From a barking dog and a flying bread roll to radioactive oatmeal and a fake first name planted in a trivia book, almost anything can become the center of a legal battle. This fifth collection follows celebrities, corporations, governments, and ordinary people into court, where multimillion-dollar demands ended in surprising settlements, reversals, dismissals, and rulings. Some cases changed policies or clarified the law, while others proved that winning a verdict does not always mean walking away with the money.
Catch up on the earlier collections: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
1 Jack Thompson’s Shoulder Battery Lawsuit
In 1988, American attorney Jack Thompson, who was later disbarred, handed Dade County State Attorney Janet Reno a letter asking her to identify herself as homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. Thompson said Reno placed a hand on his shoulder and replied, “I’m only interested in virile men. That’s why I’m not attracted to you.” Thompson later sued her for battery for placing hands on his shoulder, prompting Reno to request a special prosecutor. The prosecutor rejected the charge as “a political ploy,” and Reno won re-election with 69 percent of the vote.
2. In January 2024, Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a 2011 bombing and shooting rampage, sued Norway to end his years of prison isolation. His attacks killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo and 69 others at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoya. Breivik claimed that his isolation since 2012 amounted to inhuman punishment and violated the European Convention on Human Rights. Norway maintained that the restrictions remained necessary because he continued to pose an extraordinary danger.
3. In 1988, Tom Waits sued Frito-Lay after its advertising agency modeled a SalsaRio Doritos radio jingle on his 1976 song “Step Right Up” and hired a singer to imitate his gravelly voice. The choice was deeply ironic because Waits described the song, a parody of commercial hucksterism, as an indictment of advertising. The commercial aired on more than 250 radio stations, leading listeners to believe Waits had endorsed Doritos despite his public opposition to commercial endorsements. A jury ruled in his favor and awarded him more than $2 million, exceeding everything he had earned from his previous albums combined.
4. In 1998, the Quaker Oats Company and MIT agreed to pay $1.85 million to settle a federal lawsuit over experiments that fed radioactive oatmeal to boys at the Fernald State School in Waltham, Massachusetts, during the 1940s and 1950s. Researchers gave oatmeal containing radioactive iron and calcium to more than 100 students, some of whom had intellectual disabilities, to study how the digestive system absorbed those minerals. Fifteen former students filed the class-action lawsuit in 1995, arguing that the experiments violated their civil rights because parental consent forms never disclosed the radioactive ingredients. MIT designed the study, while Quaker provided funding and oatmeal, although MIT maintained that the radiation caused no health problems.
5. When Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School District loaned MacBooks to students, it installed security software that could remotely activate their webcams. The district claimed the software switched on only when a laptop was suspected of being stolen, but it captured more than 56,000 images without disclosing the capability to students or parents. A high school student named Blake Robbins sued for invasion of privacy after a teacher accused him of dealing drugs based on one photograph, which Robbins said showed him eating Mike and Ike candy. In 2010, the district settled his case and a second student’s lawsuit for $610,000, including $175,000 for Robbins, $10,000 for the other student, and $425,000 for Robbins’s lawyer.
6 Evel Knievel Sued Evel Kanyevel
In December 2006, American daredevil Evel Knievel sued American rapper Kanye West over his “Touch the Sky” music video, in which West played a rocket-riding stuntman named “Evel Kanyevel.” West wore a star-spangled white jumpsuit resembling Knievel’s trademark costume and attempted a canyon jump modeled on Knievel’s failed 1974 Snake River Canyon stunt. Knievel claimed the video’s vulgar, sexual, and racially charged content damaged his reputation and infringed his trademarked name and likeness. He said, “That video that Kanye West put out is the most worthless piece of crap I’ve ever seen in my life.”
7. In July 1985, Fantasy Records sued former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty, claiming his solo song “The Old Man Down the Road” copied the band’s 1970 song “Run Through the Jungle.” Although Fogerty wrote both songs, Fantasy owned the copyright to the earlier recording, turning the case into a surreal accusation that he had plagiarized himself. A jury rejected the infringement claim in 1988. After the Supreme Court changed the standard for awarding fees to successful copyright defendants in 1994, a district court awarded Fogerty $1,347,519.15 in attorney’s fees, which an appeals court upheld in 1996.
