Some lawsuits begin with serious wrongdoing, while others grow from printer errors, pasta labels, video-game cheats, unusual advertising, or arguments over a name. This fourth collection follows 50 real legal battles through strange claims, unexpected counterattacks, costly settlements, and courtroom decisions that prove reality can be harder to believe than fiction.
Catch up with Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
1 Anette Sorensen’s Strip Search Lawsuit
In May 1997, a Danish woman named Anette Sorensen left her 14-month-old daughter in a stroller outside a Manhattan restaurant while she and the baby’s father dined inside, a common practice in Denmark. Sorensen repeatedly checked on the blanket-covered baby during their hour inside, but another patron called the police. Officers arrested both parents for child endangerment, strip-searched Sorensen, and temporarily placed her daughter with child welfare authorities before prosecutors dropped the charges. Sorensen then filed a $20 million false-arrest lawsuit, and in 1999, a jury awarded her $66,000 after finding that authorities should not have strip-searched her.
2. In late 2008, Japanese broadcaster Tokyo Broadcasting System filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against ABC, calling its obstacle-course game show Wipeout “a blatant copycat” of programs such as Takeshi’s Castle and Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. The broadcaster alleged that Wipeout violated copyrights connected to Takeshi’s Castle and Ninja Warrior, and it later sued the show’s Dutch producer, Endemol. After the companies met with a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles, they settled the case in 2011, without publicly filing the settlement terms.
3. In 1857, a 15-year-old girl named Jane, or Alexina, Morrison escaped slavery and sued her purchaser, New Orleans slave trader James White, claiming that she was a kidnapped white girl and therefore legally free. She also sought $10,000 in damages, while her claim generated such strong public anger against White that a mob threatened to lynch him. The case produced a mistrial, a unanimous 1859 verdict for Morrison, and another verdict in her favor in January 1862. White appealed again, but Union forces regained control of New Orleans before a fourth trial could occur, and slavery eventually ended across the United States.
4. In July 2008, American rapper 50 Cent, whose legal name is Curtis Jackson, sued Taco Bell for $4 million after the chain used his name and persona without permission. Its value-menu campaign urged him to temporarily rename himself “79 Cent,” “89 Cent,” or “99 Cent” to match the prices of selected menu items. Taco Bell described the promotion as a charitable offer and said it would donate $10,000 to a charity of his choice if he participated. Jackson argued that the campaign exploited his identity for publicity and falsely suggested that he endorsed the company.
5. American inventor and aerospace engineer Lonnie Johnson first conceived the Super Soaker while developing a heat-pump system during his service with the U.S. Air Force. The toy reached stores in 1990 as the Power Drencher, later became the Super Soaker, and generated $200 million in sales during 1991 alone. In February 2013, Johnson sued Hasbro after discovering that the company had underpaid royalties on the Super Soaker and several Nerf toy lines. An arbitrator awarded him nearly $73 million in unpaid royalties that November, by which time Super Soaker sales had approached $1 billion.
6 Scott Enyart’s Kennedy Photos Vanish
In June 1968, a 15-year-old student photographer named Jamie Scott Enyart photographed U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and continued taking pictures after Kennedy was shot. The LAPD confiscated Enyart’s film as evidence, returned only about 20 prints, and later informed him that they may have destroyed the missing photographs. Enyart filed a $2 million lawsuit, and officials eventually produced a proof sheet from negatives they claimed were his, but he disputed their authenticity because the film stock differed from what he said he had used. Before the negatives reached the court in January 1996, a courier reported that the briefcase containing them had been stolen from his rental car, and a jury later awarded Enyart $450,600 after finding the city negligent.
7. In April 1847, rescuers found a Donner Party member named Lewis Keseberg alone at the snowbound camp and brought him out as the last rescued survivor. Members of the fourth relief party later spread shocking and partly exaggerated stories portraying Keseberg as a cannibal, thief, and murderer, making him the party’s most vilified member. Keseberg sued one of his rescuers, a man named Edward “Ned” Coffeemeyer, for defamation and won, but the court awarded him just $1.
8. In 1990, Nintendo sued American toy company Galoob to block the U.S. release of the Game Genie, a Codemasters device that let NES players alter games with cheat codes. Nintendo argued that the device created unauthorized derivative versions of its games, and the dispute temporarily stopped American sales while Canadian sales continued. The courts ultimately ruled that the Game Genie created no permanent derivative work and had no negative impact on Nintendo’s game sales, leaving Nintendo unable to prevent its release. By contrast, Sega officially approved and licensed the Genesis version after Codemasters privately warned that another lawsuit could “open the floodgates.”
