Funny Lawsuits

Due to the International Fools Day this article will be devoted to funny, unusual and stupid lawsuits. Most of these funny and unusual lawsuits are connected to various fast-food chains, supermarkets and food issues.

Of course the number one in every list is the $2.86 Million Coffee Burn Case we already wrote about. Stella Liebeck burned herself with coffee purchased at a McDrive and sued McDonalds, the legendary $2.86 million compensation were suggested by Stellas’ lawyer who suggested penalizing the fast-food chain for one or two days' worth of coffee revenues (about $1.35 million per day). The sad thing for McDonalds is that the coffee was really too hot and Stella was right, so the case was settled for $600.000. After that the Stella Award, for the most stupid cases was founded. Another McDonalds related case happened in 1993, when a man sued the corporation for having no “don’t eat and drive” warning. While sitting in a car he placed a milkshake between his legs and leaned over to get food from the bag, during this process he squeezed the hot milkshake out of the cup. He was distracted due to shock and bumped into another car.

Wal-Mart is most probable the number two target of unusual lawsuits. In 2006 they were sued by Kliner family whose house was burned down due to overheated xBox 360 Power supply in December 2004 (they also sued Microsoft). The problem was that the console was released only in 2005. Wal-Mart was also sued by another couple who suffered “cracked and damaged toenails” after canned goods fell out of an overfilled plastic grocery bag. In a similar situation Northridge discount department store was sued by a woman who wanted to buy a blender and tried to get a bottom box from a stack of four blenders from an upper shelf. When she pulled out the bottom box, other boxes fell down and she sustained minor damages.

Richard Harris in 1991 sued the Anheiser-Busch advertising company for false advertising. He claimed that he suffered from emotional distress in addition to mental and physical injury. The reason was that when he drank beer he had no luck with the ladies, as promised in the advertising, he also had hangovers in the morning.

There are also numerous strange and stupid cases. There was a case when a surfer sued another surfer for steeling his wave. A student sued his University for not warning him of the dangers of living on the 4th floor, after he fell out of the window. A woman sued her friend for giving her a bad haircut. A woman in Israel sued the weather channel for predicted a sunny day and it rained, she went out lightly dressed and as a result she caught flu. A convicted bank robber on parole sued a bank for causing him damages after the bank employee handed him over an anti-robbery device in form of a money roll filled with tear gas. A woman who accidentally killed a man in a car crash sued his widow for grave and crippling psychological injuries she suffered from watching the man die.