this is funny and imagine how some ppl would go the extreme to do those!!!! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/crime/package.jsp?name=crime/features/lawsuits
Seven of the Silliest Lawsuits Ever Filed
We've all heard stories about ridiculous lawsuits filed by overly aggressive attorney's who are looking for a fast buck. As it turns out, some of these suits are just urban legends but most of them are real. Now you can review seven of the silliest ones ever filed.
1) Hide & Seek
Jan 2002. Police in Vermont stopped a man. After running his name, it came back that there were warrants for his arrest from Florida. Before the police could arrest him, he fled into a nearby forest (in the middle of winter). The police searched for him, but were unable to find him. Three days later, the suspect turns himself in to police and was taken to the hospital with frostbite. He ended up having several fingers and toes amputated. He is now suing the police. Why? The police didn't look for him hard enough! He stated in an interview, 'If they had searched harder, they would've found me'. He's accusing the police of dereliction of duty leading to his loss of limbs.
2) Dog Food
October 1998: Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pa., 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, 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. Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found in the garage and a large bag of dry dog food. Mr. Dickson sued the homeowner's insurance, claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of a half million dollars.
3) Irritated Inmates
According to Department of Justice figures, 30,000 inmate lawsuits were filed last year (added to heavy backlogs, more than 28,000 inmate lawsuits in New York alone) against prison officials for "civil rights" violations, the vast majority described by judges and court officials as frivolous.
Among the lawsuits were those prisoners complaining that the prison canteen supplied "creamy" peanut butter when a prisoner bought "crunchy", that guards wouldn't refrigerate his ice cream snack so that he could eat it later ($1 million lawsuit), that his toilet seat was too cold, that, as an inmate-paralegal in the prison law library, he should make the same wage that lawyers make, that prisons should offer salad bars ($129 million), that a limit on the number of Kool-Aid refills is "cruel and unusual punishment", and that the scrambled eggs were cooked too hard.
In New York, 20 percent of the entire budget of the Attorney General's office is spent on prisoner lawsuits.
4) Toy Yoda
A former waitress has settled her lawsuit against Hooters, the restaurant that gave her a toy Yoda doll instead of the Toyota she thought she'd won.
Jodee Berry, 27, won a beer sales contest last May at the Panama City Beach Hooters. She believed she had won a new Toyota and happily was escorted to the restaurant's parking lot in a blindfold.
But when the blindfold was removed, she found she had won a new toy Yoda - the little green character from the "Star Wars" movies. After the stunt, Berry quit the restaurant and filed a lawsuit against Gulf Coast Wings Inc., the restaurant's corporate owner, alleging breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation.
David Noll, her attorney, said that he could not disclose the settlement's details, although he said Berry could now go to a local car dealership and "pick out whatever type of Toyota she wants".
5) McLawsuit
John Parker made a pit stop at a McDonald's drive-thru window. After wedging his chocolate milkshake between his legs and putting his burger and fries onto the seat next to him, he headed back onto the road. When Parker leaned over to reach for his fries he inadvertently squeezed his legs together, causing the cold shake to leap out of its cup and onto his lap. A stunned Parker then plowed his car into the vehicle in front of him. William Bailey, who was at the receiving end of Parker's mishap, was not sympathetic. He sued Parker and McDonald's, claiming that the fast-food franchise neglected to warn customers of the dangers of eating and driving.
The Verdict: The judge dismissed the suit; however, he also denied McDonald's request that Bailey reimburse them for their $10,000 in attorney's fees. In the judges words, Bailey was "creative and imaginative and shouldn't be penalized for that."
6) Klepto Caper
In 1994, Joe Hindman admitted he stole from parked cars on his way to work, lifted thousands of dollars from the purses of fellow workers in the office and kept a handgun hidden in his briefcase. But when GTE Data Services fired Hindman from his computer programming job two years ago, he sued.
Hindman claimed the firing was illegal discrimination against the disabled, since he argued his behavior was due to a chemical imbalance caused by the anti-depressant Prozac.
The case was dismissed.
7) Guide Dog Damages
In the mid-1990s, a blind man was given the gift of a Seeing Eye Dog. But on a maiden voyage, the dog allegedly stepped on the foot of a woman.
After learning that the blind man had no money, the woman sued the dog's owner, Southeastern Guide Dogs, for "loss of earning capacity . . . and mental pain and suffering." The case: Susan Faith and Reverend Ian Faith, plaintiffs, v. Southeastern Guide Dogs, Inc., defendant.
Kimberly Marlow, Southeastern Guide Dogs' development director, recalls the suit well. The non-profit group had to gather extensive documents in anticipation of a trial.
But the suit never made it to court. After being ridiculed in newspapers and on CNN, the plaintiff dropped the lawsuit. And the plaintiff's law firm donated $1,000 to Southeastern Guide Dogs.
