting.

The young clerk was unfamiliar with the bill's design and called a manager to be sure. He too used a counterfeit pen to confirm that it was real. But the manager told Rodis he was still going to call the police, fearing it was fake. That's when things turned surreal. Two officers showed up and almost immediately placed Rodis in handcuffs before trying to ascertain if he'd actually attempted to defraud Walgreens.

"They made no effort to determine what the situation was ... they just assumed," Rodis said. "When she said 'Put your hands behind your back,' I thought I was in some Twilight Zone episode."

A third ranking officer on the scene, Sgt. Jeff Barry, had known Rodis for years as a local lawyer and City College trustee. Their sons were classmates. But Barry allegedly failed to step in and question whether Rodis was likely to be a fraud artist.

Another officer, Michelle Liddicoet, told Rodis she knew who he was and, according to the suit, that he "should be ashamed of himself."

Feeling humiliated as other Filipinos he knew looked on, Rodis was put into the back of a patrol car and taken to Taraval Station, where he was handcuffed to a bench. There he waited another 30 minutes or so until the police officers were able to reach the Secret Service, which investigates currency for the US Treasury Department. A federal agent confirmed that the bill was likely genuine. The whole ordeal lasted about a couple of hours and Rodis was driven back to the drug store.

"This wasn't a situation where Mr. Rodis was held in jail overnight or for a week or had to post some large amount in bail," Wiener said.

Fagan sent out a department memo shortly afterward, stating that suspects have to know the currency they're using is counterfeit before being arrested, and in any event, if they insist it's real, the officer can book the bill as evidence for later examination and give them a receipt without arresting anyone.

But by then the damage was done and the hasty reaction of police would lie at the heart of the case that Rodis subsequently filed.

http://services.inquirer.net/print/print.php?article_id=20080717-148993

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:22 pm

1. 1991, Richard Overton sued Anheuser-Busch for $10,000. He claimed to have suffered emotional distress, mental injury, and financial loss because drinking beer did not make his fantasies of beautiful women in tropical settings come to life, as he claimed it had advertised, driving him to buy and drink more Bud Light. The case was dismissed.

2. 1995, Robert Lee Brock sued himself for $5 million. He claimed that he had violated his own civil rights and religious beliefs by allowing himself to get drunk and commit crimes which landed him in the Indian Creek Correctional Center in Virginia, serving a 23 year sentence for grand larceny and breaking and entering. What could he possibly have to gain by suing himself? Since being in prison prevented him from having an income, he expected the state to pay. This case was thrown out.

3. 1996, the family of Patsy Ann Byers sued Oliver Stone, Warner Brother, and others involved in the making and distribution of the movie Natural Born Killers for an unspecified amount. They claimed that the movie caused Sarah Edmondson and Benjamin Darrus to go on a crime spree which resulted in Edmonson shooting Byers during a robbery, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down. The lawsuit was originally filed in 1995, against Edmonson and Darrus, the actual perpetrators of the crime spree. Stone and the others involved with the film were added in 1996. The portion of the case aimed at Stone and his associates was dismissed in 2001.

4. 2000, Cleanthi Peters sued Universal Studios for $15,000. She claimed to have suffered extreme fear, mental anguish, and emotional distress due to visiting Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights haunted house, which she said was too scary.

5. 2001, Linda Sanders and other family members of Columbine High School shooting victims sued 25 movie and video game companies for $5 billion, in a class action lawsuit.They claimed that were it not for movies includingThe Basketball Diaries and videos games including Doom, Duke Nukem, Quake, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Mech Warrior, Wolfenstein, Redneck Rampage, Final Fantasy, and Nightmare Creatures, the massacre would not have occurred, and that the makers and distributors of the movies and games were partly to blame for their loved ones’ deaths. The case was thrown out and the plaintiffs were ordered to compensate the video game and movie companies for their legal fees.

6. 2002, Edward Brewer sued Providence Hospital for $2 million. He claimed that the hospital was negligent because it had not prevented him from raping one of its patients. The judge ruled that any damage Brewer suffered due to his crime was his responsibility for choosing to commit the crime, and that the hospital had no legal duty to protect him from that choice.

