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Best of the Worst
Frivolous Lawsuits-1996
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The following are the 1996 winners of the “So Sue Me” Awards:
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National Cases:
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FIRST PLACE
The Case of Sand Box Situation
A sand box fight between a couple of three-year-olds has ended up with a lawsuit and a restraining order to keep the two warring toddlers apart. Boston attorney Howard Speicher, who is a neighbor of the child being sued said, “this is something that really never should have left the playground. It’s an incident that happens in every sandbox in the country, and somehow people manage to deal with it every day."
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RUNNER UP
The Case of the Religious Buff
An inmate in Illinois sued because he was not allowed to practice his religion in the nude.
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Texas Cases:
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FIRST PLACE
The Case of the Boot Scootin’ Boogie
A San Antonio man slipped on a wet floor in his employer’s cafeteria and sued the Justin Boot Company. He claimed that his boots were defective and should have kept him from falling. The jury found that it wasn’t the boots causing the scootin’; it was the water.
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RUNNER UP
The Case of Flaming Cucaracha
A burned bar patron walked away empty handed when a Texas jury found he was primarily responsible for his own injuries. The patron and his friend went to a bar and requested a “Cucaracha,” a type of flaming drink. Despite the fact that the bar forbade the serving of flaming drinks and the repeated warnings to stop lighting their own drinks, the patrons continued to “light up.” The third round eventually caused a burning accident that injured three others (all of whom had settled for over $150,000). “I think the jury demonstrated that they believed that people should be responsible for their own actions,” said attorney Spencer Markle in a Houston Chronicle story.
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