8. In March 2024, parents of 10 students at Westwood Junior High School in Saint-Lazare, Quebec, filed a $1.575 million lawsuit against art teacher Mario Perron and the Lester B. Pearson School Board. According to the lawsuit, Perron assigned 96 students a project called “Creepy Portrait,” asking them to draw portraits inspired by the style of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Students later allegedly found their artwork offered on Perron’s personal website as prints and on mugs, T-shirts, and cellphone cases, with some items priced as high as $174. The parents accused Perron of using the work without permission and sought $5,000 for each of 31 merchandise listings per student, plus punitive damages.
9. Minnesota still keeps the Confederate battle flag of the 28th Virginia Infantry, which a Union private named Marshall Sherman captured during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg in 1863. The Minnesota Historical Society stores the flag out of public view and withholds its exact location for security. Virginia groups and officials repeatedly demanded its return, while reenactors threatened legal action in 1998 without ultimately filing a lawsuit. When Virginia legislators tried again in 2000, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura refused, saying, “Why? I mean, we won. We took it. That makes it our heritage.”
10. In 2020, Apple filed a trademark opposition against Prepear, a five-person recipe and meal-planning company that used a green pear as its logo. Apple claimed the minimalist pear resembled its famous bitten-apple symbol closely enough to confuse consumers, despite the companies operating in different industries. A man named Russell Monson, who founded Prepear, said Apple demanded that the company change its logo and that the legal expenses had already forced it to lay off one employee. He launched an online petition to publicize the dispute, which attracted nearly 35,000 signatures.
11 Celine Dion Challenged Topless-Pool Story
In 2001, Celine Dion and her husband, Rene Angelil, filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against the Quebec tabloid Allo Vedettes. The tabloid claimed that the couple paid $5,001 to reserve the swimming pool at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas so Dion could sunbathe topless and Angelil could swim nude. Dion and Angelil denied the allegation and took the publication to court.
12. In 2002, 16-year-old American football prospect Brian Banks accepted a plea deal and spent nearly six years in prison after a girl named Wanetta Gibson, his classmate at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, falsely accused him of rape. Gibson and her mother later sued the Long Beach Unified School District over campus safety and received a $1.5 million settlement. In 2011, Gibson admitted before Banks and a private investigator that she had fabricated the allegation, while Banks secretly recorded the conversation, although the recording itself could not be admitted in court. A judge overturned Banks’s conviction in 2012, and the school district won a $2.6 million judgment against Gibson in 2013.
13. In 1984, a Michigan man named Frank Ferlito and his wife, a woman named Susan Ferlito, dressed as “Mary and her little lamb” for a Halloween party. Susan created the lamb costume by gluing Johnson & Johnson cotton batting to Frank’s long underwear, but Frank set his left arm ablaze while lighting a cigarette and suffered burns across more than one-third of his body. The couple sued Johnson & Johnson, and a jury awarded Frank $555,000 and Susan $70,000 in 1989. Johnson & Johnson secured a new trial in 1991, and an appeals court ruled in the company’s favor in 1992.
14. By February 2015, a Seattle man named Woodrow Thompson had secured a default judgment worth more than $500,000 against his neighbor, a woman named Denise Norton, over her dog Cawper. Thompson accused Cawper of “raucously, wildly bellowing, howling, and explosively barking” and claimed that the noise caused him profound emotional distress. Norton considered the lawsuit a joke and failed to show up to the court, prompting the court to enter the judgment against her. After the sheriff posted notices warning that her home could be sold, Norton began fighting to have the judgment dismissed.
15. Former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura sued American Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle after Kyle described punching a man in his 2012 autobiography, American Sniper, and later identified that man as Ventura. Ventura denied the incident and continued the lawsuit against Kyle’s estate after Kyle died in 2013. In 2014, a federal jury awarded Ventura $500,000 for defamation and $1.345 million for unjust enrichment, bringing the verdict to $1.845 million.
16 Apollo 8 Bible Lawsuit Failed
After the Apollo 8 astronauts read from Genesis during a 1968 broadcast from lunar orbit, American atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair sued NASA. She argued that government-employed astronauts should not conduct public Bible readings during spaceflights. In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed her appeal for lack of jurisdiction in orbit around the moon.
17. After American disco group Village People released “Y.M.C.A.” in 1978, the YMCA threatened to sue the band for trademark infringement. The organization ultimately settled with the song’s composers out of court and later described the track as a tribute to the YMCA. The song became the group’s biggest hit and sold 12 million copies worldwide.