9. In 1982, a woman named Deborah Mathers sued the Roseville school district for failing to protect her 9-year-old son, Marshall Mathers, who later became American rapper Eminem, from repeated bullying at Dort Elementary School. Her lawsuit said the attacks caused a cerebral concussion, post-traumatic headaches, post-concussion syndrome, intermittent loss of vision and hearing, nausea, and antisocial behavior. One January 1982 assault allegedly involved a boy named DeAngelo Bailey, who knocked Marshall into a snowbank and caused him to lose consciousness. A Macomb County, Michigan, judge dismissed the lawsuit in 1983 after ruling that the schools had legal immunity.
10. In 1960, the Painted Rock Dam flooded 10,000 acres of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Arizona reservation, including land that contained several villages. As compensation, the Nation could replace the flooded acreage with unincorporated land, so it secretly purchased 134 acres near Glendale in 2003 and announced plans for a Phoenix-area casino in 2009. Arizona officials resisted and refused to issue a Class III gaming license, prompting the Nation to sue in federal court and open the Desert Diamond West Valley casino with limited bingo-based machines in 2015. Under a 2017 settlement, Arizona agreed to process a full gaming license allowing blackjack, poker, and standard slot machines, while also permitting adjacent land to enter tribal trust.
11 AMC Snack Prices Prompt Lawsuit
In 2012, a Michigan man named Joshua Thompson filed a class-action lawsuit against his local AMC movie theater, accusing it of grossly overcharging for concession snacks. Thompson said he once brought his own food until the theater banned the practice, after which he paid $8 for a soda and a packet of Goobers that cost less than $3 at nearby businesses. His lawsuit accused American Multi Cinema of violating the Michigan Consumer Protection Act and sought customer refunds, a penalty against AMC, and any other relief the court considered appropriate.
12. In 1980, an 18-year-old Cuban American man named Willie Ramirez arrived comatose at a South Florida hospital, where his Spanish-speaking relatives described him as “intoxicado.” They meant that something he had eaten or drunk had made him ill, but a bilingual staff member interpreted the word as “intoxicated,” leading doctors to suspect an intentional drug overdose. Ramirez actually had an intracerebral hemorrhage, which continued bleeding for more than two days while doctors treated him for the wrong condition and delayed neurological care. The resulting brain damage left him quadriplegic, and his medical malpractice lawsuit produced a settlement valued at more than $71 million.
13. In 2022, a California man named Matthew Sinatro and a California woman named Jessica Prost filed a class-action lawsuit against the Barilla food company, claiming its packaging misled them into believing its pasta came from Italy. They pointed to the slogan “Italy’s #1 Brand of Pasta” and the green, white, and red Italian flag imagery, although Barilla produced most of its U.S.-sold pasta in Iowa and New York. Sinatro spent about $2 on one box of angel hair pasta, while Prost spent approximately $4 on two boxes of spaghetti, bringing their alleged financial loss to $6. Barilla asked the court to dismiss the case, but a federal judge ruled that the pair had sufficiently alleged economic harm and allowed the lawsuit to continue.
14. One December night, a 22-year-old Washington man named Connor Griffith-Guerrero was watching Netflix when sheriff’s deputies from Spokane County surrounded his house with guns drawn. The deputies were investigating a possible burglary at another address, but after failing to find that house despite receiving the correct location, they chose Griffith-Guerrero’s home based on tire tracks in its driveway. They pulled him outside at gunpoint, forced him onto his knees, and handcuffed him before his identification confirmed their mistake, after which one of the deputies told him he was lucky he had not been shot. Griffith-Guerrero sued over the unlawful search and seizure, and the U.S. District Judge largely ruled in his favor, finding the warrantless detention and use of force objectively unreasonable.
15. After a woman named Marie Holmes won a $188 million Powerball jackpot, she promised to make a large donation to her church. Pastor Kevin Matthews claimed Holmes verbally agreed to give $1.5 million for land and a retreat facility, but she reportedly stopped after donating an initial $700,000. Matthews sued Holmes for $10 million, alleging that her failure to complete the donation caused emotional and mental distress that forced him to take additional medication for anxiety and depression.
16 Lorillard Owes $35 Million Damages
A lawsuit alleged that Lorillard Tobacco Company regularly sent vans to Boston housing projects during the late 1960s and distributed free Newport cigarettes to children. Evidence showed that a girl named Marie Evans began smoking at age 9 after receiving free Newports near a playground in a majority-Black neighborhood, and she later died from lung cancer. A jury held Lorillard liable, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld $35 million in damages while ordering a new trial on a separate $81 million punitive award.
