Court Watch - Written by Beasley Allen on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 13:49 - 7 Comments

The Lawsuit Myth put out by the Tort Reformers must be Exposed

The annual Stella Awards list, a list of the years seven “most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S.,” is nothing more than a fraud on the public. The so-called awards deal primarily with fiction, and many of the lawsuits listed never happened. The examples of what they describe as frivolous lawsuits are at best gross misstatements. The Stella Awards are just part and parcel of the carefully planned efforts designed to destroy the civil justice system. Once these awards are announced, they take on a life of their own. That’s because of the Internet. Unfortunately, the media never bothers to investigate the validity of the cases mentioned in the awards, and then write stories that keep the myths alive.

An example of how these myths orginate is this year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner. Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of , Oklahoma, who supposedly purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home, was the winner. On her first trip home, from a football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski was supposed to have sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. It was reported that an Oklahoma jury had awarded the woman $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. It was also said that Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home. The e-mail that announced the award concludes: “Are we, as a society, getting more stupid?”

The truth is that this sort of nonsense relating to a Winnebago never even happened. But, the media bought the story hook, line, and sinker, and never even bothered to check it out. Scores of articles – the vast majority buying the Winnebago story as gospel truth – resulted across the country. Apparently, few journalists bothered to do any research to determine whether they were true. Among outlets falling for the hoax were the New York Daily News, CNN and U.S. News & World Report. In fact, the story actually spread around the world. Readers in Canada, England, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and even Vietnam heard about this fictitious that never happened. To his credit, Los Angeles Times reporter Myron Levin, who wanted to learn more about the , called Winnebago and found out there was no Grazinski . He also learned that the company had not changed the owner’s manual to avoid a swarm of copycat claims as claimed by the Stella awards.

The next time an “Internet tale” makes you believe things are even worse than you thought, check it out. Especially when the story suggests that the American court system is stacked against wealthy Corporate America. If you want to check out the “Stella Awards” and decide for yourself whether they are on the level, a good place to go is www.snopes.com, an excellent site that investigates urban myths. Simply search for “Stella Awards” and find out if the stories are true or false.




7 Comments

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K. D. Hunt
Mar 31, 2009 9:58

Do you actually believe that Winnebago is going to admit to such a thing as losing a law suit such as this? There have been numerous reports of people being hurt, or even killed, turning on their cruise control and doing idiotic things. (Walking to the rear of their R.V. for a drink, or even deciding to take a nap while sitting behind the wheel) Some people see it as an “Auto-pilot”, thinking it will take them to their destination automatically. Do the research. You will be amazed at just how stupid people can be.

Ann
May 3, 2009 5:55

I don’t Know about the other cases, but I know that the women who sued Mcdonalds won because they gave her a cup with a crack in it, told her of the crack handed it to her and that is when is fell and her lap. She required seven surgical proceedures.

Deborah K Morgan
Sep 21, 2009 9:58

Well, who really cares, for God’s sake. “It’s on the internet so it must be true”, as late a night comedian often says. I think we should worry about the “real” news, the lies and propaganda being put out there by respected reporters, investigate that America. dex

Marie Eve Du.
Nov 19, 2009 3:55

I will certainly adopt the opposite vision saying “if it’s on the internet its probably wrong”. The most shameful in this kind of situation is not really the fact that people are ready to take everything for Truth (and that’s is really alarming, … nobody cares) but how person called journalists, reporters (…) are doing their job.
Media normally serve to inform and in a part educate people I find horrendous that a professional can post judgements without even check informations that are easy to find .
I don’t think this kind of soft persuasion is harmless, tort and case law are a big part of civil society and reflect nation’s characteristics. It’s to easy to misuse ignorance, and nowadays it’s used more than ever.

fm
Nov 23, 2009 10:59

I honestly think that it’s just as depressing to admit that the legal system (at least with respect to personal injury suits) is in such a state that we readily accept and believe stories like these. And, with respect to the mcdonals coffee lap lady, the issue seems to have been more a matter of the coffee’s temperature (McDonald’s required their franchises to brew coffee hotter than most other companies to extract its full flavor) than anything else, and if you can’t handle drinking hot drinks you probably shouldn’t order them.

Dan
Dec 24, 2009 17:41

Ann,

You’re wrong about the facts of the McDonald’s case. Check this out:

http://www.caoc.com/CA/index.cfm?event=showPage&pg=facts

Marlene
Feb 9, 2010 17:15

Although these lawsuits may be fabricated, i think the point of it is that we, as a society, are becoming stupid or we are willing to do stupid things becuase we know that we can sue, and more than likely win.
For example….we have to be told not to use a hairdryer while in the tub; we have to be told not to use the Dremel as a toothpick/dental pick; we have signs at the zoo telling us not to climb the fence because the polar bear (fill in the blank with animal of your choice) will/could bite….we have these signs and warnings, becuase some idiot has done it before, and probably sued….the liabilities are tremedous.
So, whether the Stella awards are true or not, keep watching the news because these lawsuits will come to pass eventually.

staytuned—the dumbing of America will continue after this break

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