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The Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of All Time

notice of lawsuitFrivolous lawsuits have become as American as apple pie. There have been some really ridiculous lawsuits over the years but a select few stand out above the rest. Here we list and discuss 8 of the most ridiculous lawsuits of all time. So without further ado, let's get started.

1. The Angry Girlfriend

At a restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, an angry Ms. Amber Carson had an argument with her boyfriend. In keeping with being one with a flair for the dramatic, she threw her soda at him. Only moments later, she slipped on her spilled soda and broke her tailbone. The “butt-hurt” Ms. Carson successfully sued the restaurant for $113,500.

2. Accord-ing to Carl

Carl Truman, a 19-year-old young man from LA, was hard at work trying to steal the hubcaps off of his neighbor's Honda Accord when his unsuspecting neighbor, who had been in the car, started to drive away and ran over Carl's hand in the process. Truman sued, and won $74,000 as well as medical expenses.

3. Window Walton

Kara Walton of Delaware was out for a night on the town when she decided to climb through the women's restroom window in order to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. In the process, she fell through the window and onto the bathroom floor, knocking out her two front teeth. She sued the night club, got her dental expenses taken care of, got paid $12,000, and never had to pay that cover charge.

4. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

One night in July of 2005, two kind-hearted teenage girls from Durango, Colorado, decided to give their neighbors a pleasant surprise by baking them cookies which they delivered with heart-shaped messages wishing their neighbors a good night. Unfortunately, when they went to go deliver cookies to Wanita Renea Young, Young grew so frightened as a result of having visitors at 10:30 p.m. that she suffered from an anxiety attack and was rushed to the hospital. She tried suing the girls for money to compensate her for her pain and suffering in addition to the $930 for her ambulance trip, but was only awarded the $930.

5. A Failed "Enterprise"

In 1984, a 19-year-old high school graduate named Ricky Bodine was on top of Enterprise High School's gymnasium stealing floodlights from the roof when he fell through a skylight, thus rendering him a spastic quadriplegic. He sued the school for $8 million and ended up settling for $260,000 plus $1200 a month for the rest of his life (which would be a bit over a million dollars today).

6. "Whose Kid is That?!"

Kathleen Robertson was shopping in a Texas furniture store when she tripped over a toddler who was running around the store and broke her ankle. As a result, she sued, and won $80,000. Interestingly, the toddler that she tripped over was her own son.

7. Craving Kibble?

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, burglarized a temporarily unoccupied home. As he was leaving through the garage, he pulled the door that connected the house to the garage shut, and it locked behind him. When he tried to leave through the garage door, he discovered that it was malfunctioning and wouldn't open. As a result, he had to live off of a case of Pepsi and a bag of dog food until the homeowner returned. He successfully sued for $500,000 for undue mental anguish.

8. The Winnebago Incident

Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was the proud owner of a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home, which she was using to drive home from an OU football game. Once she got onto the freeway, she set cruise control at 70 mph and went to the back to go make herself a sandwich. Since "cruise control" is not "auto pilot," the Winnebago crashed off the freeway and overturned. She sued, and was awarded $1,750,000 and a new motor home. Additionally, Winnebago amended their user manual as a result.

Lilliana Smith is a member of the RueZiffra.com team. She is currently studying science, technology, and society at Stanford University.

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