26 Cult Awareness Network Became Scientologist-Run
The original Cult Awareness Network was an anti-cult group that often criticized the Church of Scientology. In 1995, a man named Jason Scott won a large judgment against CAN after one of its volunteers connected his mother with a deprogrammer who kidnapped and detained him. The judgment and other legal costs pushed CAN into bankruptcy in 1996. A Scientologist lawyer then bought its name, logo, phone number, and other assets for $20,000, allowing Scientology associates to operate a new Cult Awareness Network.
27. In 2011, a Florida man named Patrick Snay reached an $80,000 settlement with Miami’s Gulliver Preparatory School after alleging age discrimination and retaliation. The agreement required Snay and his wife to keep it confidential, but they told their daughter, a girl named Dana Snay. Dana posted to roughly 1,200 Facebook friends, “Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT.” A Florida appeals court ruled that Snay had breached the agreement and cost him the $80,000 payment.
28. In Utah, a woman named Barbara Bagley sued herself for the wrongful death of her common-law husband, Bradley Vom Baur, after she crashed their Range Rover in 2011. Vom Baur died from his injuries 10 days later, and Bagley filed the suit as his sole heir and estate representative to compel State Farm to cover the damages. The district court dismissed the case because Bagley stood on both sides, but the Utah Court of Appeals reversed its decision. In 2016, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that Bagley could sue herself in separate legal capacities, although it did not decide whether she could recover any money.
29. In December 2012, American auctioneer and reality television personality David Hester sued A&E Television Networks and Original Productions, alleging that they planted valuable items in storage lockers before auctions on Storage Wars. Hester claimed that producers sometimes staged entire units and funded purchases for weaker cast members. He alleged that the companies dropped him from season four after he complained about these practices. In September 2013, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge allowed his wrongful termination lawsuit to proceed.
30. In January 2014, a 17-year-old Minnesota student named Reid Sagehorn jokingly replied, “Actually, yeah,” to an internet post asking whether he had made out with a 28-year-old teacher at Rogers High School. The Elk River School District suspended him for five days, extended the punishment to 10 days, and then nearly two months, forcing Sagehorn to withdraw to avoid expulsion. He sued the district and local officials, claiming they had unjustly suspended him and violated his constitutional rights. In 2015, the school district and city agreed to a $425,000 settlement while admitting no wrongdoing.
31 Movie Texting Triggered $17.31 Lawsuit
In May 2017, a 37-year-old Austin man named Brandon Vezmar sued his date for $17.31 after she texted during their first date at a screening of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. He argued that her phone use violated the cinema’s policy, disrupted his viewing experience, and posed a “threat to civilized society,” while the money represented the cost of her ticket. His date, a woman named Crystal Cruz, initially refused to reimburse him. After Inside Edition reunited them outside the cinema, Cruz handed him $17.31, and Vezmar dropped the lawsuit.
32. In 2007, actor Keanu Reeves was sued by a man named Alison Silva, a paparazzo who alleged that Reeves struck him with a Porsche while Silva photographed him in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Reeves denied hitting Silva and testified that the photographer tripped over his own feet as the actor slowly pulled out of a parking space. Silva sought $711,974 for a wrist injury that he claimed prevented him from handling large cameras. The lawsuit took 18 months to reach trial, but in 2008 a Los Angeles County jury deliberated for just over an hour before clearing Reeves of all liability.
33. In November 2004, Marvel Comics sued City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios, publisher NCsoft, and administrator NC Interactive because the online superhero game allowed users to create characters resembling Marvel properties. Marvel sought unspecified damages, an end to further sales, and the game’s shutdown. The case took a strange turn when Marvel admitted that its own investigators had created some of the characters cited in its complaint, prompting the court to strike those exhibits in March 2005. The parties settled the remaining claims under undisclosed terms that December, and the game’s operators said they did not have to change its character-creation system.
34. In September 2009, a fugitive named Jesse Dimmick broke into the home of Jared & Lindsay Rowley, holding them hostage with a knife while fleeing police. The couple fed him snacks and watched movies with him until he fell asleep, then escaped unharmed and revealed his location. After receiving an 11-year kidnapping sentence, Dimmick sued them for $235,000, claiming they had broken an oral agreement to hide him in exchange for money. He filed the claim in response to the Rowleys’ own $75,000 lawsuit and said he needed part of the money for hospital bills after police shot him during his arrest.
