26 Pepsi Car-Contest Winner Gets Sued
In 2002, Pepsi ran a car contest in Novosibirsk, Russia, where customers who bought a bottle could choose a key and try to open a car, which, if they guessed right, they could win. One man opened the car, but Pepsi sued him, alleging that he had forced the lock by applying pressure rather than selecting the correct key. The man insisted that he had followed every step of the contest rules.
27. In 2003, American rock drummer John Densmore vetoed Cadillac’s $15 million offer to use a Doors song in an advertisement, arguing that late American singer Jim Morrison would have opposed the deal. Densmore and Morrison’s estate then sued Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger over their use of the band’s name, prompting the musicians to countersue Densmore for $40 million in alleged lost revenue. During the six-year battle, opposing lawyers portrayed Densmore as anti-American, a communist, and an al-Qaeda supporter, but the courts ultimately ruled in his favor.
28. Between 2008 and 2013, Miami Gardens police stopped and questioned a Florida man named Earl Sampson 258 times, searched him more than 100 times, and jailed him 56 times. Officers also charged him 62 times with trespassing, usually at the 207 Quickstop convenience store where he worked as a clerk. Store owner Alex Saleh installed 15 surveillance cameras to document the encounters, and Sampson joined ten others in a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city. The parties settled the case under undisclosed terms in June 2015.
29. In 1873, a woman named Ann Eliza Webb sued American religious leader Brigham Young, the second president of the LDS Church, for divorce and alimony five years after becoming one of his plural wives. Webb alleged neglect, cruel treatment, and desertion, seeking $1,000 per month before trial, $20,000 in legal fees, and $200,000 for her maintenance. A court initially ordered Young to pay $500 per month and $3,000 in costs, but he refused, prompting a $25 fine and one day in prison for contempt. The court later threw out the lawsuit because Webb could not legally be Young’s wife, allowing him to avoid permanent alimony by arguing that their polygamous marriage had never been valid under U.S. law.
30. In 1924, industrialist Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent newspaper accused a Jewish cooperative named Sapiro of exploiting farmers and claimed that agricultural cooperatives served as fronts for a Jewish conspiracy to monopolize American agriculture. Sapiro sued Ford for libel in Detroit, and the 1927 trial ended in a mistrial after Ford’s representatives approached a juror. The parties later settled, Ford paid Sapiro’s legal fees, and Ford issued a public retraction and apology to Jewish people. Ford subsequently stopped publishing the Dearborn Independent.
31 Cannabis Cake Sickens Five Employees
In 2023, a 29-year-old Dutch hotel chef from Vlissingen baked a cannabis-infused cake with three grams of cannabis and brought it to a colleague’s farewell party in Zeeland. Five employees ate it during work, and two became severely ill, including a man who vomited in the laundry room and had to stay overnight at the hotel. After a settlement attempt failed, prosecutors took the chef to court, where a judge imposed a conditional fine of 750 euros and ordered her to pay one colleague 276 euros in compensation.
32. In Disney’s 1994 animated film The Lion King, Timon and Pumbaa sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which originated with “Mbube,” a song composed by South African musician Solomon Linda in 1939. Linda’s family sued Disney in 2004 for 10 million rand, then about $1.6 million, over unpaid royalties. In 2006, the family settled for an undisclosed lump sum, royalties dating from 1987, and a share of future income through 2017. The agreement also recognized Linda as a co-composer of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
33. In 2011, American carmaker Tesla sued the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood over a 2008 Top Gear episode that said its Roadster would run out of power after 55 miles of hard track driving. Top Gear had not driven the car that distance, but the program later said Tesla’s own engineers had calculated and supplied the 55-mile estimate using data from the test. The courts struck out Tesla’s claims after ruling that viewers would not confuse racetrack performance with normal driving. Tesla finally lost the case when the Court of Appeal dismissed its appeal in 2013.
34. In 1992, a former Scientologist named Bonnie Woods and her husband began running a telephone helpline in England for families negatively affected by Scientology. The Church of Scientology declared Woods a “suppressive person,” placed her family under surveillance, picketed her home, and distributed leaflets around East Grinstead calling her a “hate campaigner.” Woods sued the Church for libel, and it responded with three lawsuits, triggering six years of litigation and 25 court appearances. In 1999, the Church admitted that its allegations were false and agreed to pay 55,000 pounds in damages and cover legal costs estimated at 100,000 pounds.
