Remember back in the day when you went to an attorney because you needed a will drafted, or maybe you had gotten into trouble and you wanted someone to defend you in court? When lawyers used to be honest, hard working officials of the court, with a duty to protect the innocent and prosecute the guilty?
Well those days are over – today people sue in order to gain fortune and try to make their life easy. Remember back in 1992 when an elderly lady sued McDonald's (and won $2.9MM) because she spilled the cup of hot coffee on her lap after buying it? I am not saying that lawsuit started all of this – but that’s when I began noticing the absurdity of frivolous lawsuits. Below are a few examples of lawsuits actually filed in courts over the last few years – along with the outcome of the lawsuit.
Man sued Budweiser for not getting beautiful women. In 1991, Richard Overton sued Anheuser-Busch, creators of Budweiser, for $10,000. He claimed to have suffered emotional distress, mental injury, and financial loss because drinking beer did not make his fantasies of beautiful women in tropical settings come to life, as he claimed it had advertised, driving him to buy and drink more and more Bud Light. The case was dismissed.
Customer sued dry cleaner for $65MM for lost pants. Roy Pearson Jr, a judge in Washington, tried to bully a family-owned dry cleaning shop by suing the owners for $54 million in damages after they lost his pants. The case demoralized the South Korean immigrant owners of the business and brought demands that the customer be disbarred and removed from office for pursuing a frivolous and abusive claim. Pearson's lawsuit against Custom Cleaners of Northwest D.C. eventually ended with a U.S. District Judge finding for the defendants. Pearson later indicated that he would appeal.
Be careful who you marry. A woman sued her fiancee when he broke off their seven-week engagement. A jury awarded her a total of $178,000 in damages; $93,000 was for “pain and suffering,” $60,000 for loss of income while she pursued this case, and $25,000 for psychiatric counseling. That’s pretty bad, but think about how much he’d be paying if he actually married her…
Thankfully justice came through on this one …
Burn, Baby, Burn. A North Carolina man purchased 24 rare and expensive cigars. Because of their value, he decided to insure them…against fire. The man smoked all of his cigars in less than a month and had yet to make a single payment on his fire insurance. He filed a claim against the insurance company, stating that he had lost his cigars in a “series of small fires.” The insurance company obviously refused to pay, believing that he had simply used the cigars as intended. The man won his case against the insurance company because they failed to specify the type of fire the cigars were insured against. Because they failed to define an “unacceptable fire,” the insurance company accepted the ruling against them and paid the man $15,000 for the cigars he had lost in the “fire.” However, the best part of this story is yet to come. Shortly after the man cashed the check, the insurance company countered and had him arrested on 24 counts of arson. The man was sentenced to 24 consecutive 1-year prison sentences.
Let's not even get into the ridiculous divorce proceedings of recent ... Elin Nordegren getting somewhere in the $250,000,000 - $500,000,000 range because she was dumb enough to marry a professional athlete and think he wouldn't cheat on her? Not saying what he did was right, but come on people - why does she DESERVE (not my word, just what I have been reading in peoples opinions) that kind of money?
What’s this all mean? I see these types of idealistic people all around. So many people believe they are the victims, when true common sense should tell them they are idiots. I don’t know if it’s TV, the Internet, Video Games or what … but why do people believe that if they don’t get what they want out of a situation that it’s someone else’s fault? Why do these people believe they are entitled to things? Is it the media? Is it the politicians? Where does it end? When are people going to begin taking responsibility for their own actions?
The justice system needs to go back to the days of using the Constitution to make their legal decisions. I fully agree that we should update that sacred document to make it valid toward modern day times, but let’s cut out all the B.S. that our government is dealing with and focus on the things in life that matter – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – these are the words of our founding fathers that started this great country that we live in. Our elected officials and courts have much bigger things to worry about than this frivolity – like balancing our budget, improving our schools, reducing crime, and preventing further domestic terrorism.
Bald Guy Out!