35. A Texas man named Steven Phillips spent 24 years in prison for crimes he did not commit before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2008. Texas paid him $2,069,166.67 upfront and granted him a monthly annuity of $11,601.90, giving his compensation an expected lifetime value of up to $6 million. His former wife, a woman named Traci Tucker, who divorced him in 1992 while he remained imprisoned, sued for a share by arguing that some of the money represented lost marital wages. A district court initially awarded her $114,459.50, but in 2014 the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals reversed the decision and ruled that she could take nothing from his compensation.
36 Whataburger Rivals Kept Both Names
In 1950, two men named Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton opened Whataburger in Corpus Christi, Texas, while a man named Jack Branch separately opened What-A-Burger near Newport News, Virginia. The companies remained unaware of each other until they began corresponding around 1970, but neither took legal action for another three decades. In 2002 and 2003, the two hamburger chains sued each other over alleged trademark infringement. In 2004, an appeals court upheld the Texas company’s trademark but ruled that the Virginia chain had caused no harm or reasonable confusion over whether its burgers came from Texas or Virginia, allowing both businesses to keep their names.
37. AutoZone began in 1979 as Auto Shack, a retail auto-parts chain operated by Malone & Hyde in Tennessee and Arkansas. Radio Shack owner Tandy Corporation sued the company for trademark infringement in 1982, and a 1986 settlement led Malone & Hyde to adopt the AutoZone name. In 1998, Tandy introduced PowerZone sections inside Radio Shack stores for batteries and other power accessories, prompting AutoZone to sue in 1999. In 2001, a federal district court ruled that AutoZone and PowerZone were unlikely to confuse customers and rejected all five of AutoZone’s claims and ruled in Tandy’s favor without holding a full trial.
38. In 2017, Ford Motor Company sued professional wrestler John Cena after he sold his all-new Ford GT supercar only a few months after taking delivery. Ford had selected Cena through an application process, and his sales agreement barred buyers from reselling the car for at least two years. In 2018, the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement requiring Cena to pay an undisclosed amount, which Ford reportedly planned to donate to charity. Cena apologized and urged other Ford GT owners to honor their contracts.
39. In 2008, three MIT students named Zack Anderson, Russell J. Ryan, and Alessandro Chiesa discovered security weaknesses in Boston’s subway fare collection system. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority sued the students and MIT, then obtained a temporary restraining order that stopped them from presenting their research at the DEF CON hacker convention. The lawsuit spread the sensitive information further because the MBTA had attached the presentation to its complaint, which appeared on the court’s public website. On August 19, 2008, a judge refused to extend the order, allowing the students to discuss their findings.
40. In March 2006, American singer Scott Stapp, best known as Creed’s lead vocalist, filed a lawsuit to block the release of a sex video involving himself, American musician Kid Rock, and four women. The parties settled in 2007, with the defendant agreeing to pay Stapp an undisclosed sum and refrain from distributing the video.
41 Slutsof Duck Princess Defended Domain
In 2014, Instagram sued the owner of slutsofinstagram.com, claiming that the domain infringed and tarnished its trademark. The owner replied that the address did not mean “Sluts of Instagram,” but “Slutsof in Stagram,” an online fantasy series about a duck princess named Slutsof traveling through the magical land of Stagram. He supported his response with illustrated story pages, and Instagram had not replied when the exchange was reported.
42. From May 2003 to July 2005, Dell shipped at least 11.8 million OptiPlex desktop computers with faulty Nichicon capacitors that could bulge, leak, and disable their motherboards. Documents unsealed in 2010 during a lawsuit filed by Advanced Internet Technologies showed that a Dell study predicted failure rates as high as 97 percent within three years. Dell sometimes replaced faulty motherboards with other faulty motherboards and instructed employees not to alert customers proactively. The problem even hit Alston & Bird, the law firm defending Dell in the lawsuit, when 1,000 of its Dell computers began failing.
43. In 1972, a man named George Aiken played a licensed radio broadcast through loudspeakers inside George Aiken’s Chicken, his fast-food restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The broadcast included “The More I See You” and “Me and My Shadow,” whose copyright owners, Twentieth Century Music Corp., sued because the restaurant had no ASCAP license of its own. A district court ordered Aiken to pay compensation, but an appeals court overturned the ruling. In 1975, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Aiken, ruling that receiving songs through a radio did not constitute a public performance.