18. Lambert’s Cafe, a restaurant chain with two locations in Missouri and one in Alabama, is famous for throwing hot bread rolls to customers. In August 2015, a woman sued the restaurant after claiming that a staff member struck her in the eye with a thrown roll and caused permanent damage. A Lambert’s spokesman confirmed that other customers had previously sought damages over similar incidents and that medical expenses had sometimes been paid.
19. In 2013, a man named Benjamin Careathers filed a class action against Austrian energy drink company Red Bull over advertising surrounding its famous “Red Bull gives you wings” slogan. He alleged that the company lacked scientific support for claims that its drinks improved performance, concentration, and reaction speed beyond ordinary caffeine. In 2014, Red Bull agreed to a $13 million settlement that offered eligible customers either $10 in cash or $15 worth of Red Bull products. Its slogan was later changed to “Red Bull gives you wiiings.”
20. In 2010, a Spanish woman named Maria Angeles Duran from Vigo, Galicia, claimed ownership of the Sun by arguing that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibited countries, but not individuals, from claiming celestial bodies. She registered her declaration with a Spanish notary, threatened to bill solar energy users, and later sold square-meter plots on eBay for one euro each. When eBay blocked her account, Duran sued the company in 2015 for 10,000 euros, claiming it collected commissions but prevented her from receiving payments. A Spanish court allowed the case to proceed but did not rule that Duran legally owned the Sun.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Marvin Horne Defeated Raisin Seizure
Beginning in 2002, a California raisin farmer named Marvin Horne and his wife, Laura Horne, refused to surrender part of their crop to a federal raisin reserve program. The program required growers to provide 47 percent of their raisins in 2002 and 30 percent the following year without guaranteed payment to restrict supply and stabilize prices. The USDA sued the Hornes for $695,226 in raisin value, penalties, and unpaid assessments, sending the dispute to the Supreme Court twice. In 2015, the Court ruled that the requirement constituted a physical taking under the Fifth Amendment and relieved the Hornes of the assessment.
22. In 1999, a male Chicago family physician named Richard O. Phillips had a four-month affair with a female internal medicine physician named Sharon Irons. Phillips alleged that although they never had intercourse, Irons secretly retained his semen after oral sex and used it to impregnate herself, while Irons claimed they conceived the child through intercourse. Nearly two years after the child’s birth, Irons filed a paternity lawsuit, DNA testing confirmed Phillips as the father, and a court ordered him to pay about $800 per month in child support. Phillips then sued Irons for theft, fraud, and emotional distress, but an Illinois appellate court dismissed the first two claims in 2005 while allowing his emotional distress claim to proceed.
23. In January 2014, developers launched a Bitcoin alternative called Coinye West that used a cartoon likeness of rapper Kanye West without his involvement. West’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter alleging trademark infringement, unfair competition, cyberpiracy, and dilution. The developers renamed the currency Coinye and replaced the West references with “an unnamed half-man-half-fish hybrid,” referencing a South Park joke about the rapper. West sued anyway, prompting the original developers to abandon the project and replace its website with the message, “Coinye is dead. You win, Kanye.”
24. In 1994, American film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg was forced out of Disney after CEO Michael Eisner refused to promote him following company president Frank Wells’s death. Katzenberg had helped oversee Disney’s animation revival, which produced The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, before he co-founded DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. In 1996, Katzenberg sued Disney for a contractual bonus tied to profits from projects produced during his 10-year tenure. Disney reportedly could have settled for $90 million, but the dispute ultimately cost the company nearly $270 million, excluding tens of millions in legal fees.
25. In 1985, Lucasfilm, founded by George Lucas, sued High Frontier and the Committee for a Strong, Peaceful America for calling President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative “star wars.” The two advocacy groups stood on opposite sides of the political debate but both used the nickname in television messages about space-based missile defense. Lucasfilm argued that associating its registered trademark with nuclear conflict could damage the brand’s reputation. A federal court dismissed the lawsuits, ruling that the groups used the phrase descriptively in political speech rather than to sell competing products or services.
RE: Fact #16 (Apollo 8 Bible Lawsuit Failed) – I’m not a religious person, but what a jerk. It’s up to the astronaut what he wants to say; he wasn’t under orders to read anything.
RE: Fact #33 (Scott Tracey Won Hitler-Parody Lawsuit) – Is that the scene where Hitler kicks everyone out of the room and then has a meltdown? Ah, the good old days of the Xbox parodies.
