3 Minute Speaker Peter Thompson introduced the Stella Awards – so named after American Stella Liebeck, at the time 79 years old, who was awarded $160,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages because she spilt a scalding cup of McDonald's coffee on her lap causing third-degree burns.Just happens that she was in the passenger seat of a car holding the cup between her knees. McDonald's and Liebeck settled out of court but the Stella Awards have since been published annually to the most laughable legal claims such as:
• Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury 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 the misbehaving child was Ms Robertson’s son.
• Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was exiting a house he 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 re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, so Mr Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. Dickson sued the homeowner’s insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of half a million dollars and change.
• In November 2000, Mr Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the Winnie left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the handbook that he could not actually do this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago. (Winnebago subsequently amended the handbook.)