44. In 2014, American spree killer Nikko Jenkins filed a six-page handwritten federal lawsuit seeking $24.5 million from the State of Nebraska for wrongfully releasing him from prison. Nebraska had released Jenkins in 2013, after he had served 10 and a half years of an 18-year sentence, and he murdered four people in Omaha within the following month. Jenkins claimed prison officials had ignored his reports of hearing voices from the Egyptian serpent god Apophis and that solitary confinement had worsened his schizophrenia. A judge convicted him of all four murders, and in 2017 he received four consecutive death sentences plus 450 years in prison.
45. In 2013, Detroit faced severe 911 problems, with violent-crime emergencies suffering dispatch delays of more than an hour. In one case, neighbors repeatedly called 911 while 32-year-old Stacey Hightower was being attacked inside her Detroit apartment, but a dispatcher waited 90 minutes to send police. Officers found Hightower dead from multiple stab wounds, and prosecutors charged a man named Jason Peck with first-degree murder. Her mother, a woman named Tracey Hightower, consulted an attorney about suing Detroit but found that the city was bankrupt.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Carborundum Rejected Lanier’s $10,000 Offer
In 1998, American trial attorney Mark Lanier offered to settle an asbestos lawsuit against the Carborundum Company for $10,000, but the company refused and went to trial. Lanier represented 21 U.S. Steel workers from Birmingham, Alabama, who alleged that asbestos in Carborundum grinding wheels had damaged their lungs. On February 19, a jury in Brazoria County, Texas, awarded the workers $15.6 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages. The documented verdict totaled $115.6 million, although Lanier and later accounts have cited the award as $118 million, and it became the first verdict linking a grinding wheel to asbestos exposure.
47. In 1994, Italian automaker Fiat sent 50,000 anonymous love letters on pink paper to women across Spain while promoting the Fiat Cinquecento. The letters implied that a secret admirer had watched the recipients in public, leaving some women confused, anxious, or frightened and prompting others to seek escorts to work or contact police. Fiat planned to reveal the car in a second letter and offer test drives, but complaints forced it to cancel the campaign and send apologies instead. They were sued, and the Zaragoza High Court fined Fiat 15,000 pesetas and ordered it to pay 140,000 pesetas in damages to a woman who took the company to court.
48. In August 2023, former American NFL player Michael Oher, whose life inspired the 2009 film The Blind Side, sued Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the couple he had believed adopted him. Oher alleged that they tricked him into signing a conservatorship agreement instead of adoption papers, giving them authority to negotiate business deals in his name. He claimed a film deal paid the Tuohys and their two children millions in royalties while he received nothing, although the family and the film’s producers disputed those figures. In 2023, a Tennessee judge ended the conservatorship, which the Tuohys said they were “happy to end,” and ordered them to remove claims from their website and speaking materials that they had adopted Oher.
49. Spanish soccer club Valencia CF had used a bat in its crest since its founding in 1919, about 20 years before Batman debuted. In 2014, DC Comics claimed that a revised Valencia bat design looked too similar to the Batman symbol. DC filed a trademark objection, prompting Valencia to drop its application to use the design on casual clothing. In 2019, DC objected again when Valencia attempted to register a special bat logo for its centennial.
50. In April 2015, a Zambian-born man named Gilbert Kalonde, an assistant professor at Montana State University, bought a fishing license at a Walmart in Montana. Although Kalonde showed proof of his university employment, an employee entered “clean toilets” as his occupation in the state database, and the description remained when he renewed the license in 2016. A colleague later noticed the label and joked about it within earshot of students. In April 2017, Kalonde sued Walmart for libel in District Court, seeking unspecified damages for the alleged humiliation and damage to his reputation.
RE: Fact #49 (Valencia’s Bat Predated Batman’s Emblem) – This reminds me of when Fox used a YouTube clip in Family Guy without the creator’s permission, and then proceeded to get the original video taken down from YouTube for “copyright infringement.”
that whole process is definitely automated. It’s such a specific edge case for a bot to catch.