35. The familiar disclaimer, “The characters depicted here are fictitious and any similarity to actual persons is purely coincidental,” grew out of a lawsuit over MGM’s 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress. MGM portrayed Princess Natasha as being seduced by Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, and Russian princess Irina Alexandrovna argued that the character represented her. Her husband, Russian aristocrat Felix Yusupov, had helped kill Rasputin, and Irina sued MGM for libel. In 1934, the English Court of Appeal agreed that MGM had defamed her.
36 Chattanooga Fiber Survives Comcast Lawsuit
In April 2008, Comcast sued Chattanooga’s municipally owned Electric Power Board, or EPB, seeking to stop it from building a fiber network for residents receiving slow internet service from the incumbent cable provider. Comcast alleged that EPB would illegally subsidize its cable and Internet operation with electric utility revenue, but Tennessee courts dismissed the case. EPB launched its service in 2009, after which Comcast and AT&T began upgrading their local networks. In 2015, seven years after suing to stop EPB’s rollout, Comcast announced its own 2 Gbps fiber service for Chattanooga.
37. Monster Energy, launched in 2002, has filed more than 130 trademark objections involving the word “Monster,” including lawsuits connected to Pokemon, which began in 1996, and Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise. In April 2020, the company opposed Ubisoft’s application to trademark Gods & Monsters, claiming that the title could create confusion because Monster Energy operated within the gaming market. Ubisoft later renamed the game Immortals Fenyx Rising.
38. In 1984, residents of Humboldt County in Northern California filed a federal lawsuit alleging that U-2 high-altitude spy planes had illegally surveilled them. They claimed that the aircraft operated for the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, a California-based multiagency task force created the previous year to target cannabis cultivation.
39. In 2002, French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton sued pet-product company Haute Diggity Dog over its “Chewy Vuiton” plush chew toys, which resembled miniature Louis Vuitton handbags. Louis Vuitton alleged trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and copyright infringement, while Haute Diggity Dog defended the toys as parodies. In 2007, the US Court of Appeals affirmed judgment for Haute Diggity Dog, ruling that the obvious parody was unlikely to confuse consumers, dilute Louis Vuitton’s trademarks, or infringe its copyright.
40. In 2018, a filmmaker named Charlie Kessler sued television producers Matt and Ross Duffer, alleging that their Netflix series Stranger Things used ideas from his 2012 short film Montauk and a feature concept he said he pitched to them in 2014. Kessler based his film on conspiracy theories about government experiments at Camp Hero in Montauk, New York, while the Duffers originally developed their series under the title Montauk. Kessler cited similarities involving a missing child, psychic abilities, interdimensional portals, and monsters. The Duffers denied seeing Kessler’s film or discussing his project and called the lawsuit meritless.
41 Eminem’s Company Wins Digital Royalties
During the early iTunes era, record labels sometimes applied physical-product deductions such as packaging and breakage to digital royalties, even though downloads required neither. Eminem’s production company, F.B.T. Productions, sued Aftermath Records and other Universal Music affiliates in 2007, arguing that downloads and ringtones counted as licensed masters rather than record sales. That distinction increased F.B.T.’s contractual royalty from 12 to 20 percent of retail sales to 50 percent of Universal’s net licensing revenue. In 2010, the Ninth Circuit ruled for F.B.T., and the Supreme Court refused Universal’s appeal in 2011.
42. On October 28, 2012, a 42-year-old Canadian woman named Sharlene Simon struck three teenage cyclists from behind with her SUV in Ontario, killing a 17-year-old boy named Brandon Majewski and seriously injuring another. After the victims’ families sued Simon and Simcoe County, Simon filed a $1.35 million counterclaim against Majewski’s estate and family, the two surviving cyclists, and the county. She alleged that the collision caused permanent psychological harm, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress, and accused the teenagers of failing to brake properly and being “incompetent bicyclists.”