17. In 2002, a Montana man named Jack Ass sued MTV for $10 million, claiming that its stunt series Jackass had plagiarized his legal name. Born Bob Craft, he had officially changed his name in 1997 to raise awareness of drunk driving after a car accident killed his brother and a friend. American stunt performer Johnny Knoxville, the show’s star, publicly rejected the claim.
18. Pokemon’s Kadabra stopped appearing in the trading card game after magician Uri Geller sued Nintendo in 2000. Geller claimed Nintendo had based the spoon-wielding Pokemon on his spoon-bending act and argued that Kadabra’s Japanese name, Yungeller, sounded like his own. In 2020, Geller apologized and gave Nintendo permission to print Kadabra cards again.
19. Abercrombie & Fitch’s Appearance/Look Policy required staff to buy the company’s clothes, according to workers who won a California lawsuit in 2009. Abercrombie denied wrongdoing and said it offered discounts to encourage, rather than require, employees to wear its clothing. After losing the case, the company agreed to stop forcing workers to buy its clothes and reimburse former employees for purchases made during the period covered by the lawsuit.
20. In 2012, Papa John’s faced a class-action lawsuit seeking more than $250 million over roughly 500,000 unwanted promotional texts that its franchises allegedly sent in early 2010. Some customers reported receiving 15 or 16 messages in succession, including during the middle of the night, after franchisees used a mass-texting service. U.S. District Judge in Seattle certified the nationwide class action, while Papa John’s denied responsibility and announced plans to appeal.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Air Jordans Weapon Lawsuit Fails
In 2014, a Portland man named Sirgiorgio Sanford Clardy, an imprisoned pimp serving a 100-year sentence, sued Nike for $100 million after using his Air Jordans to stomp on another man’s face. Clardy claimed Nike should have warned buyers that the shoes could function as dangerous weapons, making the company partly responsible for the attack. The judge dismissed the case after Clardy argued for about 23 minutes, while Nike’s lawyers spoke for less than 90 seconds and incurred $1,456 in defense costs.
22. Before authorities exposed his fraud in 1920, Italian con artist Charles Ponzi, whose name later defined the Ponzi scheme, successfully sued a Boston newspaper for libel and won $500,000 in damages. The newspaper’s financial writer had argued that Ponzi could not legally deliver such high returns in so little time. Because libel law then placed the burden of proof on the writer and publisher, the victory temporarily discouraged serious scrutiny of Ponzi’s operation.
23. On New Year’s Eve 2016, Monroe County deputies arrested a 43-year-old woman named Dasha Fincher after a disposable field test falsely identified a bag of blue cotton candy as methamphetamine. Unable to pay a $1 million cash bond, Fincher spent 94 days in jail and missed the birth of her twin grandsons before a state crime lab confirmed that the substance was not a drug. Federal Judge Tilman Self later dismissed her lawsuit because the deputies had sovereign immunity, leaving Fincher without compensation for her wrongful incarceration.
24. In 2011, a California woman named Athena Hohenberg filed a class-action lawsuit against Ferrero after discovering that the Nutella she fed her 4-year-old daughter contained high levels of sugar and saturated fat. Hohenberg said Nutella’s advertising had led her to believe the chocolate-hazelnut spread formed part of a healthy, balanced breakfast. In 2012, Ferrero settled the claims for about $3 million, offered eligible buyers up to $20, and agreed to change Nutella’s labels and marketing.
25. In April 2012, a New York woman named Alison Mastandrea was working as an emergency room nurse at Grover M. Hermann Catskill Regional Medical Center when the hospital ran an unannounced narcotics robbery drill. A hospital employee entered the ER, demanded narcotics, and claimed to have a gun; Mastandrea believed the threat was real, suffered an emotional breakdown, and later received a PTSD diagnosis. She sued and a jury awarded her $490,000 in 2016 after she said the trauma had left her unable to continue nursing and dependent on disability assistance.
RE: Fact #17 (Jack Ass Sues MTV’s Jackass) – I changed my own name to “Blacked Raw” and actually sued a specific film company for stealing my good name!
RE: Fact #30 (Sapiro Lawsuit Forces Ford’s Apology) – Not just a fan, but a client! Ford engines were provided to the Axis powers with swastikas molded right next to the Ford emblem. He was a major sympathizer, and U.S. involvement in the war was initially delayed because of these kinds of business deals. There was money to be made before we were allowed to officially join the fight. The documentary ‘JFK to 9/11: Everything is a Rich Man’s Trick’ covers it, it’s heavy, but seeing those logos side by side was eye-opening.
