COLORADO humorist and journalist Randy Cassingham runs an internet website called This Is True, in which he reports strange cases from the world’s Press.
From these, he finds ridiculous law suits that make it into his annual Stella Awards. These are named after Stella Liebeck who, at the age of 79 in 1992, spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee in her lap.
How this, any rational person might think, might be classed as an accident for which Stella herself was to blame. But this is America and she was awarded $2.9 million in damages because she suffered burns. The case has gone down in history as an example of all that is barmy in American litigation.
Cassingham is at the moment compiling his new Stella Awards. In the meantime, he records other examples of nuttiness.
Such as the woman who had her husband’s ashes made into an egg timer when he died so he could still help in the kitchen. And the fact that while only 68 of 200 Anglican priests polled in the UK could name all Ten Commandments, half said they believed in space aliens.
Which just goes to prove that it’s a funny old world.
