More of the same, from www.cala.com
Best Multimillion-Dollar Claim By A Grieving Mother.
Jackie Robles lost her two baby girls this past fall after they wandered out of their Upland apartment onto nearby train tracks. The 3-year-old and 22-month-old were killed by a passing commuter train.
No sooner had her daughters been laid to rest than Robles filed a $30 million lawsuit against the local transportation authority. She claimed that the agency was responsible for the deaths of her two little girls because they had neglected to fence off the track to prevent such a tragedy.
Never mind that Robles had fallen asleep with the door wide open when her daughters wandered over to the train tracks or that the grieving mom tested positive for methamphetamine use.
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Best Claim By A Jurassic-Era Plaintiff.
He's one of the highest-paid entertainers in America. He stars in his own TV series. His videotapes are in big demand. He does a live show at Universal Studios. He's "authored" several best-selling books.
So Barney, the multimillionaire purple dinosaur, doesn't want anyone poking fun at his image. And that's why his lawyers filed a claim against the "Famous Chicken," a.k.a. Ted Giannoulas, seeking damages for trademark infringement.
Barney's lawyers say that the Chicken "would punch, flip, stand on, and otherwise assault" their purple client as part of his act at baseball parks, hockey rinks and basketball courts. They think Barney is entitled to at least several hundred thousand dollars for pain and suffering.
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Best Use Of Common Food Staple In Personal Injury Claim.
Notwithstanding the clever TV commercials (Got milk?), and the hip magazine ads with various celebrities adorned with milk mustaches, a Seattle man is persuaded that milk is harmful to health.
In fact, Norman Mayo filed a suit against the Safeway supermarket chain and the Washington state dairy industry, claiming that he suffered clogged arteries and a mild stroke after a lifetime of drinking milk.
"They push their dairy products without warning you of the hazards (fat and cholesterol)," said Mayo, who described himself as a milk-a-holic. "If tobacco products can be required to have warning labels, why not dairy products?"
Mayo is asking for medical expenses and cash for his troubles. And while he waits for Safeway and the dairy industry to settle, he limits his milk habit to nonfat or skim.
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There's no way to escape the fact that these lawsuits are real," said Anthony Bell, executive director of the Los Angeles area CALA. "But the scary thing is we're paying for them."
· It wasn't a ghost, just a flying T-shirt: (Burbank, CA). A man in the audience to watch "The Tonight Show" sued the show, NBC and Jay Leno after he was struck in the face with a souvenir T-shirt. Claiming pain and suffering, disability, lost wages, emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment, the man asked for $25,000. (Los Angeles Times, online edition, 12/5/99)
· Cancel Halloween (again), "fright" really is a cause of action: (New York, NY). After experiencing 28 seconds of turbulence on an airline flight, 12 passengers heaved up a lawsuit over their "fear of dying." They won $2 million. (Miami Herald, July 25, 2000)
· A victim of the "witches brew": (Las Vegas, NV). A California man sued the Las Vegas Hilton and Mandalay Bay Hotel Casino claiming the casinos were negligent in allowing him to gamble away more than $1 million while he was drunk. He is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and he wants the casinos to be precluded from seeking to prosecute him criminally. (Las Vegas Sun, January 12, 2000)
· Attack of the Killer Sneakers: (New York, NY). A woman sued the Nike corporation earlier this year claiming that her sneakers caused her to fall while running and permanently injure her wrist. She sued for $10 million, claiming negligence, product liability and breach of warranty. (Reuters, April 6, 2000).
· Next time try lightning. It worked for Dr. Frankenstein when he needed to jump-start a brain: (Tampa, FL). A Florida man went out for some drinks and, after working up a good drunken stupor, climbed up a transformer tower. He was shocked by 13,000 volts of electricity and thrown nearly 40 feet. He then sued six bars and stores that "negligently served or sold him alcohol." He also sued the Tampa Electric company, saying the utility didn't do enough to prevent him from breaking into the fenced, gated and locked substation and scaling the transformer. (Reuters, March 3, 2000).
· Speaking of Dr. Frankenstein, and misplaced body parts: (New York, NY). A New York jury awarded a former exotic dancer $30,000 to compensate her for the "anguish" she suffered when a doctor used silicone breast implants to enlarge her buttocks. The doctor claims he did everything by the book. The plaintiff said, "I looked like I had two (breasts) on my butt." (Associated Press, June 12, 2000).
· Wrath of the snake woman: (Santa Ana, CA). A local telephone company erroneously listed an attorney's name under "Reptiles." It was an error that became the source of jokes everywhere from local newspapers to Jay Leno. Being of something less than good humor, the attorney filed a libel lawsuit seeking $100,000 in damages from the phone company. (Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2000).
· Haunted by Lawsuits: (London and Tennessee). Six years after the famous McDonalds "hot coffee lawsuit" made the US civil justice system the laughingstock of the world, McDonalds has remained a favorite target of lawsuits over food mishaps. In London, several McDonalds customers are suing over hot coffee, hot tea and even hot water. In Tennessee, it was a pickle that did the damage, as a woman sued the restaurant for $110,000 after a hot pickle from a hamburger fell on her chin. (Reuters, August 2, 2000 and The Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2000)
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