RE: Fact #40 (Scott Stapp’s Sex-Video Lawsuit Settled) – I really appreciate Scott taking steps to keep that tape from getting out.
He didn’t really kill the release, though. The content was already out there; he just stopped them from profiting off more copies. You can definitely still find it on torrent sites if you look. I remember when a clip popped up of him acting incredibly arrogant about it. Also, Kid Rock only seemed to care about his reputation because he didn’t want to be associated with Scott.
RE: Fact #15 (Birthday Party Firing Cost $450, 000) – There is a lot of context, but basically they threw him a party he repeatedly asked them not to hold due to his panic disorder, then bullied him for leaving. So many stories exist of people being forced into events they clearly stated they didn’t want to attend, only to be shamed for not having the “right” reaction.
They forced it on him, then fired him for having an anxiety attack, the exact thing he warned them about. It’s like they were playing a game to see how many terrible moves they could make at once.
RE: Fact #7 (Textbook Reseller Won First-Sale Rights) – Of course they did.
Good for him. My English department just buys a couple of copies and lets us scan them. It is legal here for non-profit education, and our library even has scanners that make it easy without wrecking the books. If the prices weren’t insane, I’m sure people would buy them, but nobody is going to drop two months of rent on a textbook. The publishers can get lost.
This reminds me of a lawsuit involving Costco and Omega watches. It is often cited alongside that textbook case in legal discussions regarding the first-sale doctrine.
RE: Fact #31 (Movie Texting Triggered $17.31 Lawsuit) – In my state, it costs $31 just to file a claim for under $500. And that doesn’t even count the service of process fees, which are even higher.
RE: Fact #22 (Lottery Secrecy Cost Entire Jackpot) – What kind of lawyer did she have that didn’t warn her this might happen?
RE: Fact #43 (Restaurant Radio Was Not Performance) – As a bar owner, I have to pay four different shakedown groups: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and Alltrack. They are extremely aggressive with legal action. I know a bar owner who ignored them, got sued, lost, and had their wages garnished. We tried using SiriusXM for Business to cover the first three, but Alltrack claims that doesn’t count. Bottom line: they’re all scumbags.
If you’re using SiriusXM Business and Alltrack isn’t part of the agreement, why are you paying them? I’d imagine SiriusXM wouldn’t broadcast music from a catalog they haven’t licensed.
RE: Fact #12 (Helen Kane’s Boop Lawsuit Backfired) – So… did Baby Esther ever get compensated for having her act stolen by both of them?
No. Baby Esther was only about ten when the trial happened, and she didn’t participate since people thought she was in Paris. She had a huge world tour and was really big in Europe for a while, then went to South America and had a lot of success there too. When she eventually came back to the US, she worked for Cab Calloway for a bit, but then a rumor started that she had died. She was already starting to outgrow her ‘little girl’ image and just kind of vanished from the scene.
RE: Fact #28 (Barbara Bagley Legally Sued Herself) – >Bagley, who sued under Utah’s wrongful death and survival action statutes, brought suit to compel State Farm Insurance Company, with whom she maintained a motor vehicle insurance policy, to indemnify her.
So she sued herself as the driver who caused the crash just to force the insurance company to pay out more to her as the heir.
For everyone asking why: she was the representative of the estate. In that role, she sued herself as the person responsible for the accident to force the insurance company to pay the estate, just as they would have if a stranger had caused the death. To be clear, she wasn’t doing it to get extra money. The insurance company probably tried to deny the payout, and she was suing to compel them. Source: I work in law.
THERE it is. She wasn’t suing herself at all. The estate sued her. She happened to be the one representing the estate. She likely had a legal duty to sue on the estate’s behalf to maximize its assets. Nothing strange here.
RE: Fact #46 (Carborundum Rejected Lanier’s $10, 000 Offer) – A friend of mine is a lawyer who used to handle these cases for a firm representing victims. It’s always a win; it’s just a matter of settling the payout. By the time asbestos-related cancers show up, the victim often doesn’t survive until the end of the trial, so it’s usually children and spouses crying on the stand with maybe a recorded deposition of the person who passed away. It’s heartbreaking because those companies knew the risks and chose to put workers in danger for profit.