RE: Fact #19 (Red Bull Settled Wings Lawsuit) – The claim was about them marketing the drink as a superior source of energy when it wasn’t really any better than a regular cup of coffee. They changed the slogan and offered a small cash settlement to anyone who had bought the drink over the previous decade, capping the total payout at $13 million.
Yeah, that whole narrative that “he thought it would give him actual wings” was just a smear campaign. The real issue was Red Bull advertising a soda with less caffeine than coffee as a performance enhancer that should be banned from the Olympics. Adding those ‘i’s to the slogan shows the slogan wasn’t really the main problem, it was the false performance claims.
RE: Fact #43 (Brian Cornfield Lost Strip-Search Lawsuit) – The Supreme Court has given schools significant leeway to bypass rights that adults would normally have in other situations. It is a tough pill to swallow, but they have basically ruled that maintaining order in schools takes precedence over individual rights.
I actually learned about this in a School Law class. I read through about six different strip-search cases, and this was the only one where the school district actually won. I was pretty shocked because the situation just seemed so absurd.
RE: Fact #8 (Mario Perron Faced Student-Artwork Lawsuit) – Selling someone else’s work without permission is a pretty clear-cut issue. Depending on where the money went, the teacher might even face a lawsuit from the school itself.
It’s not quite that simple. In U.S. colleges, work created for a class often belongs to the institution, not the student. I’m not sure if similar laws apply to primary schools or in Quebec.
RE: Fact #13 (Cotton Lamb Costume Caught Fire) – I came here expecting to talk about that famous SNL sketch about dangerous Halloween costumes, wondering if this story inspired it. Turns out the sketch predates this incident by seven years. Life imitating art, I guess.
RE: Fact #9 (Minnesota Kept Virginia’s Confederate Flag) – Wait, that’s a 1st Minnesota relic from Gettysburg? That is incredible. They should never give it back. To give some context on the 1st Minnesota that isn’t in the movie: on the second day of the battle, Longstreet was attacking the Union left, forcing the Union to pull troops from the center. This created a gap, and Longstreet sent 2, 000 men to exploit it and roll up the entire line. The local commander had no time and no reinforcements nearby, so he ordered the 1st Minnesota, just 180 men, to stop the 2, 000 Confederates. They knew exactly what they were walking into, but they bought the necessary time. They held for 83 seconds and took 83% casualties. It was enough. Never return that flag. Edit: My memory was a bit fuzzy. Checking the actual records, it was 215 casualties out of 262 men, and they held for five minutes. Even more impressive, they were specifically ordered to capture those Confederate colors. There is no way Minnesota should ever give that back.
Wow. They definitely won that fair and square. At this point, it’s a state memorial.
RE: Fact #35 (McDonald’s Lawsuit Targeted Five-Year-Old Gellar) – Why on earth would a company name a five-year-old in a legal suit? She was just a kid doing her job.
RE: Fact #38 (British Airways Ended Male-Seating Policy) – On one hand, that’s blatant, infuriating sexism. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind avoiding an unaccompanied minor on a flight.
The unaccompanied kids I see on flights are usually well-behaved. It’s the ones fighting with their siblings for attention the whole flight that are the worst.
RE: Fact #21 (Marvin Horne Defeated Raisin Seizure) – “Raisin Farmer” just doesn’t sound right to me. Maybe “vineyard owner” or “grape grower.” It was bugging me the whole time I was reading.
The drought in California has gotten so bad that this guy probably decided to grow raisins instead of grapes just to save water.
RE: Fact #19 (Red Bull Settled Wings Lawsuit) – So let me get this straight: people can advertise the “world’s best” burger, but Red Bull can’t claim it gives you wings?
RE: Fact #43 (Brian Cornfield Lost Strip-Search Lawsuit) – The only reason he followed through with that lawsuit was to get official legal documentation of his size, as any of us would.
RE: Fact #28 (Christine Craft’s Discrimination Verdict Overturned) – She wasn’t a supermodel, sure, but calling her unattractive or old is a huge stretch. Also, what does “defer to men” even mean for a news anchor? Things must have changed by the 90s, because you started seeing plenty of older women on the desk. Sexism didn’t vanish, but it feels like at least a little progress happened.
I think “defer” just meant she actually had a backbone, and insecure people clearly hated that.