43. In 2014, analysts estimated that up to 85 percent of outlet merchandise was manufactured specifically for outlet stores, while lawsuits alleged that some retailers used cheaper materials and construction than their mainline products. Consumers filed class actions against Nordstrom, Levi Strauss, Ralph Lauren, and four other major retailers over “suggested retail” and “compare at” prices. The plaintiffs claimed these tags made outlet-exclusive products appear discounted from prices charged at traditional stores, even though the retailers had allegedly never intended to sell the products there. The lawsuits accused the companies of false advertising, unfair competition, and violating California consumer-protection law.
44. In May 1977, American singer-songwriter Tom Waits and a friend were arrested after fighting with police officers inside a Los Angeles coffee shop. Prosecutors charged them with two counts of disturbing the peace, but eight defense witnesses refuted the officers’ account and said he intervened a group of men who were bullying other patrons. The court acquitted both men. Waits sued the Los Angeles Police Department and received $7,500 in damages five years later.
45. In 1972, Dr Pepper sued the Coca-Cola Company for trademark infringement over a similar soft drink that Coca-Cola marketed as Peppo. They then renamed it Dr. Pibb, were sued again, and the product was subsequently renamed Mr. Pibb.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Frozen Embryo Inheritance Claim Fails
In Guangdong Province, China, a woman surnamed Ling had an affair with a married businessman surnamed Wen, who died in a traffic accident in January 2021. Three months later, Ling underwent an embryo transfer using an embryo she claimed they had created and frozen before his death, and she gave birth to a boy in December 2021. In 2023, she sued Wen’s wife and son on the child’s behalf for a share of his life insurance, real estate, and company equity. A court rejected the claim because Ling could not prove that Wen had consented to the posthumous transfer or that the boy qualified as his legal heir.
47. In September 2014, Disney opposed Canadian electronic musician Deadmau5’s attempt to register his mau5head logo as a U.S. trademark, arguing that it looked nearly identical to Mickey Mouse’s silhouette. Deadmau5, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, countered with a cease-and-desist letter after discovering that Disney had used his song “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff” in a 2012 Mickey Mouse video. His lawyers accused Disney of using the song without permission and falsely implying that Deadmau5 had endorsed the video.
48. In 1988, Atari Games’ legal team falsely told the U.S. Copyright Office that it needed Nintendo’s 10NES anti-piracy source code for litigation, even though no case was pending. Atari used the code to create Rabbit, a system that allowed unauthorized game cartridges to bypass the Nintendo Entertainment System’s lockout. After Atari sued Nintendo in December 1988, Nintendo countersued and won an injunction against Atari’s unauthorized games. A federal appeals court upheld that ruling in 1992, rejecting Atari’s fair-use defense because it had obtained the code under false pretenses.
49. Paladin Press published Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors in 1983 as a how-to guide to contract killing. In 1993, a hired killer named James Perry used the book as his guide while murdering a woman named Mildred Horn, her son Trevor, and a nurse named Janice Saunders in Maryland. Their families sued, and after an appeals court ruled that the First Amendment did not shield Paladin, its insurer paid several million dollars to settle in 1999 and destroyed 700 remaining copies. Paladin faced another suit in 2000 after a hired killer named Robert Vaughn Jones followed two dozen instructions while planning to murder a woman named Bobby Joe Wilson; the parties settled in 2002.
50. In 2014, Canon faced consolidated class-action lawsuits alleging that certain PIXMA printers displayed the U052 print-head error and became unusable shortly after their one-year warranties expired. The plaintiffs said Canon refused free repairs and that fixing the printers could cost more than replacing them. Canon denied that the printers were defective but agreed to a $930,000 settlement that extended the affected models’ warranties by nine months and offered eligible owners up to $50 in cash or a $75 store voucher.
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.
Well, I guess I like the irony that his plants had to build the planes that bombed his favorite dictator pal.
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.
You could actually buy a new car for $7, 500 back in 1977. My sister bought a Pontiac Firebird for around that price at the time.
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?
These police officers are completely heartless for ruining innocent lives without a second thought. Relying exclusively on these field kits for arrests is incredibly negligent, especially since they can trigger positive results from nothing more than the surrounding air. They’ve even been known to flag positive without the package ever being opened.
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.
If that logic held, it would effectively make it legal for churches to support political campaigns, which could cause a whole new set of problems.
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.
The church I grew up in got a new pastor who banned Christian music in his first sermon, he even said country music was off-limits. Then, in his second sermon, he said playing or watching sports on Sundays was wrong, so NASCAR was out too. That was the final straw for my dad, and we never went back. Honestly, it’s still funny to me; you just don’t get between that man and his country music or NASCAR.
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.
RE: Fact #3 (Alexina Morrison Sues For Freedom) – Sally was the half-sister of Jefferson’s wife, who inherited her as a gift from their father when she married Jefferson. Pretty confusing, right?
RE: Fact #46 (Frozen Embryo Inheritance Claim Fails) – Why on earth would a married man provide sperm to a clinic to fertilize his mistress’s eggs?
RE: Fact #31 (Cannabis Cake Sickens Five Employees) – Yeah, that’s fair. I smoke weed and have zero issues with it, but you don’t drug people without their consent.
RE: Fact #47 (Deadmau5 Counters Disney’s Trademark Challenge) – …and then he got threatened with a lawsuit by Ferrari for customizing his own car.
RE: Fact #28 (Earl Sampson’s 258-Stop Lawsuit Settles) – Arresting him once might be a mistake. Doing it 62 times means those officers are total idiots who abused their authority. They should be fired and spend 40 years behind bars themselves.
RE: Fact #37 (Monster Energy Forces Ubisoft’s Rename) – What makes this even worse is that when Monster Energy was just starting out, Monster Cable tried to sue them, and everyone supported the drink company. Now, they’ve become the monster they fought against.
RE: Fact #16 (Lorillard Owes $35 Million Damages) – Well, that explains how Newports became the go-to cigarette in the neighborhood.
RE: Fact #19 (Abercrombie Workers Win Clothing Reimbursements) – My girlfriend worked at one back in the late 90s, and they treated their staff so poorly. You had to buy and wear their gear. If you gained even a little weight, the manager would actually comment on it. They were even encouraged to ignore or discourage heavier customers from shopping there. I only saw what happened at that one location, so I’m not sure if it was just a jerk of a manager or if it was company-wide. It definitely put me off their brand for good.
RE: Fact #11 (AMC Snack Prices Prompt Lawsuit) – Some friends of mine restored a 1937 theater, and they only show second-run movies because there’s no way to turn a profit on first-run films. They told me that for big releases, studios take 80-90% of the box office, sometimes even more than 100%. At that point, the theater is strictly relying on snack sales to survive. They have to mark up prices just to keep the doors open. With second-run movies, they pay a rental fee for the film, but the box office cut is way smaller or non-existent.
RE: Fact #14 (Connor Griffith-Guerrero Wins Wrong-House Ruling) – Just so you know, he won the case, but he didn’t actually walk away with any money. One of his attorneys mentioned they’d be surprised if the deputies even bothered to appeal.
How does that even work? You win, but you get nothing? And what would they even appeal? It isn’t like the legal process cost them anything.
Congrats on the “win”! It only cost him everything in legal fees to end up with absolutely nothing.
RE: Fact #25 (Hospital Robbery Drill Traumatizes Nurse) – This reminds me of my high school. They’d pull random shooting drills without telling us. The only reason it didn’t cause total panic was that the teachers would break protocol and warn us it was coming.
RE: Fact #14 (Connor Griffith-Guerrero Wins Wrong-House Ruling) – We had a similar situation. Near Memphis, police went to the wrong house and ended up shooting the homeowner in the back of the head. Later, they argued he didn’t have constitutional rights because he hadn’t identified himself.
RE: Fact #26 (Pepsi Car-Contest Winner Gets Sued) – What kind of clueless executives think the legal fees and PR nightmare of suing a contest winner are worth less than the cost of the car? The company makes billions, yet they still pull this nonsense.
RE: Fact #29 (Brigham Young Uses Illegal-Marriage Defense) – I really don’t get how Mormons reconcile their founder’s terrible behavior with their own faith.
RE: Fact #24 (Nutella Lawsuit Costs Ferrero $3-Million) – Their advertising was super deceptive. They pushed the idea of “simple, quality ingredients” like hazelnuts, cocoa, and milk while completely hiding the massive amount of sugar and fat. Calling that healthy is just plain false, and a judge agreed. It’s like saying, “Our cigarettes have wholesome, plant-derived ingredients your kids will love!”
