Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Judicial Abuse Cases

I just read that the County Democratic Party has submitted its recommendations to Gov. Spitzer for persons qualified to fill the late Judge Bradley's seat on the Supreme Court. Interestingly enough, both the Town of Rochester's Town Attorney and the current Democratic Town Justice are on the list. While I'm not going to comment on that one way or the other (I can see both pros and cons with regard to his being appointed to the bench), the entire process of appointing a Judge got me to thinking about all the abuses ordinary people suffer at the hands of a Judicial Branch gone out of control. I found some cases of ridiculous lawsuits on the web I thought I would share with you.
Keep in mind that, although I have seen these cases elsewhere on the Internet, I can't possibly vouch for their accuracy to a 100% degree of certainty, therefore I have edited the names out of the descriptions. However, even if one or more of these is not accurate, there are hundreds of similar cases where Americans have been given a raw deal by our Courts.
I, for one, hope that our next Supreme Court Judge will choose common sense over absurd precedents when deciding cases.
*******************************
1. ***** ***** of *****, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a nightclub in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while ***** was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

2. ***** ***** of *****, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next-door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by ***** who was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3. A 19-year-old ***** ***** of *****, California won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. ***** apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hub caps.

4. A. ***** restaurant was ordered to pay ***** ***** of *****, Pennsylvania, $113,500 a! after she slipped on a soft drink spill and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because ***** had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

5. ***** ***** of *****, Pennsylvania, 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 since 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 was on vacation, and ***** 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. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

6. A jury of her peers awarded ***** ***** of *****, Texas, $780,000 after breaking her ankle by tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was the plaintiff's son.

7. This year's favorite could easily be ***** ***** of *****, Oklahoma. ***** purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. ***** sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles.

No comments: