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The TRUE Stella Awards -- 2007 Winners
by Randy Cassingham
Issued February 2008

  Unlike the FAKE cases that have been highly circulated online for the
last several years (see http://www.StellaAwards.com/bogus.html for
details), the following cases have been researched from public sources
and are confirmed TRUE by the ONLY legitimate source for the Stella
Awards: http://www.StellaAwards.com . To confirm this copy is legitimate,
see http://www.StellaAwards.com/2007.html

                                   -v-

2007 Runners-Up and Winner:

#3: Sentry Insurance Company. The company provided worker's compensation
  insurance for a Wisconsin "Meals on Wheels" program. Delivering a
  meal, a MoW volunteer (who was allegedly not even wearing boots)
  slipped and fell on a participant's driveway that had been cleared of
  snow, and Sentry had to pay to care for her resulting injuries. Sentry
  wanted its money back, so it sued the 81-year-old homeowner getting
  the Meals on Wheels service. It could have simply filed for
  "subrogation" from her homeowner's insurance company, but by naming
  her in the action, it dragged an old lady into court, reinforcing the
  image of insurance companies as concerned only about the bottom line,
  not "protecting" policyholders from loss.

#2: The family of Robert Hornbeck. Hornbeck volunteered for the Army and
  served a stint in Iraq. After getting home, he got drunk, wandered
  into a hotel's service area (passing "DANGER" warning signs), crawled
  into an air conditioning unit, and was severely cut when the machinery
  activated. Unable to care for himself due to his drunkenness, he bled
  to death. A tragedy, to be sure, but one solely caused by a supposedly
  responsible adult with military training. Despite his irresponsible
  behavior -- and his perhaps criminal trespassing -- Hornbeck's family
  sued the hotel for $10 million, as if it's reasonably foreseeable that
  some drunk fool would ignore warning signs and climb into its heavy
  duty machinery to sleep off his bender.

But those pale in comparison to...

THE WINNER of the 2007 Stella Award: Roy L. Pearson Jr. The 57-year-old
  Administrative Law Judge from Washington DC claims that a dry cleaner
  lost a pair of his pants, so he sued the mom-and-pop business for
  $65,462,500. That's right: more than $65 million for one pair of
  pants. Representing himself, Judge Pearson cried in court over the
  loss of his pants, whining that there certainly isn't a more
  compelling case in the District archives. But the Superior Court judge
  wasn't moved: he called the case "vexatious litigation", scolded Judge
  Pearson for his "bad faith", and awarded damages to the dry cleaners.
  But Pearson didn't take no for an answer: he's appealing the decision.
  And he has plenty of time on his hands, since he was dismissed from
  his job. Last we heard, Pearson's appeal is still pending.

Copyright 2008 www.StellaAwards.com -- this message may be forwarded as
  long as it remains complete and unaltered. 

  
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[Contributed by Randy Cassingham]