RE: Fact #49 (Hit Man Manual Triggers Lawsuits) – It’s hardly a technical manual. It’s not like it was written by a pro sharing trade secrets. It was actually written by a mother of two who wanted to write a crime novel, and this book was just the result. She drew all the inspiration from existing crime fiction.
RE: Fact #9 (Eminem’s Mother Sues Over Bullying) – Didn’t she also sue him as an adult because of things he rapped about her?
RE: Fact #5 (Super Soaker Inventor Wins Royalties) – If he made that much, goodness knows how much THEY actually pulled in from his invention.
RE: Fact #3 (Alexina Morrison Sues For Freedom) – This is a commonly overlooked piece of history, but toward the end of slavery in the US, some enslaved people were white. If your ancestry was mostly European, you looked white. This started shifting public opinion because people realized a child who looked just like their own could be enslaved. It shouldn’t have been the deciding factor since slavery was inherently abhorrent, but it was what moved the needle at the time. It had been an issue for a while, Sally Hemings’ children were able to pass as white and did.
RE: Fact #7 (Lewis Keseberg Wins One Dollar) – If I ever end up in a situation where cannibalism is on the table, you have to eat the person who suggested it first. That is just how you keep things fair.
That actually happened with part of the Donner Party. Patrick Dolan suggested they draw straws, and then he ended up drawing the short one. Nobody could bring themselves to go through with it, though.
RE: Fact #44 (Tom Waits Wins LAPD Damages) – At least two companies have hired people to sound like Tom Waits. Who even sounds like him?
RE: Fact #34 (Bonnie Woods Wins Scientology Damages) – Scientology scumbags. I still don’t get how that organization is allowed to operate anywhere. Plus, they enjoy tax-exempt status.
RE: Fact #42 (Sharlene Simon Sues Cyclist’s Estate) – My best friend growing up had a kid ride a bike into his Jeep and die. It was clearly the kid’s fault, but twenty-five years later, he is still pretty messed up by it. It changed his entire life. Of course, he never sued the family.
RE: Fact #35 (Rasputin Lawsuit Creates Fiction Disclaimer) – Quite different from the Don Bluth version of Rasputin, which totally nailed the history by having him sell his soul to Satan, rise from the dead to curse Russia with communism, chase a teenager across Europe, sing musical numbers with bugs, and have his head fall off for comedic effect. What a history lesson.
RE: Fact #27 (John Densmore Defeats Doors Countersuit) – I saw Robby Krieger play with Government Mule. The man plays like he is 25, not 75.
RE: Fact #10 (Tohono O’odham Wins Casino Battle) – I know casinos are associated with Native American reservations, but is there a specific reason why? Why gambling?
RE: Fact #23 (Cotton-Candy Test Jails Dasha Fincher) – She should have gone after her lawyer, too; that case should have been a complete win.
RE: Fact #22 (Charles Ponzi Wins Libel Damages) – >>Ponzi spent the final years of his life in poverty, occasionally working as a translator. His health declined, and after a heart attack in 1941, he was quite frail. His vision started to go, and by 1948, he was almost blind. A brain hemorrhage also paralyzed his right side. Ponzi passed away in a charity hospital in Rio de Janeiro on January 18, 1949. >>Supported by his last friend, a barber named Francisco Nonato Nunes, Ponzi gave one final interview to an American reporter, saying: “Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. Without malice, I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims! It was easily worth fifteen million bucks to watch me put the thing over.”
RE: Fact #30 (Sapiro Lawsuit Forces Ford’s Apology) – Well of course the Dearborn folded! It was a newspaper, after all. Anyway, I’m out.
RE: Fact #29 (Brigham Young Uses Illegal-Marriage Defense) – This is the same guy who claimed black skin was a curse because Cain killed Abel, and argued that interracial couples should both be sentenced to death. He even pushed for men to take other men’s wives while they were away on missions. The guy was trash.
RE: Fact #40 (Stranger Things Faces Montauk Lawsuit) – This fact is a bit misleading. A guy made a short film called Montauk and claimed Stranger Things ripped it off, but they were both just pulling from the same urban legends. The filmmaker had pitched a feature to the Duffer Brothers in 2014, so when he saw the show, he sued. The case was dropped once the brothers proved they had been developing the project before they ever talked to him.