Janet Jackson is to be sued for exposing her breast during the Superbowl half-time show.
This is clearly insane, and continues in a long tradition of ludicrous lawsuits filed in the US.
1)McDonalds Coffee
Clearly the winner in the 'idiot lawsuit' category is this one. If you remember, Stella Liebeck bought coffee from McDs, spilt it on herself, and got burned. She successfully sued for 2 or 3 million dollars, complaining that there was no warning on the cup.
Apparently, she considered suing the manufacturers of her car, because they had not put cup-holders in the vehicle.
2)Bullet Manufacturers
More controversial, but in Chicago, I think, a guy went crazy a few years ago and killed a lot of people in an office building, before killing himself. The relatives of the victim, having no-one else to sue, decided to sue the manufacturers of the weapon. They lost, I believe. They considered suing the manufacturers of the bullets as well.
3)Fat kids
Obese kids are now suing fast-food manufacturers for selling unhealthy food. Apparently, there is no clear warning on a Big Mac or a Whopper that says 'this food is unhealthy - We do not advise you eat it every day, 3 times a day.'
Garner's advice - try suing your parents for letting you eat this offal all the time!
Finally, one that I had never heard - this in fact is the winner of the 2002 'Stella Awards' , named after the aforementioned Ms Liebeck
4)Sisters Janice Bird, Dayle Bird Edgmon and Kim Bird Moran sued their mother's doctors and a hospital after Janice accompanied her mother, Nita Bird, to a minor medical procedure. When something went wrong, Janice and Dayle witnessed doctors rushing their mother to emergency surgery. Rather than malpractice, their legal fight centered on the "negligent infliction of emotional distress" -- not for causing distress to their mother, but for causing distress to them for having to see the doctors rushing to help their mother. The case was fought all the way to the California Supreme Court, which finally ruled against the women. Which is a good thing, since if they had prevailed doctors and hospitals would have had no choice but to keep you from being anywhere near your family members during medical procedures just in case something goes wrong. In their greed, the Bird sisters risked everyone's right to have family members with them in emergencies.
Thanks to Antipixel Jeremy for the Janet Jackson story.
As an aside, which has NOTHING to do with my America-bashing above, I once spoke to Latoya Jackson (later a Playboy pin-up) on the phone. There was a phone-in contest, and she was manning the phones. I won one of the prizes, which was a video and a signed 12" single. I wonder where those valuable items are now...
Posted by Gary at February 20, 2004 11:24 AM