Posted on 02/04/2005 9:26:46 PM PST by lauriehelds
Colorado Teens Fined for Giving Cookies to Neighbor
1 hour, 33 minutes ago Oddly Enough - Reuters
DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts.
The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day.
Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday.
The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of their rural Colorado neighbors on July 31 and dropped off small batches on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message: "Have a great night."
The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a dance where there might be cursing and drinking.
It reported that six neighbors wrote letters entered as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies.
But Young said she was frightened because the two had knocked on her door at about 10:30 p.m. and run off after leaving the cookies.
She went to a hospital emergency room the next day, fearing that she had suffered a heart attack, court records said.
The judge awarded Young her medical costs, but did not award punitive damages. He said he did not think the girls had acted maliciously but that 10:30 was fairly late at night for them to be out.
I was involved in litigation with a skag who had been suing 2-3 people a year for 2 decades -- you do the math. [Found this out while researching for the case.] She lost most every time, but there is no penalty for frivolous lawsuits in VA -- and certainly no loser pays.
I agree...but do you think maybe the nutty Judge and the old bat are tied in this together somehow??? This is the nuttiest story I have read in months.....
Good one :)
If this is not a frivolous lawsuit, then there is no such thing as a frivolous lawsuit.
As said by a good friend: if the Founding Fathers knew the Constitution was going to be used to justify public defecation, they probably would have said to hell with it and not spent the summer in the Philadelphia summer, in a hall with the doors closed.
What if the accompanying heart said, "Enjoy! From your local Islamic Mosque." Would that ease your suspicion?
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