RE: Fact #30 (Beatles Challenged Beastie Boys Samples) – That album is the peak of unbridled sampling, back before copyright law killed that style of hip hop. It’s a masterpiece. People call the Beastie Boys silly or say they’re just appropriating culture, but I disagree. If this album hadn’t bombed, they probably wouldn’t have leaned so hard into the frat-house sound afterward.
RE: Fact #43 (Brian Cornfield Lost Strip-Search Lawsuit) – Don’t ignore Safford Unified School District v. Redding, where a middle schooler was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen. The Supreme Court ended up ruling that a search for pills wasn’t a compelling enough reason to justify a strip search, which was a win for student rights.
RE: Fact #41 (Spain Reclaimed Black Swan Treasure) – It would have been interesting if the treasure hunters had billed Spain for 10 million in salvage fees.
RE: Fact #29 (Navajo Nation Sued Urban Outfitters) – Man, screw Urban Outfitters and every other brand that profits off “native inspired” gear. There are so many indigenous designers creating incredible pieces, if you want that look, buy it directly from them.
Don’t forget that stores like UO and Anthropologie would rather burn their unsold inventory than donate it or put it on clearance. They’re terrified that poor people wearing their clothes will hurt the brand’s image. It’s genuinely evil.
RE: Fact #20 (Sun Plots Triggered eBay Lawsuit) – There’s a simple way to mess with this person. Anyone who has ever been diagnosed with skin cancer should file a class-action lawsuit against her for every cent she’s made off that claim. Her “property” is inherently dangerous and she’s done nothing to mitigate the UV rays it emits. That’s pure negligence.
RE: Fact #3 (Tom Waits Won Voice-Imitation Lawsuit) – Did anyone else catch that story about him getting arrested in 1977 for standing up to some plainclothes cops who were harassing people?
RE: Fact #24 (Katzenberg’s Disney Fight Cost $270M) – Katzenberg also knew about the upcoming “A Bug’s Life” project before he left Disney, then started DreamWorks and made “Antz”. That was a total sleazeball move.
RE: Fact #32 (Life Insurers Withheld Death Benefits) – This kind of predatory behavior happens with Whole Life and Universal Life policies, but not with Term life insurance. Essentially, once a policyholder passed away, companies would use the accumulated cash value to keep paying themselves premiums until the account hit zero. It’s a massive issue. I should mention that insurers make way more money on Whole Life products than Term. For example, a 28-year-old in Canada can get a $500k 30-year Term policy for about $44 a month, while a Whole Life version would cost over $240.
RE: Fact #5 (School Webcams Secretly Photographed Students) – I grew up in Lower Merion and graduated from Harriton High. I was a senior when they first issued those laptops, and my sister was there when the scandal hit. It is worth noting that they weren’t snapping photos every 15 minutes by default; the district just had the capability to trigger it remotely, and the real issue was that they never told parents this was even possible. It got really messy in the district for a long time. Also, the family that pushed the issue got $175, 000, while the other student involved only got $10, 000.
The student who received $175, 000 had hundreds of photos taken without him knowing. A teacher went through the files, saw him eating candy, and accused him of dealing drugs. Honestly, who knows what other private photos they might have captured.
RE: Fact #29 (Navajo Nation Sued Urban Outfitters) – Imagine being the person in management who signed off on “Navajo Hipster Panties.” I really wonder what other ideas they rejected.
RE: Fact #34 (Pizza Hut Lost Slogan Lawsuit) – I used to work for a Pizza Hut/Wing Street location. If there are actual “ingredients” in their pizza, I never saw them, it was all just frozen bags of garbage. If you really have to eat there, just stick to the thin crust.
RE: Fact #49 (Asbestos Industry Overturned EPA Ban) – You have to give the EPA credit, they tried to beat those lobbyists as best as they could.
RE: Fact #6 (Evel Knievel Sued Evel Kanyevel) – I grew up in Knievel’s hometown and my family knows his. He really was a jerk. He actually walked his daughter down the aisle at her wedding and then left because he didn’t like the groom.
RE: Fact #33 (Scott Tracey Won Hitler-Parody Lawsuit) – BP after losing the case be like: “Nein Nein Nein” “DieUntergang.gif”
RE: Fact #44 (Kenneth Donaldson Won Liberty Ruling) – We really need to start treating mental illness with the same seriousness as physical conditions instead of making it a punchline. If someone were in the street with a broken arm, people would call an ambulance. If that same person were screaming at their own inner demons, people would just laugh at them.
