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Outrageous Lawsuits From 2004
The TRUE Stella Awards -- 2004 Winners
by Randy Cassingham
Issued 31 January 2004
#6: The Tribune Co. of Chicago, Ill. The newspaper chain owns several
newspapers, as well as the Chicago Cubs baseball team. One of its
newspaper carriers was Mark Guthrie, 43, of Connecticut. One of its
ball players was Mark Guthrie, 38, of Illinois. The company's payroll
department mixed the two up, putting the ballplayer's paycheck into
the paper carrier's bank account. The carrier allowed them to take
back 90 percent of the improperly paid salary, and said they could
have the rest after they gave him a full accounting to ensure he not
only got his own pay, but wouldn't have any tax problems for being
paid $300,000(!) extra. The Tribune Co., rather than provide that
reasonable assurance, instead sued him for the rest of the money.
#5: "High Tech" retailer Sharper Image sells a lot of its "Ionic Breeze"
air filters. As part of a comparative review of many air filters,
Consumer Reports magazine found the "Ionic" unit was the worst
performer. SI complained, saying it didn't do a "fair" test. CU asked
what sort of test should be done, but SI never replied -- until it
sued CU. A federal judge ruled the suit not only had no merit, but was
actually an illegal attempt to squelch public discussion. SI was
ordered to pay CU $400,000 to cover its legal defense costs.
#4: Edith Morgan, mother of Kansas City Chiefs football star Derek
Thomas, who died after being thrown from his SUV in a crash while
speeding in a snowstorm. Morgan said Thomas’s neck was broken because
the SUV’s roof collapsed a few inches — not from rolling down the
highway because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt — and sued General
Motors. Her lawyer begged jurors to award more than $100 million in
damages, perhaps more — he “did not want to put an upper limit on
it.” GM pointed out that Thomas’s oversize SUV was exempt from federal
roof crush standards, yet it met them anyway. The jury sent a message:
of that $100 million, it awarded Morgan ...nothing.
#3: Tanisha Torres of Wyndanch, N.Y. The woman sued Radio Shack for
misspelling her town as "Crimedanch" on her cell phone bill. She
didn't even ask them to change it; she just sued. "I'm not a
criminal," she whined. "My son plays on the high school football
team." Yeah, that makes sense. The name "Crimedanch" is a common joke;
police in the area confirm it's a high-crime area. Still, Torres
claimed she suffered "outrage" and "embarrassment" at having to see
that spelling on her private phone bill. The suit seeks unspecified
damages.
#2: Homecomings Financial, a subsidiary of GMAC Financial Services, which
is a division of General Motors. The finance company accepted a change
of address notice from identity thieves for the account belonging to
Robert and Suzanne Korinke. The thieves ran up a $142,000 debt, and
the Kerinkes notified Homecomings of the fraud the moment they
discovered it. Homecomings sued them two years later, saying the
couple's "negligence" is what "caused the injury to Homecomings," not
the fact that the company accepted a change of address from fraudsters
-- and then gave them all the money they could drain. The victims got
the company to drop the suit, which demanded $74,000 plus attorney's
fees, after shelling out $5,000 in legal fees -- an outcome their
lawyer called "really lucky".
AND THE WINNER of the 2004 Stella Award: Mary Ubaudi of Madison County,
Ill. Ubaudi was a passenger in a car that got into a wreck. She put
most of the blame on the deepest pocket available: Mazda Motors, who
made the car she was riding in. Ubaudi demands "in excess of $150,000"
from the automaker, claiming it "failed to provide instructions
regarding the safe and proper use of a seatbelt." One hopes Mazda's
attorneys make her swear in court that she has never before worn a
seatbelt, has never flown on an airliner, and that she's too stupid to
figure out how to fasten a seatbelt.
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