It depends. With mesothelioma, it’s just a matter of the payout, but you have to prove which product caused it. Lung cancer is more complicated because if someone smoked two packs a day for 50 years, that factors in. Still, most mesothelioma cases happen so late that the victims don’t last long.
This is exactly why I can’t respect anyone pushing for deregulation. Companies have shown time and again that if given the choice between lives and profit, they pick profit every time.
RE: Fact #18 (Dana Carvey’s Wrong-Artery Surgery Lawsuit) – He’s reportedly worth 20 million, so donating 7.5 million is a huge deal. Nothing but respect for that.
It definitely derailed his momentum. He was already a big name, but he was just starting to branch out after SNL. One more solid movie or a show could have been massive for him.
RE: Fact #24 (Debito Arudou Beat Bathhouse Discrimination) – There is a Finnish-born member of the Diet, actually. As for Debito, he is a difficult person, but perhaps necessary. Japan has anti-racism laws, which is how he won, but they are rarely enforced. You still see apartments with “no foreigners” policies. Employers often overlook candidates who look foreign, and plenty of bars or onsens will turn people away. If you look foreign, even if you are fourth-generation Japanese and only speak the language, people will treat you like an outsider. Debito has made it his mission to fight this, but he does it in a grating way. He intentionally goes to places looking for a fight so he can scream about his rights. He writes very harsh articles and calls people out with a holier-than-thou attitude. He is like a self-appointed Rosa Parks. Some people think he is doing the right thing by forcing a conversation about racism. Others feel he is hurting the cause because he is the only voice most Japanese people see, and he just tells them they are bad people who need to change their culture.
Many landmark civil rights events in the US involved people who specifically targeted places known for racist policies. People might think MLK wouldn’t do that, but he absolutely did.
RE: Fact #29 (Storage Wars Planting Claims Survived) – They clearly realized he was the main draw and brought him back. Money talks.
That’s wild to me, because everyone else was way less irritating, and some of them were pretty annoying. I think Barry was the only one I genuinely liked.
I liked that eccentric rich guy who obviously didn’t know the first thing about anything, but was clearly on the show because he was buddies with a producer.
From what I’ve heard, Dave is a total jerk in real life. I know several people who have been burned by him and his gallery.
RE: Fact #19 (Häagen-Dazs Lost Scandinavian Marketing Lawsuit) – That’s funny. They should just stop pretending to be Scandinavian!
It’s exactly like when Universal sued Nintendo over Donkey Kong, claiming it violated the King Kong copyright. Universal had actually proven that King Kong, and the name “Kong”, was in the public domain just a year earlier. This happened after Universal had already started seizing Donkey Kong arcade units. If I remember right, their plan was to rebrand the games as King Kong so they could muscle into the video game industry using Nintendo’s hard work.
RE: Fact #25 (Jolly Ranchers Cost NYPD $33, 000) – > Court documents filed in connection with the drug possession charges against Olatunjiojo and Ferriera asserted that the cops had performed a field test on the candy and it tested positive for a controlled substance.
The police lied throughout the entire arrest. They claimed they saw them conducting a drug deal. They ran a field test on the candy. It felt like they were just looking for any reason to arrest them. Even after their friend tried to intervene, the police still insisted they did nothing wrong. Also, what exactly is a ‘quality of life’ summons?
Those field tests aren’t even admissible in court. They’ve been proven to be totally ineffective.
RE: Fact #5 (Rectal Exam Included Television Actors) – Imagine watching TV and seeing a face you recognize. “Wait a minute, that is the guy who was looking in my ass!”
