If there is anything humanity is good at, it's making questionable decisions. Many times people escape those decisions without harm and gain a funny story to tell, but sometimes they also end up with injuries and consequences that they feel are worthy of legal action. While personal injury attorneys do their best to represent their clients and help recoup the cost of damages, here are a few cases that must have had their attorneys shaking their heads.
Blame the Weatherman
In Israel, a woman who claimed that an inaccurate weather forecast made by a local television station caused her to dress inappropriately before leaving her house, which caused her to catch the flu. Not only did she miss a week's worth of work due to this personal injury, but she had to purchase medicine to treat her condition. Amazingly, the woman won the case, but was only awarded $1000 for her trouble.
Google Told Me To
Lauren Rosenberg from Park City UT decided she wanted to take a walk across the city, and plugged in her destination address to Google Maps on her Blackberry phone. Most of her walk went fine, until it directed her to take a turn onto a major highway that had no sidewalks or pedestrian pathway. Lauren continued walking anyway, until she was hit by a car, and then promptly sued Google for $100,000 claiming that their directions were unsafe.
Can't Stop on a Dime
Milo Stephens Jr. had a history of suicide attempts, and his favorite method was by jumping in front of the trains in the Manhattan subway station. When his attempt in 1977 didn't go so well and he ended up with serious, but not life-ending injuries, he decided to sue the New York City Transit Authority for $650,000. His claim was that despite the fact that he threw himself in front of the train, the driver did not stop the train quickly enough to prevent his injury. And astonishingly, the courts agreed.
$900 Cookies
Two teen Colorado girls thought they were doing a good deed when they stayed home from a school dance in order to whip up a few batches of home-made cookies for their neighbors, which they left as a surprise on neighborhood doorsteps. While most of their neighbors were very appreciative, 49 year old Anita Young claimed that their act of charity caused her to have an anxiety attack which sent her to the hospital. A Colorado judge was sympathetic to Mrs. Young and fined the teen girls just under $900 in compensation for their neighbor's distress.
Attack of the Bathroom Door
While using a public restroom in a New York City realty office, Cedrick Makara attempted to exit his bathroom stall by putting his thumb in the hole left by the door's missing latch. As he pulled the door, another patron pushed, causing an injury to his thumb which was so severe he required surgery and missed six months of work. The jury agreed that the realty office was negligent by not fixing the latch on the bathroom door, and award him 3 million dollars.
Sliding home
Connecticut brothers Mark and Scott separately sued the town of Enfield after both sustaining the same injuries to their left foot and ankles when they attempted to slide into the bases during their town's adult softball league game. The injuries occurred in separate games that were only a week apart, but still they claimed they were not expecting the bases to be anchored and that the town should have a rule that players are not allowed to slide. Despite the fact that their own lawyers admitted that the brothers slid unnecessarily, the courts awarded them a total of $135,000.
For information about more typical personal injury cases and attorneys that can help to win them, visit sites like http://www.medilaw.com.
Share10 July 2014