7. 2003, Andrew Burnett sued Sara McBurnett and the San Jose Mercury News, claiming they had caused him to suffer mental anguish and post traumatic stress disorder. Burnett filed the lawsuit while serving a three-year sentence for killing defendant McBurnett’s dog in a road rage incident, claiming that the incident had caused his suffering. The case was thrown out.

8. 2005, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Gertrude Walton, who had passed away the year before at the age of 83, after having received notice of her death and a copy of the death certificate. The RIAA claimed that Watson had illegally downloaded and shared over 700 songs. Watson’s daughter claims that she never even had a computer in the house. Although RIAA dropped the case against Watson, it was only one of over 20,000 similar lawsuits filed by the association beginning in 2003. While some of the lawsuits are legitimate cases of piracy, defendants have included a twelve-year-old girl whose parents wound up paying RIAA $2,000, and families who have never owned a computer. Defendants can face charges of $150,000 per song.

9. 2005, Austin Aitken sued NBC for $2.5 million. He claimed that an episode of “Fear Factor” caused him “suffering, injury, and great pain.” He said that watching the contestants eat rats on television made him dizzy and light-headed, causing him to vomit and run into a doorway. He judge said the case was frivolous and threw it out.

10. 2006, Allen Heckard sued Michael Jordan and Nike founder Phil Knight for $832 million. He claimed to suffer defamation, permanent injury, and emotional pain and suffering because people often mistook him for the basketball star. Heckard dropped the lawsuit later that year.

by ziggy Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:26 pm

Where is the "burden of proof" that was established before this person was arrested and, 'cuffed and jailed overnight?

A San Francisco man, Matthew Shinnick, was arrested and jailed when he tried to cash a check at a Bank of America branch after receiving it from someone who had seen his ad for bicycles on Craig's List. Matthew listed the bicycles for $600. Someone, reportedly from Canada, emailed Matthew agreeing to purchase the bikes sight unseen. Shortly thereafter, Matthew received a check in the mail for $2000. He took the check to a local Bank of America branch and asked the teller if sufficient funds were in the account listed on the check as Clark suggests to his listeners. The teller replied in the affirmative, and Matthew decided to cash the check. While the transaction was processing, a red flag caught the attention of the teller who called the owner of the checking account to verify the check. The account owner informed the teller that no check had been written to Matthew at which point the teller reported it to her manager. The manager alerted the police and once they arrived Matthew was promptly handcuffed and taken to a room with no communication from the officers or the bank. Bank of America then decided to press charges, and Matthew was then arrested for check fraud.[4]

Consumer advocate Clark Howard found out about this story and spoke with the man, Matthew Shinnick, who has spent about $14,000 in legal fees to clear his name. Matthew sat in the bank branch for hours while police figured out what to do and then spent the night in jail. Once he was released and not charged, ...........................

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Howard

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:30 pm

The mayor of Batman, Turkey, is threatening to sue Warner Brothers for a share of the nearly $1 billion The Dark Knight has generated. The unauthorized name use has wreaked psychological havoc in the Anatolian oil city by driving up unsolved murders and female suicides, Huseyin Kalkan tells Variety—though he didn’t explain why the action comes 70 years after the hero’s comic-book debut

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:30 pm

Ashley Dupre has wrecked another home, if you believe KT Mary Dunphy. The Manhattan woman is suing her ex-fiancé for “emotional distress,” in part, she tells the New York Daily News, because he slept with Eliot Spitzer’s infamous call girl and eventually took her on vacation to Aruba. A spokesman for Dupre says she’s never met the man and has never been to Aruba.