RE: Fact #32 (Solomon Linda’s Heirs Win Royalties) – Considering all the shady stuff Disney has pulled to keep extending copyright durations for their IP, I have absolutely no sympathy for them.
I’m genuinely impressed someone actually managed to beat Disney’s legal team.
Did they really beat them, though? $1.6 million is pocket change compared to the nearly $1 billion ‘The Lion King’ made at the box office. That sounds pretty stingy for a settlement.
RE: Fact #50 (Canon Printer Error Triggers Settlement) – The printing and faxing industry is generally so scummy. A handful of companies hold a near-monopoly, forcing all these hardware restrictions on users while charging crazy prices for ink. It’s one of the worst industries to deal with.
RE: Fact #3 (Alexina Morrison Sues For Freedom) – The so-called “fancy trade”, where people who could pass as white were sold at a higher price, was closely tied to this. These markets were huge in Louisiana, and most of those girls were sold before they turned 13. Northerners were often terrified that their own kids would get kidnapped and sold, which was a real fear since free Black people in the North were frequently kidnapped by slave hunters. Philadelphia alone saw 50 children a year snatched and sold down South. Seeing a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes at an auction in New Orleans sparked massive outrage in the North. It would have been better if people were just as upset about Black girls being sold, but that’s how it was. The nature of Southern slavery meant slave owners were willing to rape, abuse, and sell their own children for profit.
RE: Fact #48 (Atari’s False Lawsuit Claim Backfires) – Ah, Tengen. Atari’s attempt to bounce back after the video game market crash they helped trigger.
Once those cartridges were inside the NES, they were a total nightmare to try and pull back out.
RE: Fact #44 (Tom Waits Wins LAPD Damages) – For $7, 500? The lawyer was the only one who actually came out ahead in that lawsuit.
RE: Fact #21 (Air Jordans Weapon Lawsuit Fails) – If Nike had to warn people that their shoes could be used as a blunt-force weapon, then every other company would have to do the same. Are you buying a ladle? Packing tape? A new laptop? Better put a big “WARNING: Not meant to be used to harm others” label on everything.
RE: Fact #1 (Anette Sorensen’s Strip Search Lawsuit) – I moved to Denmark a while back and the first time I saw this, it caught me off guard. You’ll see five or six strollers lined up outside a coffee shop in the dead of winter.
A bundled-up baby sleeps incredibly well in freezing temps. Living in Sweden, we call it a Finnish nap. Just make sure they’re wrapped in something breathable like wool and that their hands and feet have double socks. Check the neck for warmth every once in a while, if the neck is cozy, the baby is cozy. If it’s cool, add insulation or bring them inside. If it’s clammy, they’re overheating and you need to adjust.
RE: Fact #10 (Tohono O’odham Wins Casino Battle) – I accidentally drove through their reservation back in the 90s. It was mostly just open land and a trailer park. I really hope they’re putting that gambling revenue to good use.
RE: Fact #33 (Tesla’s Top Gear Lawsuit Fails) – Didn’t the lawsuit get tossed because ‘Top Gear’ was classified as an entertainment show rather than an educational one?
RE: Fact #23 (Cotton-Candy Test Jails Dasha Fincher) – >Fincher’s situation was one of dozens of false positives uncovered during the 2018 investigation into field drug test kits. Deputies and police were using those results to make arrests without waiting for lab confirmation. The result? Innocent people ending up behind bars.
What the hell?
RE: Fact #2 (Tokyo Broadcaster Challenges ABC’s Wipeout) – The only thing keeping Wipeout from being a total copy is that it’s a much worse format. Takeshi’s Castle had so much more charm and personality. Regardless, I don’t see what TBS was trying to claim here; you can’t really own the concept of a show like that.
Also, Wipeout never featured anyone from the prominent Babaganoush family.
RE: Fact #31 (Cannabis Cake Sickens Five Employees) – Don’t feed people drugs without them knowing. That said, why do people looking for an edible high enjoy it, while those who don’t know they are eating it get so violently ill?
RE: Fact #34 (Bonnie Woods Wins Scientology Damages) – Can we just end tax exemptions for all churches? It would mostly impact the giant ones, like the megachurches in Texas, TV evangelists, Scientology, the LDS, etc. It’s gross how these places pull in so much revenue using religion as a shield while taking advantage of people’s faith.
RE: Fact #8 (Game Genie Defeats Nintendo Lawsuit) – Years ago I figured out how the Sega Genesis Game Genie codes mapped to 68000 assembly. Since the 68000 used the same instruction for adding 1 through 8, it was easy to tweak existing codes. You could take a code that turned $1 bills into $5 bills in Toejam & Earl and adjust it to get $8 bills instead.
