Stella Awards
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Reminds me of a story my driver instructor told me - a woman here in the UK sued her former driving instructor for not telling her that she couldn't drive the wrong way up a duel carriageway. She won, which left the poor driving instructor homeless after paying out. Simon Q: Why didn't Intel call the Pentium the 586? A: Because they added 486 and 100 on the first Pentium and got 585.999983605. Sonork ID 100.10024
Simon Walton wrote: duel carriageway Is that with like Lances hanging off the drivers window?:) Paresh Solanki There is no substitute for genuine lack of preparation.
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then they should hire a new editor for their front page. because as i read that, they were saying that the pentagon was NOT hit by a plane. -c
I don't care, and you can't make me.
you need to look closelly , they wrote that it was false that "it was not hit"; so logically, "it was hit" Max who's picky...
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then they should hire a new editor for their front page. because as i read that, they were saying that the pentagon was NOT hit by a plane. -c
I don't care, and you can't make me.
I thought the nice red "FICTION!" was a dead giveaway. Tim Smith I know what you're thinking punk, you're thinking did he spell check this document? Well, to tell you the truth I kinda forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this here's CodeProject, the most powerful forums in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question, Do I feel lucky? Well do ya punk?
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Simon Walton wrote: duel carriageway Is that with like Lances hanging off the drivers window?:) Paresh Solanki There is no substitute for genuine lack of preparation.
Only on dark knights! Roger Allen Sonork 100.10016 If I had a quote, it would be a very good one.
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you need to look closelly , they wrote that it was false that "it was not hit"; so logically, "it was hit" Max who's picky...
the following is a complete sentence: "The Pentagon was NOT hit by an American Airlines jet on September 11". the ungrammatical "- Fiction" at the end can be easily interpreted as reenforcing the "NOT": ex. "You are NOT telling the truth - Liar!", "This discussion is NOT cool - Lame!". there's no reason it must be interpreted as "the following was a false statement". -c
I don't care, and you can't make me.
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I thought the nice red "FICTION!" was a dead giveaway. Tim Smith I know what you're thinking punk, you're thinking did he spell check this document? Well, to tell you the truth I kinda forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this here's CodeProject, the most powerful forums in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question, Do I feel lucky? Well do ya punk?
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(this is an email that's circulating, i'm sure some of you have seen it already. if it's already been posted here, and you feel the need to tell me: please, get a life, instead. ;) ) THE STELLA AWARDS (What was the jury thinking?) Announcing a new spin-off to the well known Darwin Awards, the Stella Awards are named in honor of 81 year-old Stella Liebeck, the woman who won $2.9 million for spilling a cup of McDonald's coffee on herself. The following are candidates for the award: 1. January 2000: Kathleen Robertson of Austin TX was awarded $780,000 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 that the misbehaving little fellow was Ms. Robertson's son. 2. June 1998: 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 hubcaps. 3. October 1998: Terrence Dickson of Bristol PA 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, because 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 son found him locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found in the garage and a large bag of dry dog food. Mr. Dickson sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of a half million dollars. 4. October 1999: Jerry Williams of Little Rock AR was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The dog was on a chain in its owner's fenced-in yard at the time. Mr. Williams was also in the fenced-in yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog may have been provoked by Mr. Williams who, at the time, was repeatedly shooting it with a pellet gun. 5. December 1997: Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster PA $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend thirty seconds earlier during an argument.> 6. December 1997: Kara Walton of Claymont DE successfully sued the ow
Great stuff! /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
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Obviously Tim Smith I know what you're thinking punk, you're thinking did he spell check this document? Well, to tell you the truth I kinda forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this here's CodeProject, the most powerful forums in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question, Do I feel lucky? Well do ya punk?
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Good timing. The New South Wales government down here has just drafted a Bill to stop this sort of nonsense. Pain and suffering will be capped at AUD 350,000 (about $4.75 US) and payouts for injuries sustained while drunk, drugged or acting illegally (or all 3 ;)) will be banned. And lawyers will have to pay all costs if they push cases that simply can't be won. This all stemmed from the recent collapse of the insurance agency that insures 60% of Aussie doctors (long story - it actually sounds like there's a bit of bluffing going on). Ambulance chasing has started rising here so these new laws, to me, seem a Good Thing (then again I've never had to sue for damages so who knows) cheers, Chris Maunder
Chris Maunder wrote: Pain and suffering will be capped at AUD 350,000 (about $4.75 US) Three hundred fifty thousand Australian dollars is equal to four dollars and seventy five cents US?? I thought is was currently about 2:1, that would mean more like $175,000 US. Huge difference!!! ;) ;) Mike Mullikin "Thank you America, every night I see increasingly stupid things happening here in Australia. Then you come along and top it." - Michael Martin - The Lounge :bob:
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Obviously Tim Smith I know what you're thinking punk, you're thinking did he spell check this document? Well, to tell you the truth I kinda forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this here's CodeProject, the most powerful forums in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question, Do I feel lucky? Well do ya punk?
