Famous Ukrainian lawyer Igor Shavrov in a new video on the YouTube channel "ProZakon" tells about the most stupid lawsuits of recent times.
In the USA, in 2002-2007, there was even a premium for the stupidest lawsuit. The award is named in honor of Stella Lybek, who in 1992 spilled hot coffee from McDonald's on herself, burned herself, and later sued McDonald's for $2,5 million (later this amount was reduced to $600). The story received wide coverage in the mass media and pop culture, where Lybek was often portrayed in a negative light, and the details of the case were omitted and distorted.
The last Stella award was awarded in 2007. In 2012, the author of the award, Randy Cassingham, announced that its issuance was discontinued. He published a book about the Stella Prize, one copy of which, autographed by the author, will be raffled off among subscribers of the ProZakon channel.
And now we will talk about the dumbest lawsuits in the entire history of the "Stella Award".
In 2004, Mary Ouboudy of Madison County, Illinois, was a passenger in a car that was involved in an accident. She blamed the accident not on the driver, but on Mazda Motors, which made the car in which she was driving. The woman demanded more than 150 dollars from the automaker, claiming that the auto giant did not provide instructions on how to use seat belts. We did not find a formal report on this case, but we did find that Mary Ubudi died in February 000 at the age of 2016, which means she was about 57 years old when she claimed she needed instructions on how to fasten a seat belt security
And the winner of the 2005 True Stella Award contest, Christopher Roller from Burnsville, Minnesota, said that he is God, which means that everyone who uses divine powers should pay him royalties. He even tried to patent "divine forces on planet Earth", but, of course, he failed. Then he sued professional magicians David Blaine and David Copperfield. He stated that magicians violate the laws of physics and, therefore, must pay him 10 percent of their lifetime earnings for using "divine powers." The emu's claim was rejected.
And the laureate of the award in 2007 was the acting judge, 57-year-old Roy L. Pearson, Jr., whose pants were lost in the dry cleaners. For this, he sued the owners of the dry cleaners for 65 million (!) dollars. But the judge of the Supreme Court was not moved by this: he called the case a "boring litigation", scolded judge Pearson for his "dishonesty" and awarded dry cleaning compensation. At the same time, Pearson did not accept a negative answer and appealed this decision. And he had a lot of free time for this, since they decided not to extend his work contract. After that, the restless judge filed a lawsuit against the city of Washington "for illegal dismissal", demanding 1 million dollars. This claim was also rejected.
And in 2002, the winners of the "True Stella Awards" contest were sisters Dale Bird Edgemon and Kim Bird Moran. They sued their mother's doctors and the hospital after accompanying their mother for a minor medical procedure. When something went wrong, Janice and Dale witnessed doctors rush their mother to the emergency room. Their legal battle focused not on negligence, but on "negligent infliction of emotional distress" — not because of causing their mother suffering, but because they had to see doctors rushing to help their mother. The case reached the California Supreme Court, which finally ruled against the women. That's good because otherwise doctors and hospitals would have no other choice but to not allow you to be anywhere near your family members during medical procedures in case something goes wrong. In their greed, the Bird sisters jeopardized everyone's right to have family members with them in emergency situations.
And the winner of the Stella Prize in 2003 was the entire city of Madera in the state of California. Madera Police Officer Marsa Noriega handcuffed the suspect in the back of her patrol car. When the suspect started kicking the windows of the car, the officer decided to subdue him with her stun gun. Incredibly, instead of pulling a taser from her belt, she pulled out her service weapon and shot the man in the chest, killing him instantly. However, the city authorities said that the murder was not the responsibility of the officer, but the Taser taser manufacturer. Like, they make stun guns, outwardly very similar to tableau weapons. Therefore, the city assured that the company should pay compensation for the man's wrongful death claim. The court rejected the case in a simplified procedure, the city filed an appeal, but it was also rejected.
And the undisputed winner of the Stella Award" of all time was Allen Ray Heckard in 2006, who said that he was very similar to basketball star Michael Jordan. He sued Jordan and Nike because he was fed up with people wanting to take pictures with him. The man said that this "causes him moral suffering", which he estimated at almost a billion dollars. Later, he had to withdraw from the lawsuit - after Nike's lawyers talked to him, where they explained that they would file a counterclaim and what would be expected in that case.
At the same time, it is Heckard who is the personification of the Stella Prize, as a person who filed a huge and baseless lawsuit.
The conclusion is very simple - you can entertain people in any place, even in court, so always think before you do anything, write or file a lawsuit.