RE: Fact #4 (50 Cent Sues Taco Bell) – Taco Bell has a track record of swiping marketing ideas. They stole the Taco Bell dog idea from two guys. I heard about it on a podcast, they put months of work into the ads and merch, only for Taco Bell to ghost them before the launch. They were completely blindsided when friends started calling to congratulate them on the commercials.
RE: Fact #40 (Stranger Things Faces Montauk Lawsuit) – They should have been sued for making the kids roll a d20 to hit with a fireball. That is not how AD&D works!
RE: Fact #13 (Barilla’s Italian Branding Prompts Lawsuit) – You can make a decent amount of money filing lawsuits like this if you know when to walk away. It helps if you file in places far enough away that the company would rather settle than pay for a lawyer to fly out there. I had a friend who sued Tide because he claimed their pods ruined a bunch of clothes, and he did it in his college town, they settled. He pulled the same thing with Dell when his computer crashed and he lost a paper.
So your friend is just a vexatious litigant and an obnoxious person, got it.
RE: Fact #38 (Humboldt Residents Challenge U-2 Surveillance) – 524 raids… that is an incredible number.
The sad part is how they brag about the tons they’ve seized, only to admit later that it’s maybe 1% of the total grown in the Emerald Triangle. It’s such a waste of resources. If they stuck to illegal operations on National Forest land, I wouldn’t care, but they hit private property way too often. Unfortunately, legalization isn’t fixing that.
RE: Fact #20 (Papa John’s $250-Million Spam Lawsuit) – I bet the lawyers made a fortune off that, while the people affected probably ended up with peanuts.
RE: Fact #23 (Cotton-Candy Test Jails Dasha Fincher) – Qualified immunity is a total nightmare and has allowed so much worse to happen without any real accountability.
RE: Fact #13 (Barilla’s Italian Branding Prompts Lawsuit) – The court made a sensible call. Having an Italian name on the box is perfectly fine as long as the origin is clearly labeled, which they have always done.
RE: Fact #39 (Chewy Vuiton Defeats Louis Vuitton) – That only happened because of US parody laws, which let you use someone else’s trademarks for parody purposes. It’s the same reason Weird Al can release his songs without permission. He usually asks out of courtesy because he’s a nice guy, and most artists don’t turn him down.
RE: Fact #8 (Game Genie Defeats Nintendo Lawsuit) – The Game Genie showed me how awesome game modding was when I was a kid. Hex codes and ini files took up so much of my summer during 3rd and 4th grade.
RE: Fact #7 (Lewis Keseberg Wins One Dollar) – Back before reliable maps or paved roads, heading west usually meant buying a guide from someone who supposedly knew the route. They were meant to scout alternatives, mark the trail, and ensure it was safe. There was a massive amount of trust involved. I won’t say the guy who sold the Donner party their route didn’t do those things, because he actually did, on a single horse, all by himself. The problem was, the Donner party was 81 people with carts, mules, wagons, and 40 kids. What worked for one horse clearly didn’t hold up under that much weight, so they ended up falling way behind schedule before the snow hit.
RE: Fact #4 (50 Cent Sues Taco Bell) – 50 Cent actually won that lawsuit.
They reached a settlement, so nobody technically won. 50 probably walked away with some cash, and Taco Bell avoided a longer legal battle.
RE: Fact #15 (Marie Holmes Faces Pastor’s Lawsuit) – My in-laws used to host an annual fundraiser for their church, donating all the food and proceeds. One year, they had to skip it because a family member was dying and they couldn’t manage the event. The church basically excommunicated them. They don’t attend church anymore, and it’s easy to see why.
RE: Fact #37 (Monster Energy Forces Ubisoft’s Rename) – How do they even benefit from being such a legal nuisance? It’s definitely bad PR.
RE: Fact #28 (Earl Sampson’s 258-Stop Lawsuit Settles) – ‘He installed security cameras to monitor the police’s activity in and outside his store.’ Sounds like things are going great in Florida.
RE: Fact #18 (Kadabra Lawsuit Halts Pokemon Cards) – at least Kadabra can actually bend spoons with his mind.
RE: Fact #18 (Kadabra Lawsuit Halts Pokemon Cards) – I never got the hype around Uri Geller. It’s the kind of trick that gets old after the first time you see it, but he’s been milking it my entire life. I’ve never been a fan of the guy, so I’m definitely biased here.
RE: Fact #12 (Intoxicado Error Brings 71-Million-Dollar Settlement) – False friends are dangerous, no matter the language. It shouldn’t have been hard to find a fluent Spanish-English speaker in South Florida. I bet the hospital management is pretty embarrassed about that mistake.