RE: Fact #10 (Apple Challenged Prepear’s Pear Logo) – The last time I tried to buy an iPhone, I got home and realized I had just bought Fruit of the Loom underwear and Apple Jacks cereal, so I totally get the confusion.
RE: Fact #21 (Marvin Horne Defeated Raisin Seizure) – Farmers get subsidies to keep prices stable by not growing certain crops. If he took those subsidies and then sold more than his fair share of raisins, that’s basically fraud.
RE: Fact #27 (Oxford Comma Revived Overtime Lawsuit) – I learned this the hard way when I successfully sued my HOA. They were furious that I cost them $35, 000, so they threatened to fine me $500 a month over a supposed rule violation. I realized the language they used was ambiguous, and in Colorado, unclear contract language defaults to being unenforceable against the person it’s held against. I basically called their bluff and told them I’d sue again if they fined me. They never did. This situation feels similar; without an Oxford comma, the sentence is just as open to interpretation as my HOA’s rule was.
RE: Fact #1 (Jack Thompson’s Shoulder Battery Lawsuit) – Jack Thompson was quite the character. His claim to fame was his crusade against violent games, where he basically played the role of Batman in his own head as some hero of justice. Whenever there was a violent incident, especially with minors, he’d pop up screaming that games were to blame. He published ‘studies’ claiming games made kids sociopathic, which felt like a massive insult to any average gamer. He wanted all violent games banned. There was this one wild moment where he offered $10, 000 to charity if a developer made a game about murdering video game company CEOs. When someone actually made ‘I’m O.K. – A Murder Simulator’ that did exactly that, Jack backed out and claimed his offer was just ‘satire.’ After that, the guys from Penny Arcade decided to be the bigger people and donated $10, 000 to a charity of Jack’s choice themselves. Jack tried to sue over it, but it didn’t go anywhere. It’s also worth noting that Hillary Clinton supported and enabled this guy and never walked back her own comments on violent games.
Don’t forget that Tipper Gore was one of the founders of the PMRC, which tried to censor music with those parental advisory labels.
If I remember right, the memo on that check read: ‘For Jack Thompson, because Jack Thompson won’t.’
RE: Fact #39 (Jackpot Aunty Donated Casino Winnings) – She gives away a fortune and people call her an attention seeker? No good deed goes unpunished.
RE: Fact #19 (Red Bull Settled Wings Lawsuit) – Wait, so they can avoid future lawsuits just by adding a couple of extra letters? Does that mean I can launch my own energy drink with the slogan “It’ll give you a big diiiiick!” and be in the clear?
RE: Fact #31 (Brown Recluse Verdict Went Unpaid) – burning the whole place down with napalm would’ve been the safer move just to make sure they were all gone.
RE: Fact #34 (Pizza Hut Lost Slogan Lawsuit) – I’m surprised there’s so much hate for Pizza Hut. It’s still pretty solid in Canada. Greasy as hell, but it hits the spot when you’re hungry.
RE: Fact #14 (Barking Dog Cost Neighbor $500, 000) – I really can’t stand people who have no regard for how much noise they’re inflicting on those living around them.
RE: Fact #30 (Beatles Challenged Beastie Boys Samples) – The praise for this album had me curious. I’m only three songs in, but it’s honestly great. I’m not really a huge Beastie Boys listener, I know the hits, but I’ve never dug into their albums until now.
RE: Fact #38 (British Airways Ended Male-Seating Policy) – I’m a former cop, a paramedic, and a firefighter, plus a father of two. You’d think people would want an unaccompanied kid sitting next to me on a long flight. I’m better than a guard dog in an emergency. But no, I’m a man, so that’s a problem. Thanks for making me feel like a liability instead of someone who could save your life.
RE: Fact #13 (Cotton Lamb Costume Caught Fire) – The appellate ruling seems fair. If you’re wearing cotton batting and light up a cigarette, you brought that on yourself.
RE: Fact #17 (YMCA Nearly Sued Village People) – I just found out the lead singer of the Village People isn’t gay. My whole world feels upside down.
RE: Fact #3 (Tom Waits Won Voice-Imitation Lawsuit) – I remember when they used an instrumental version of ‘You, Me and the Bourgeoisie’ by The Submarines, which is clearly an anti-capitalist song, in an iPhone commercial.
RE: Fact #18 (Lambert’s Faced Flying-Roll Injury Lawsuit) – Hucking a hot roll at some jerk who walks in five minutes before closing and orders for ten people? Honestly, worth it. , Dan from the back of the house
RE: Fact #44 (Kenneth Donaldson Won Liberty Ruling) – And the result of that shift was a massive increase in the number of homeless people suffering from mental illness. Fantastic.
