The Stella Award Winner, Mrs Merv Graziniski

So you don't know what the Stella Awards are? Do you remember back in 1992 when a 81-year-old, Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased. You remember..... she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that - right?

Well not only did she get burned but she sued Mc Donalds for 1.5 million and won. So that is where the Stella Awards came from... So now when ever someone does something bone headed action sues and wins then they are in line to receive the world famous Stella Award!

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home from an OU football game, having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

The ideal that some individuals have won these Stella Awards because they got paid for their own mistakes blows my mind. So picture this, that a person actually was driving along the highway and put the cruise control on and got up and walked away from the wheel. Now it was not enough that they brought that hell on themselves when they crashed that vehicle, but then they decided that they could sue the manufacture for not being clear in the owners manual... Now that is not the straw that broke the camel back, but finding twelve jury men and women that agreed with the notion is unreal. Some people manage to hit the lottery in their own way, she hit the lottery just by being a dumb-ass, a rich dumb-ass that is!

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