“On TV show” Doctor 1: “Check out this prostate. Have you ever seen cancer this bad?” Doctor 2 staring into space: “Yes…once before…”
RE: Fact #32 (Keanu Reeves Beat Paparazzo Claim) – > ## Reeves cleared in paparazzo lawsuit > It took a year and a half for a tabloid photographer’s lawsuit against actor Keanu Reeves to make it to trial and just over an hour for a jury to decide the man didn’t have a case. > > The Los Angeles County Superior Court panel in downtown Los Angeles cleared the film star of any liability Monday in a 2007 incident in which a paparazzo alleged that Reeves bashed into him with his Porsche in Rancho Palos Verdes. > > The photographer, Alison Silva, maintained that he suffered a broken wrist that left him unable to hold the large cameras necessary for his job. He asked for $711, 974 in compensation for medical bills and other damages. > > Reeves, who attended the trial, insisted that he never hit Silva, who had trailed him to a medical facility, where he was visiting a relative. The actor testified that as he inched the vehicle forward to leave, the photographer tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. > > A radiologist told jurors the wrist fracture appeared to be an old injury, and an emergency room doctor said Silva admitted hurting his wrist playing soccer as a youth in Brazil. > > Silva said he had moved on to shooting videos for tabloid sites after the injury, but on the witness stand, he acknowledged that his decision was motivated by better pay rather than pain. Reeves’ lawyers produced a video shot after the incident in which Silva used his hands to get down from a fence where he was trying to shoot video of Britney Spears. The video, the defense said, proved Silva’s injuries were nonexistent. > > “It’s time to end his 15 minutes [of fame], ” attorney Alfred Gerisch said Friday. > > Silva was undaunted as he left court. > > “I respect the jury’s decision. This has been a life experience for me, ” he said. Asked if he would seek out Reeves as a subject in the future, he smiled and said, “Why not?”
Shouldn’t there be a penalty for filing a frivolous lawsuit? Maybe making the paparazzo pay the legal fees, or at least letting the jury decide on that as an option?
It makes sense in this specific case, but that’s a dangerous precedent. You don’t want people getting too scared to sue someone because they’re afraid of losing their shirts on legal fees.
RE: Fact #33 (Marvel Investigators Created Lawsuit Evidence) – I made my favorite character in that game: The Walmart Greeter. Blue vest, brown pants, kung fu moves, and perfectly polite to everyone.
RE: Fact #13 (Minogue Blocked Jenner’s Kylie Trademark) – Jenner tried to trademark the name Kylie in the US for advertising and endorsement work, but was blocked by Minogue because she already owned that trademark across multiple business sectors. The block was later lifted once Minogue was satisfied that Jenner wouldn’t interfere with her own interests.
It seems weird that someone else can trademark your first name and limit your ability to use it for your own business. I’m sure there’s legal nuance I’m missing, though.
RE: Fact #13 (Minogue Blocked Jenner’s Kylie Trademark) – Kylie Jenner and her team tried to take over Kylie Minogue’s website, kylie.com, arguing that the younger Kylie was the “famously recognized name.” That argument was completely shot down by Minogue’s team, pointing out that she had owned kylie.com since 1996, a year before Jenner was even born.
The massive ego on these LA types is insane. What’s worse is the total lack of self-awareness and privilege; they don’t contribute a single useful thing to society.
Kylie Jenner is trash. Kylie Minogue is an absolute legend who has more talent, class, and genuine intelligence in her pinky finger than Jenner will ever have.
RE: Fact #44 (Nikko Jenkins Filed Wrongful-Release Lawsuit) – there should be accountability for letting this guy out. He clearly needed serious mental health intervention long before he turned to murder. He was a danger even back when he brought a gun to school at age seven and should have been removed from his parents’ care permanently. He never should have been released.
His entire life serves as evidence of how every single authority figure failed him.
RE: Fact #12 (Helen Kane’s Boop Lawsuit Backfired) – Fun fact: Mae Questel voiced Betty Boop for the longest time, but she was also known for playing Olive Oyl and Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Christmas Vacation makes me cry specifically because of her. When Aunt Bethany starts saying the pledge of allegiance and everyone just goes along with it, I bawl. There is something about the whole family just saying, “whatever, why not” instead of making her feel silly that really gets me. I should mention that this is my go-to example when I admit I can cry during “any” movie. At all. Anyway, I am glad to know this about her. Thanks.
RE: Fact #42 (Dell Defects Hit Its Lawyers) – We dealt with plenty of those OptiPlex models that had caps blow and leak. I spent time soldering replacements, but eventually, we just swapped them all out.
I was an intern at the time, and identifying that issue and coordinating the repairs with Dell is actually what got me hired and kicked off my IT career. Thanks, Dell.
RE: Fact #36 (Whataburger Rivals Kept Both Names) – As a California native, I’m just gonna say it: Whataburger is better than In-N-Out, hands down. Don’t at me, it’s not up for debate.
Agreed. When In-N-Out came to Texas, we all lined up, tried it, and realized our Whataburger was way better. Sorry.
