50 Real Lawsuits Stranger Than Fiction – Part 4

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.

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