January, 2000: Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running amok and unsupervised inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandable surprised at the verdict, considering that the misbehaving little boy was Ms. Robertson's own son.

June 1998: 19-year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won$74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

October 1998: Terrance Dickson of Bristol, PA was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. Because the automatic door opener was not functioning, he was unable to get the garage door to go up. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family that the house belonged to was on vacation. Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found in the garage and a large bay of dry dog food. Mr. Dickson sued the homeowners, claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

October 1999: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The dog was on a chain in its owner's fenced in yard at the time. Mr. Williams was also in the fenced in yard. The award ended up being less than Mr. Williams sought because the jury felt Mr. Williams who, at the time, was repeatedly shooting the dog with a pellet gun, might have provoked the dog.

December 1997: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, PA, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

December 1997: Kara Walton of Claymont, DE, successfully sued the owner of a nightclub when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the women's room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

February 2002: Police in Vermont stopped a man. After running his name, it came back that there were warrants for his arrest from Florida. Before the police could arrest him, he fled into a nearby forest (in the middle of winter). The police searched for him, but were unable to find him. Three days later, the suspect turned himself into police and was taken to the hospital with frostbite. He ended up having several fingers and toes amputated. He is now suing the police. Why? The police didn't look for him hard enough. He stated in an interview, 'If they had searched harder, they would have found me'. He's accusing the police of dereliction of duty leading to his loss of limbs. Who knows how much this verdict will cost the offending police department?
And just so you know that cooler heads occasionally prevail, Kenmore Inc., the makers of Dorothy Johnson's microwave, were found not liable for the death of Mrs. Johnson' poodle after she gave it a bath and attempted to dry it putting the poor dog in her microwave for "just a few minutes, on low." The case was quickly dismissed.

Meanwhile, back in court....

***In March 1995, a San Diego man unsuccessfully attempted to sue the city and Jack Murphy Stadium for $5.4 million over something that can only be described as a wee problem -- Robert Glaser claimed the stadium's unisex bathroom policy at a Billy Joel and Elton John concert caused him embarrassment and emotional distress thanks to the sight of a woman using a urinal in front of him. He subsequently tried "six or seven" other bathroom in the stadium only to find women in all of them. He asserted he "had to hold it in for four hours" because he was too embarrassed to share the public bathrooms with women.

***A San Carlos, CA man is suing the Escondido Public library for $1.5 million. His dog, a 50-pound Lab, was attacked by the library's 12-pound feline mascot, L.C. (also known as Library Cat).
In 1994, a student at the University of Idaho unsuccessfully sued that institution over his fall from a third floor dorm window. He's been mooning other students when the window gave way. It was contended the University failed to provide a safe environment for students or to properly warn them of the dangers inherent to upper story windows.

***In 1993, McDonald's was unsuccessfully sued over a car accident in New Jersey. While driving, a man who had placed a milkshake between his legs, leaned over to reach into his bag of food and squeeze the milkshake container in the process. When the lid popped off and spilled half the shake in his lap, the driver became distracted and ran into another man's car. That man in turn tried to sue McDonalds' for causing the accident, saying the restaurant should have cautioned the man who had hit him, against eating while driving