I cannot believe juries are this stupid ... oh wait, yes I can.
The Winnebago verdict is especially galling. That woman leaving the driver's seat to make herself a ham sandwich thinking cruise control would keep the RV on the road should be in jail right now. She could have killed a bunch of people with her stupidity.
Take that, Putin (and She)!!! We have the most ‘creative’ legal system in the world, something you guys cannot hold a candle to!
Completely infuriating - and shows the common sense and intelligence of juries these days.
Hopefully, all will be overturned - but not holding my breath given the judicial system.
When i first heard the story, i thought she was a “bet rich quick” lawsuiter, and thought she just got lightly scalded or somehting, but after reading about it, Stella was severely burned- she had extensive 3’rd degree burns too. Not saying the suit and award were right, but it was a wakeup call that mcd’s coffee is extremely hot and for folks to not be careless with it till it cools some.
Perhaps she shouldn’t have prevailed because it was her actions that caused the severe burns. But, there were no warning labels about just how rediculously hot the coffee was, which there maybe should have been. The lawsuit did have a positive impact in that it shaped how businesses labeled things in order to avoid lawsuits in the future.
And remember: these people on juries also vote!
This email has numerous inaccuracies. For starters, Stella herself was the passenger, and thecar was parked, and she spilled the coffee in the act of removing the lid:
“Her nephew parked so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. She placed the coffee cup between her knees and pulled the far side of the lid toward her to remove it.[10] In the process, she spilled the entire cup of coffee on her lap.[11] Liebeck was wearing cotton sweatpants, which absorbed the coffee and held it against her skin, scalding her thighs, buttocks and groin.[12][13]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants
For another, the Bristol in questuin is in Pennsylvania, not Connecticut. I am sure there’s more.
If I lived in or owned a business in any of the states mentioned, my house and/or business would be on the market today.
However I suspect these travesties will soon be visited on the rest of the disUnited States.
God Almighty, is there any sanity left in this country.........or the world?
The Winnebago story at least, has been around for years, so it can't be a recent verdict.
A friend was selected for jury. He had been rejected on four previous cases as soon as attorneys learned he had a PhD. In this case, the pool had been diminished and the attorneys had no choice.
The case involved an insurance claim for a house that burned down. The insurance company rejected the claim since this was the third time the house caught fire in a four week period. The house was unoccupied. Due to a divorce settlement the husband was required to keep up payments on the house. The wife had moved out to live with her boyfriend and refused to let the man sell the house.
In all three instances the fire marshall determined there had been accelerants deployed. The last time, the electricity had been shut off. There was an extension cord run from the house next door to an electric heater lying face down on the carpet.
The jury elected a president whose first comment was: “We know this poor boy was being screwed by his ex and he set the fire. We can find for him and be out of here in time for happy hour.” The jury voted to find for the ‘poor boy’. My friend did not.
Sometimes, class action attorneys are the culprits in lawsuit abuse.
Currently, television commercials are airing directed at Marine Corps veterans and others who may have suffered health problems related to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejune.
What mystifies me about this class action litigation is that no similar lawsuit is directed to those veterans who served nearby at Cherry Point that is not too far away. Is there a different water plant for the two facilities.
A few years ago, a friend of mine got a container of hot take-out soup from a restaurant she frequented. The same thing happened, it went right into her lap. She suffered serious burns as a result.
Everybody told her to sue, but she declined saying that it was her own fault. Even people working in the restaurant urged her to sue knowing that the insurance would cover it. She wouldn’t do it.
Honest people like her are few and far between.
Must have been a homemade garage door opener. All garage door openers I have seen and repaired have a emergency disconnect to raise the door manually.