Sermon Illustrations

STELLA AWARDS

Several years ago Stella Lieback sued McDonalds for pouring hot coffee on herself. Her grandson was driving the car with Stella in it. At her request, he stopped the car so she could add cream to her coffee. She spilled the coffee on her leg and burned herself. Her lawsuit originally awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages. The judge later reduced it to $480 thousand. That set off the Stella awards for frivolous lawsuits.

An example was in 2006, while shopping at a mall, a lady named Meckler stepped outside and was "attacked" by a rabid squirrel that lived among the trees and bushes. And "while frantically attempting to escape from the squirrel and detach it from her leg, [Meckler] fell and suffered severe injuries," her resulting lawsuit says. That's the mall's fault, the lawsuit claims, demanding in excess of $50,000, based on the mall's "failure to warn" her that squirrels live outside.

Then there was the man that purchased a new motor home. He set the cruise control. Then he got up and with the vehicle moving at 70 miles per hour went to the back to make coffee. Then the vehicle crashed and went off the road. He sued because the owner's manual failed to warn him of the risks of the motor home running on cruise control without a human at the wheel.

We laugh because these decisions are so absurd. How is it possible for judges and juries to make such decisions?

From Randy Hamel's Sermon "How To Have a Christ-Like Attitude"

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