But Dunphy, 41, says she walked in on Dupre and Oppenheimer, 55, having sex in the summer of 2007 and heard Oppenheimer refer to her by name. Later, she recognized Dupre’s tattoos on TV. The Dupre incident wasn’t the only rift. Dunphy’s suit claims that Oppenheimer had a cocaine problem and that when Dunphy told him she was pregnant, he evicted her. The stress, she says, caused her to miscarry.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:32 pm

Kung Fu Panda may not seem very controversial, but it sure offended Zhao Bandi, a Chinese performance artist who is renowned for using panda images in his work. Zhao is suing Dreamworks for the film’s “insulting” portrayal of China’s national icon, the Independent reports. “Designing the panda with green eyes is a conspiracy,” Zhao says. “A panda with green eyes has the feeling of evil.”

Zhao also finds it insulting that Po’s father is a duck. “In a few years' time, I'm worried some young Chinese people will think their ancestor is Donald Duck,” he says. But Zhao, who carries a stuffed panda wherever he goes, isn’t seeking monetary damages; instead, he’s demanding Dreamworks apologize, and open up their creative records to expose the alleged conspiracy.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:34 pm

Whale tale: After their 27-year-old son was found dead on the back of an orca, parents sued SeaWorld for depicting killer whales as huggable stuffed animals.

My name’s Jackass, too! A man named "Jack Ass" sued MTV for plagiarizing adopted moniker.

There's something in my food: A women who sued Wendy’s after finding an amputated finger in her chili put it there herself in a scam gone wrong.

Don’t want to be like Mike: Michael Jordan was sued for $832 million by a man who suffered emotional pain after being mistaken for the basketball star.

Killed the romance: A wife claimed “deprivation of husbandly services” after a Starbucks toilet crushed her husband’s penis.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:40 pm

After 10 lawsuits that have yielded nothing besides smoldering rage, a Manhattan judge chastised Sean Connery and his nemesis-neighbor Burton Sultan, calling on the two to end their feud over alleged damages to the townhouse they share. Justice Marcy Friedman singled out Connery and his family for their "blunderbuss" courtroom antics, the New York Post reports.

She also slapped Sultan with a $1,000 fine for filing lawsuits on claims that had already come to nothing. The two parties are now forbidden from suing each other without her permission. The Connerys accuse the Sultans of preventing them from renovating the house. Sultan says the construction is wrecking the building and has argued in court papers that Sir Sean is a "rude, foul-mouthed, fat old man."

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:44 pm

Judge sends God lawsuit to afterlife
Published: Oct. 15, 2008 at 7:45

OMAHA, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A Nebraska lawmaker says he may appeal after an Omaha judge tossed his suit against God because there was no evidence the defendant had been served papers.

Douglas County District Judge Marlon Polk said another factor in his decision to throw out the lawsuit, which was brought by state Sen. Ernie Chambers, I-Omaha, was the fact "there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant," the Omaha World-Herald reported Wednesday.

Chambers' suit, which was filed in September 2007, had sought a permanent injunction preventing the almighty from bringing about earthquakes, tornadoes and other acts of natural violence.

The lawmaker said he may appeal Polk's decision.

"It is a thoughtful, well-written opinion," Chambers said of Polk's ruling. "However, like any prudent litigator, I want to study it in detail before I determine what my next course of action will be."

Chambers, a 28-year veteran of the state Legislature, said his suit was designed as a reaction to colleagues who sought to prevent "frivolous" lawsuits.

"Nobody should stand at the courthouse door to predetermine who has access to the courts," he said. "My point is that anyone can sue anyone else, even God."

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:52 pm

A 27-year-old Michigan man was involved in a minor rear-end collision. Four years later, he sued the man who rear-ended him, claiming the accident caused a change in his sexuality. He no longer desired his wife and was unable to perform sexually. He claimed that the accident actually changed his entire personality, causing him to leave his wife, move in with his parents, and begin hanging out in gay bars. The worst part of this case? He actually won it! He was awarded $200,000 and his wife was awarded $25,000.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:52 pm

A woman in Israel sued a tv station and it's weatherman for $1,000 when the weatherman predicted a sunny day and it rained. She said that, because the forecast was clear, she left home underdressed. She then caught the flu, missed 4 days of work, spent $38 on medications and "suffered stress" as a result of a badly forecasted day.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:54 pm

DETROIT Jan 6, 2005 — The sign on the toilet brush says it best: "Do not use for personal hygiene."