I swear there should be a new football league where all the teams are sponsored by burger chains. That would be massive.
RE: Fact #2 (Lottery Tip Unleashed Lawsuits, Kidnapping) – >a simple Google of past lottery winners will present you with dozens of examples of how such a life changing win can quickly turn your life upside down. >The man from Georgia that invested his $3 million winnings in a meth ring. Urooj Khan was poisoned a day after winning in $1 million in July 2012. Michigan winner Amanda Clayton was found dead from a drug overdose less than a year after winning $735, 000. In March 2012, a New Jersey jury unanimously decided that Americo Lopes had cheated his coworkers out of their share of a $38.5 Mega Millions jackpot lottery pool. Lopes claimed he had won the jackpot on a personal ticket but the panel rejected that theory. The jackpot was ultimately distributed among the five men who were in the lottery pool with Lopes. >And then of course there’s the story of a Larry Payne, the East Alabama man who forgot about a lottery ticket in his truck. With just a few weeks before the ticket was due to expire, Payne lent the truck to his nephew. The nephew found the ticket and told his uncle. They thought it was only worth $600. Excited by the find, Payne’s nephew told his boss. It later transpired the ticket was worth $1 million. The boss claimed that Payne’s nephew had stolen the ticket off her desk. The case went to court and Payne was awarded the winnings.
RE: Fact #26 (Cult Awareness Network Became Scientologist-Run) – Here are some other popular facts that show just how dangerous and bizarre the Church of Scientology is. [Fact: In 1995, the Church of Scientology kept a mentally ill woman imprisoned, dehydrated, and starving for 17 days until she passed away.] [Fact: A boy died from a gunshot wound while visiting his Scientologist father. It was ruled a suicide, but his prints weren’t on the weapon, the bullet was missing, data was wiped from his laptop, and the father called David Miscavige’s sister before calling 911.] [Fact: Police in Clearwater, FL, received 161 emergency calls from the Fort Harrison Hotel over 11 months. Each time, security for the Church turned them away, claiming there was no emergency.] [Fact: Following South Park’s Scientology episode, the Church hired people to spy on Matt and Trey, looking for anything to use for blackmail. They got frustrated when they found nothing but that they are pretty normal people.] [Fact: The Church of Scientology once tried to frame a critic for terrorism.] [Fact: In 2009, Wikipedia banned the Church of Scientology from editing any pages.] [Fact: When the Church first moved to Clearwater, Florida, their goal was to take over the city. They were only stopped after an expose in the St. Petersburg Times.]
RE: Fact #8 (Ratchet Inventor Beat Sears Fraud) – > On further appeals he was granted $5 million in damages, however the lawsuit continued, and in 1989 it was reported that he had finally settled with Sears for $8.9 million
Haha, wow.
That is about 20 percent of what they made. It is not bad, though he probably would have made even less if he had agreed to a percentage of profits deal from the start.
RE: Fact #22 (Lottery Secrecy Cost Entire Jackpot) – That is how hiding assets in a divorce usually goes. If you get caught, your spouse ends up with the whole thing. The only thing notable here is that it happened to be lottery money.
RE: Fact #3 (Tech No-Poaching Pact Cost $435M) – The worst part is when Steve Jobs found out a Google recruiter was talking to an Apple employee. He contacted Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who fired the recruiter and messaged Jobs back with a smiley face.
RE: Fact #23 (Tolkien Estate Forced TSR Renamings) – That is it, I am trademarking “water” and “watery”. The rest of you can just deal with it.
RE: Fact #27 (Facebook Boast Cost Father $80, 000) – I think you mean her father violated a confidentiality agreement by sharing the news with his daughter.
RE: Fact #39 (MBTA Lawsuit Spread Security Details) – Great work, Boston transit. You just ensured that the next major security hole will be kept quiet and exploited rather than reported.
This feels like a panicked move by people who should have been fired or voted out of office to save their own skins.
RE: Fact #18 (Dana Carvey’s Wrong-Artery Surgery Lawsuit) – “While he was in the hospital for his final angioplasty, Frank Sinatra died in the room adjacent to his.” How is that not the bigger story here?
