It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after
81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico
where she purchased the coffee. 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?

That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish auto related lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S.
Here are the Stella's for the past year:

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand
with a Honda Accord.  Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying
to steal the hubcaps.

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage.
Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open.
Worse, he couldn't reenter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut.
Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT, days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's
insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish.  Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson
$500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

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 a 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.