That admonition was the winner of an anti-lawsuit group's contest for the wackiest consumer warning label of the year.

The sponsor, Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, says the goal is "to reveal how lawsuits, and concern about lawsuits, have created a need for common sense warnings on products."

The $500 first prize went to Ed Gyetvai, of Oldcastle, Ontario, who submitted the toilet-brush label. A $250 second prize went to Matt Johnson, of Naperville, Ill., for a label on a children's scooter that said, "This product moves when used."

A $100 third prize went to Ann Marie Taylor, of Camden, S.C., who submitted a warning from a digital thermometer that said, "Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally."

This year's contest coincides with a drive by President Bush and congressional Republicans to put caps and other limits on jury awards in liability cases.

"Warning labels are a sign of our lawsuit-plagued times," said group President Robert Dorigo Jones. "From the moment we raise our head in the morning off pillows that bear those famous Do Not Remove warnings, to when we drop back in bed at night, we are overwhelmed with warnings."

The leader of a group that opposes the campaign to limit lawsuits admits that while some warning labels may seem stupid, even dumb warnings can do good.

"There are many cases of warning labels saving lives," said Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy in New York. "It's much better to be very cautious … than to be afraid of being made fun of by a tort reform group."

The Wacky Warning Label Contest is in its eighth year.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:54 pm

Cable TV made a West Bend man addicted to TV, caused his wife to be overweight and his kids to be lazy, he says.

And he’s threatening to sue the cable company.

Timothy Dumouchel of West Bend wants $5,000 or three computers, and a lifetime supply of free Internet service from Charter Communications to settle what he says will be a small claims suit.

Dumouchel blames Charter for his TV addiction, his wife’s 50-pound weight gain and his children’s being “lazy channel surfers,” according to a Fond du Lac police report.

“I believe that the reason I smoke and drink every day and my wife is overweight is because we watched TV every day for the last four years,” Dumouchel stated in a written complaint against the company, included in a Fond du Lac police report.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:54 pm

A Mt. Pleasant Township couple wants Wal-Mart to pay for foot and toe injuries they claim were caused by canned goods and condiments that tumbled from an overfilled plastic grocery bag.
According to a two-count civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in Westmoreland County, Brenda and Ronald Sager contend a plastic bag they brought home from the East Huntingdon Township store last month was deficient and overstuffed.

The bag, which contained a 32-ounce jar of Miracle Whip, a 46-ounce bottle of ketchup, three 15-ounce cans of fruit, an 18-ounce bottle of ranch dressing and a 12-ounce bottle of mustard, broke open when the Sagers returned home and started to put away their groceries.

That's when the handle tore and the bottom of the bag broke, the Sagers claim.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:55 pm

A Charlotte, NC, lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, and then insured them against fire among other things. Within a month having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed claim against the insurance company.

In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost "in a series of small fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.

The lawyer sued....and won! In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The Judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire," and was obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000.00 to the lawyer for his loss of the rare cigars lost in the "fires."

NOW FOR THE BEST PART... After the lawyer cashed the check,the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!!! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000.00 fine.

This is a true story and was the 1st place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

by Aaron Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:56 pm

1. 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 inside a
furniture store. The owners of the store were
understandably surprised at the verdict, considering
the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's
son.

2. A 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won
$74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran
over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman
apparently didn't notice there was someone at the
wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his
neighbor's hub caps.

3. Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was
leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of
the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to
go up since 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, and 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. He sued the homeowner's
insurance claiming the situation caused him undue
mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of
$500,000.

4. Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was
awarded $14,500 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 yard. The award was less than sought because
the jury felt the dog might have been just a little
provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting
it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

5. A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber
Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she
slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx
(tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms.
Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds
earlier during an argument.

6. 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 out without
paying her check, awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

7. This year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv
Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski
purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On
his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway,
he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left
the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself
a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the
road. The owner's manual did not say that he couldn't
actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus
a new motor home. The company actually changed their
manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there
were any other complete morons buying their recreation
vehicles.

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