Wowwww Ohhh mylanta!

I received an email from a dear online friend of mine that just sent me into ...... I can't even describe it. Anger? Frustration? Humilitation? These are just a few of the things I felt. Ok, ok - I have to admit it made me laugh as well, I mean really? Really? People really did this? Is there no common sense left in America? I mean not only was it the stupidity and lack of foresite by the ... plantiff, but the what about the juries??? I mean COME ON PEOPLE!!!! What happened to be responsible for yourself?? It amazes and appalls me that out of your own stupid choices you can profit. Here is what I am talking about.

7TH PLACE : Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

6TH PLACE : Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

5TH PLACE : Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to
the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT, days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

4TH PLACE : Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas , garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog
with a pellet gun. ***My own note on this: he's lucky I wasnt' on the jury because I've had charged him with trepassing and animal cruelty. Think he would have been surprised????****

3RD PLACE : Amber Carson of Lancaster , Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. Whatever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

2ND PLACE : Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000.....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure. ***My note, yes I can't refrain myself. If I was on the jury I would have recommended breaking and entering charges against her and the labor it cost to clean the bathroom where I am sure her two front teeth made quite a little mess.****

1ST PLACE : (May I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please)This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the
freeway, crashed and overturned.

Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting
in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat
while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you
sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually
changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs.
Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home. *****All I can say is, "HELLO PEOPLE - IT"S CRUISE CONTROL NOT AUTOPILOT*****

LOL, I actually feel kinda sorry for the poor sap who gets me as a jurer because I firmly and fully believe in every action has an equal and opposite reaction and you will have consiquences for every choice you make, whether good or bad.