Ah, summer. The kids are out of school, the sunshine is abundant, and the smell of retainers is in the air.
Not a lot of data is available on seasonal upticks in lawsuits and/or illegal behavior (when asked for comment, Josh King, Avvo’s general counsel, would only say “crazy lawsuits know no season”) but based on the below examples from the 2015 summer to date, it appears the hot weather might be getting to some people. Whether the below represents an insignificant statistical spike or a bona fide pattern is hard to say, so we can only hope the rest of the year provides as much shameful entertainment.
1. Person sues over flying food, part I
When you dine at a restaurant that’s widely known as “The Home of Throwed Rolls,” it’s hard to say you didn’t see it coming. But that’s exactly what one woman is claiming after being hit in the eye by an airborne carbohydrate while eating at Lambert’s Café in Ozark, Missouri. After sustaining a “lacerated cornea with a vitreous detachment,” Troy Tucker, a pastor from North St. Louis, decided to seek damages to the tune of $25,000. The lawsuit is still pending, but the restaurant is getting lots of backup, with regulars now harassing local lawyers in an attempt to stop the suit and keep their buns flying freely.
2. Person sues over flying food, part II
Tucker isn’t the only one seeing red from errant food tosses: Earlier this summer, John Coomer of Overland Park, Kansas lost his lawsuit against the Kansas City Royals after a mascot named “Sluggerrr” chucked a hot dog into his eye, causing another torn retina. The suit failed due to the “baseball rule,” which stipulates that those coming to a ballpark are responsible for paying attention to everything going on around them, whether it’s a foul ball from the infield or a bratwurst from the fifth row. Maybe it’s time to start handing out helmets and goggles along with the programs.
3. Cops too stoned to kill security camera
In an era when police ethics seem lost in the weeds—sometimes tragically so—it’s probably not a good idea for cops to eat pot edibles on camera. But that’s just what happened at the Sky High Collective in Santa Ana, California. A dozen masked officers, some with guns drawn, raided the medicinal pot clinic (ostensibly legal in California) and in so doing, tried to disable all the security cameras on the premises. But they didn’t see the hidden “nanny cam,” and were thus later recorded sampling the shop’s wares. Their lawyer is arguing the footage shouldn’t be allowed in court because the police believed they’d managed to disable all the cameras, and thus had an expectation of privacy and were being “illegally recorded.” Ugh. Let’s move on.
4. Neighbor gets feathers ruffled over bird invasion
It started off as a cute story: a little girl in Seattle, according to the BBC, had formed a bond with a murder of local crows. Smart as they are, and able to recognize faces, the birds had taken to giving the girl “gifts” in the form of small buttons and other found items. But the neighbors aren’t as keen on some of their other leavings, like copious bird poop, noise pollution, and a general feeling of Hitchcockian unease. Definitely not as cute.
5. Butt-dial eavesdropper gets sued
NakedLaw reported on this already, but it’s too good not to bring up again: we now have legal precedent on butt-dialing. James Huff, a big wig at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International airport, accidentally “pocket-dialed” (the term preferred by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit) the CEO’s assistant, Carol Spaw. During the 91-minute call with his wife and a colleague, Huff made some unflattering comments about the CEO. Spaw dutifully recorded the conversation for posterity, prompting Huff to sue. The moral of the story? Keep your phone out of your back pocket. And get a case with a cover.
6. Cops decide hologram is too real, shut down concert
Shimmery doppelgangers of famous performers have been hip ever since Tupac Shakur’s holographic ghost stepped out on a stage at the Coachella music festival in 2012, but nobody’s tried to arrest one before. OK, that’s not exactly what happened at the Wolf Lake Pavilion in Hammond, Illinois on July 25th, but it’s nearly as surreal: Rapper Chief Keef, who had outstanding warrants in Illinois and elected not to show up in person, instead was represented at an all-day rap concert by a projected hologram. Local authorities, who had warned the concert promoters that the event would be shut down if Keef performed, promptly pulled the plug, deeming a projection of him the same as the real him. Maybe they’d stopped by a medicinal pot store for a bite on the way to the show.
7. Man breaks into home, hides under bed, charges cell phones
This is a situation in which a few overzealous policemen might have been appreciated: Back in May, a man named Jason Hubbard allegedly snuck into the New Jersey home of Margaret Adamcewicz while she was taking out the trash. He then proceeded to spend three full days hiding under a bed for the nefarious purpose of…charging his cell phones. Sure, there’s a high creep factor here, but haven’t we all found ourselves desperate for an outlet every now and then? It’s a crime of the modern age, for sure.
8. Gambler bets on black, ends up with black eye
And finally, we have yet another injurious projectile; but this time it’s not a wayward hot dog or a flung dinner roll…it’s a roulette ball. While gambling at Hanover’s Maryland Live Casino, Leander Stocks was struck just above his left eye by the runaway ball, which sounds bad enough. But the lawsuit also claims the casino added insult to injury when they tried to rectify the situation by squeezing eye drops into the afflicted area, which only caused him to become disoriented and knock himself unconscious crashing into a wood door. Regardless of how the suit turns out, the casino should probably comp him a few chips if he ever comes back.
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1 comment
Alyssa Vincent
Oh man, the cops sampling the marijuana is too funny!