Thursday, February 9, 2012

So, sue me!

I came across an online post entitled "The 13 Dumbest Lawsuits in Recent History" . Some of the sources seemed legit (i.e. ABC News, Fox News) while others seem like a wee bit like urban legends (for lack of sources, mostly).

The lawsuits range from a woman suing Universal Studios because the movie "Halloween Horror Nights" was too scary, thus causing her "emotional distress", to a Nebraska Senator suing God "for directly and proximately [causing], inter alia, fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornados, pestilential plague." He also used the lawsuit as a cease and desist order to God, complaing He must bow to the law and "cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats", to one filed by a woman against Google Maps for giving bad directions.

These seem to take the Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants case (the infamous McDonald’s hot coffee case, filed by Stella Liebeck which won her a hefty sum in punitive damages) as a precedent in filing torts lawsuits which, honestly, with a little common sense, could have been averted.

Agnes M. Santiago, Entry #8

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