MouthLondon - London Student & Youth Magazine

Naughty Habits: Bizarre Lawsuits

Posted on Oct 27th, 2011 by David Holloway | Editor · No comments yet · Tags: Apple, Columbine massacre, Court, Lawsuit, Mafia, McDonald's, Pepsi, Suing, Wendy's

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People always complain. If it’s not that the food is cold, it’s that it’s too hot. You’ve just bought a new, shiny laptop but, that silly whirring noise your old banger didn’t have is annoying you. We’re a culture of complainers and so in celebration of this, we are going to take a look at the most bizarre lawsuits:

 

5. The fighter Jet Case

If you are going to sue a multinational company like Pepsi then you best have a strong case to back you up. Step up John Leonard who tried to sue Pepsi because they wouldn’t supply him with a fighter jet which he claims they owed him after he collected enough Pepsi points.

He collected over 7 million points and asked them for his prize, a Harrier jet fighter as seen in the TV advert for the competition. Pepsi downright refused and the case went to court.

Unfortunately for John, the courts sided with big old Pepsi as it was deemed almost impossible to collect 7 million points. However, John had worked round this as you could buy a Pepsi point for 10 cents so he mailed Pepsi a cheque for $700,008.50 for his jet fighter.

The case was granted to Pepsi as it was found no reasonable person could think the advert actually offered a jet.

 

4. Wendy’s Chilli

Anna Ayala was enjoying a meal in Wendy’s after dong some much needed shopping. She bit into her chilli and low and behold she found a well manicured, 1.5 inch human fingertip.

She filed a lawsuit with Wendy’s for compensation; however after some snooping around to locate the employee who was missing the finger and finding no one, Anna strangely dropped the case. It was discovered that she had planted the finger and bother she and her husband were jailed. But it begs the question? Whose finger was it?

 

3. McDonald’s versus Stella

No, not the drink! A 79 year old woman called Stella Liebeck ordered a coffee with her breakfast. She returned to her car and put the cup between her legs while she tried to take the lid off. She got it off, but managed to scold her legs with the boiling coffee contained. She had to go to hospital and required skin grafts. She took Maccie D’s to court saying that the drink was way too hot to be sold to people for consumption and you know what? She won! She was granted $640,000 in damages and because of good old Stella if you drink a McDonald’s coffee there is a note on the side saying to be wary as this drink is hot.

 

2. Columbine versus Video Games

This one is not so much bizarre, but makes the list as it’s important to firstly remember and secondly is poignant to today’s gaming culture. Family members of the Columbine massacre took several video games and film companies to court because they believed that had the games and films had harsher restrictions on who could view them, the terrible shootings wouldn’t have taken place. Unfortunately the incredibly powerful and rich companies got the case dismissed over the grounds that their products can be viewed by anyone whether or not there is a certificate on them.

 

1. Apple, the Model and the Mafia

Model Gregory McKenna took Apple to court over his belief that the iPods he had purchased off Ebay had illegal Mafia-bought receivers built into them. He claimed the Mafia were threatening him through them and so he was taking Apple to court to stop their underworld connections. He also believed the Mafia had it in for him after he refused to work as a model for them.

Strangely enough the case was moved to be dismissed, but the judge’s decision is still pending on this one.   

Images courtesy of Goodfellas, Wendy’s and McDonalds