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Chris Maunder wrote: Pain and suffering will be capped at AUD 350,000 (about $4.75 US) Three hundred fifty thousand Australian dollars is equal to four dollars and seventy five cents US?? I thought is was currently about 2:1, that would mean more like $175,000 US. Huge difference!!! ;) ;) Mike Mullikin "Thank you America, every night I see increasingly stupid things happening here in Australia. Then you come along and top it." - Michael Martin - The Lounge :bob:
awesome! i'm moving to AU - and i want that exchange rate!! -c
I don't care, and you can't make me.
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(this is an email that's circulating, i'm sure some of you have seen it already. if it's already been posted here, and you feel the need to tell me: please, get a life, instead. ;) ) THE STELLA AWARDS (What was the jury thinking?) Announcing a new spin-off to the well known Darwin Awards, the Stella Awards are named in honor of 81 year-old Stella Liebeck, the woman who won $2.9 million for spilling a cup of McDonald's coffee on herself. The following are candidates for the award: 1. January 2000: Kathleen Robertson of Austin TX was awarded $780,000 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 that the misbehaving little fellow was Ms. Robertson's son. 2. June 1998: 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 hubcaps. 3. October 1998: Terrence Dickson of Bristol PA 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, because 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 son found him locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found in the garage and a large bag of dry dog food. Mr. Dickson sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of a half million dollars. 4. October 1999: Jerry Williams of Little Rock AR was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The dog was on a chain in its owner's fenced-in yard at the time. Mr. Williams was also in the fenced-in yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog may have been provoked by Mr. Williams who, at the time, was repeatedly shooting it with a pellet gun. 5. December 1997: Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster PA $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend thirty seconds earlier during an argument.> 6. December 1997: Kara Walton of Claymont DE successfully sued the ow
Of course there is another side of the coin. Tort-reform law can leave deserving people without recourse to the courts to seek compensation.
- In 1997 Don and Irma Wilson, tourists from Spokane, Washington, were walking down the sidewalk in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, when a transformer belonging to the Nashville Electric Service exploded, burning both people very seriously. This was clearly the fault of the electric company, but tort reform legislation in Tennessee limited the liability to $350,000 per incident, to be divided among the Wilsons and two other victims. This didn't come close to covering the hospital bills the two incurred (their medical bills ended up running over one million dollars). See http://www.tennessean.com/sii/99/05/13/wilsons13.shtml for details.
- In Berthoud Pass, Colorado, in 1987 highway workers accidentally dropped a boulder the size of a small car onto a tour bus, killing 9 and injuring 16. A state tort reform law limited the liability of the state to $400,000 to be divided among all the victims, which didn't begin to cover the direct medical costs.
- One of the top supporters of Texas's tort-reform laws to cap liability awards is Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale, who was sued for keeping a chained 300-pound lion with no cage as an attraction for his Texas Flea Market. In 1986, his lion mauled two children, and in 1987 it attacked an 8-year-old girl who was walking by with her parents, penetrating her skull with its teeth. The subsequent investigation revealed that the lion was severely underfed at the time. McIngvale's account, in an interview with William Glaberson of The New York Times (7 June 1999, front page), was that "As I became more successful, I became more and more of a target for frivolous lawsuits."
In other Texas cases documented by Glaberson,
- In May 1990, A psychotic man was checked into a mental hospital in Texas. He had previously threatened his ex-wife and set fire to her car, but the hospital ruled that although psychotic, he was not "manifestly dangerous," so he was sent on his way with a supply of Thorazine pills to take instead of the intravenous injections that would be appropriate for a dangerous patient. After his release, the man did not take his pills and one week later he murdered her and dismembered his ex-wife. Texas's tort reform law said that the woman's father did not have the right to sue the hospital.
- In 1996, a worker at an oil refinery was fat
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And here are the laywers excuses (and maybe a slightly more accurate description of the Stella Case). Gil "I'm-not-a-lawer-and-I-don't-like-them" Rivlis
Gil Rivlis wrote: And here are the laywers excuses Here is my favorite:
McDonald's admitted that its coffee is “not fit for consumption” when sold