RE: Fact #1 (Jack Thompson’s Shoulder Battery Lawsuit) – Legally, a touch isn’t usually considered battery if it’s a common social practice given the context. Think of someone on a bus who starts to fall when the driver hits the brakes; if you reach out to steady them, that’s clearly not battery. I looked through the comments and didn’t see anyone mention this, so I thought I’d add it.
RE: Fact #2 (Anders Breivik Challenged Prison Isolation) – Personally, I’d like to see him live in fear, the exact same fear those kids felt, every single day for the rest of his life. Forget this guy.
RE: Fact #4 (Radioactive Oatmeal Lawsuit Cost $1.85M) – Since both sides had to pay, I’m guessing MIT just bought regular oatmeal and dosed it with radiation themselves.
RE: Fact #25 (Lucasfilm Lost Star Wars Lawsuit) – Basically, Lucasfilm went after several PACs for using “Star Wars” in their political materials about the SDI program. They claimed it hurt their brand by linking it to nuclear war talk. The court tossed it, though, saying trademark law is for protecting commercial goods, not for stopping people from using phrases in political speech.
RE: Fact #46 (Birthday Phrase Escaped Copyright Protection) – Kanye went through something similar when he was sued for the track ‘Stronger’ because of that famous Nietzsche quote about what doesn’t kill you. The outcome was pretty much the same.
RE: Fact #11 (Celine Dion Challenged Topless-Pool Story) – I’m not sure you could even get a bottle of champagne for $5k at a Vegas pool, let alone rent the whole thing out for private sunbathing.
RE: Fact #36 (Sailor’s Death Voided Voyage Payment) – That is brutal. He did the work and then passed away. Maritime law is something else.
It came down to the specific contract language. It stated he would only be paid if he completed his duties for the entire journey. Since he didn’t make it to Liverpool, the court ruled the conditions for payment weren’t met. It basically forced people to stop using that kind of phrasing in contracts.
RE: Fact #14 (Barking Dog Cost Neighbor $500, 000) – The dollar amount is extreme, but I support holding people accountable. Just because you’re too oblivious to notice constant, loud noise doesn’t mean your neighbors aren’t suffering. Train your dog or don’t own one. Simple as that.
RE: Fact #3 (Tom Waits Won Voice-Imitation Lawsuit) – We talked about this case in my copyright law class. They didn’t actually use one of his songs; they asked him, he said no, so they just hired an impersonator to sing a new track in his style. He sued them for that and won.
RE: Fact #50 (Columbo’s Fake Name Triggered Lawsuit) – Mapmakers do this exact thing. Companies like A-Z used to hide fake streets or landmarks on their maps specifically to catch people copying their work.
RE: Fact #12 (Brian Banks Recorded Accuser’s Confession) – She should be charged with false imprisonment and given a five-year sentence, which in this case, would effectively be a life sentence for the time she stole.
RE: Fact #5 (School Webcams Secretly Photographed Students) – Why on earth did they think this was a good idea? They must have caught some truly inappropriate stuff.
RE: Fact #42 (Kung Fu Panda Claim Collapsed) – It’s even worse than that. The guy saw the movie was coming out, tweaked his own work to match it, and rushed to trademark it just so he could sue.
RE: Fact #1 (Jack Thompson’s Shoulder Battery Lawsuit) – Man, I totally forgot about Jack! He used to sue over the craziest stuff, especially video games. The funny part was that he was so unhinged he would reply to basically every email with long, angry rants. I spent a whole year trolling him back in the early 2000s. Good times.
RE: Fact #48 (Janet Jackson Sued The Onion) – Is the paper protected because no reasonable person would have mistaken The Onion for actual news?
RE: Fact #14 (Barking Dog Cost Neighbor $500, 000) – So he was served the legal papers, which is a mandatory part of the process, and he still treated the whole thing like a joke?
RE: Fact #12 (Brian Banks Recorded Accuser’s Confession) – Who cares if the school district sues her for money she doesn’t have? Where is his actual justice? Did she ever see the inside of a jail cell?
RE: Fact #12 (Brian Banks Recorded Accuser’s Confession) – He can never get those six years back. There really needs to be a law that mandates false accusers serve the exact same amount of prison time as their victim.