RE: Fact #20 (Underwood Ranches Won $23.3M Countersuit) – Sriracha’s flavor always shifted a bit because the peppers changed throughout the season. They never really tried to blend batches for consistency. The whole situation is tragic because they had a great partnership for about 25 years. As the sauce got more popular, the company would tell the farmer how much more they needed, and he would expand his land and crew to keep up. They weren’t trying to stiff their suppliers; it was a real partnership.
RE: Fact #10 (Judge Rhymed Eminem Defamation Dismissal) – Good to see that judge’s career worked out well. She ended up on the Appeals court a few years after this.
RE: Fact #37 (AutoZone’s PowerZone Trademark Lawsuit Failed) – Funny how years later, AutoZone is still thriving while Radio Shack is a total relic.
RE: Fact #30 (Student’s Teacher Joke Cost $425, 000) – >Sagehorn, then 17, tweeted, “Actually, yeah, ” but later maintained he said it in jest. > >The district suspended him for five days, then extended it to 10 days, and then to nearly two months. Sagehorn says he was forced to withdraw and attend another school to avoid expulsion.
RE: Fact #20 (Underwood Ranches Won $23.3M Countersuit) – The founder said the new sauces were an attempt to ruin his company, but there are tons of pepper sauce makers out there. They should have considered this outcome before taking their primary supplier to court. If the recipe was the secret to their success, they shouldn’t be surprised that a supplier started doing their own thing once they were sued.
RE: Fact #47 (Fiat Love Letters Frightened Women) – I feel for the women who had to explain to their partners they weren’t cheating, and even after the marketing campaign was exposed, they probably still lived under a cloud of suspicion. “How many times do I have to tell you, Tony? The letters were from Fiat! They got sued! It was in the papers! Vafangool!”
RE: Fact #13 (Minogue Blocked Jenner’s Kylie Trademark) – Yeah, well, Jenner never starred in a Street Fighter movie or sang any wicked Murder Ballads with Nick Cave.
Why isn’t anyone bringing up her role in the perennial climate-change classic, Bio-Dome?
RE: Fact #43 (Restaurant Radio Was Not Performance) – I feel like if you’re comfortable with your music being on the radio, you shouldn’t mind people hearing it on the radio in public.
RE: Fact #17 (Weatherman’s Sunny Forecast Cost $1, 000) – The weatherman’s legal team should seriously reconsider their jobs. How on earth did this even make it to court?
It was an out-of-court settlement. Companies often pay a smaller amount to make these things go away quickly rather than paying lawyers to fight them. Plus, even if the station had won, good luck trying to collect legal fees from someone if they don’t have the cash.
RE: Fact #10 (Judge Rhymed Eminem Defamation Dismissal) – >Way before my baby daughter Hailey, >I was harassed daily by this fat kid named D’Angelo Bailey. >An eighth grader who acted obnoxious, ’cause his father boxes, >So everyday he’d shove me in the lockers. >One day he came in the bathroom while I was pissin’, >And had me in the position to beat me into submission. >He banged my head against the urinal ’til he broke my nose, >Soaked my clothes in blood, grabbed me and choked my throat. >I tried to plead and tell him, “We shouldn’t beef” >But he just wouldn’t leave, he kept chokin’ me and I couldn’t breathe.
RE: Fact #19 (Häagen-Dazs Lost Scandinavian Marketing Lawsuit) – Häagen-Dazs doesn’t even look or sound Scandinavian. It leans more Hungarian, though Frusen Glädje actually makes sense.
RE: Fact #19 (Häagen-Dazs Lost Scandinavian Marketing Lawsuit) – Apparently Häagen-Dazs is meant to look Danish, even though that language doesn’t even use the letter combination ‘ä’ like that, and ‘z’ only shows up in loan words.
I’m Norwegian, and I don’t think any Scandinavian language uses ‘ä’ and ‘a’ together. The ‘z’ looks like something from Central Europe, specifically Hungarian.
As a Dane, I always thought it was supposed to be German or Hungarian. It sounds nothing like Danish. Now, if they had called it Tørrede Ørreder, then they would have been spot on.
RE: Fact #24 (Debito Arudou Beat Bathhouse Discrimination) – Racism in Japan is a serious issue. I was there for a week, and there were plenty of places where a foreigner was barred from entry. Ironically, as a white guy in America, I never faced blatant racism until I traveled to Japan. It was shocking to see people treated that way, but it made me realize how similar issues have existed in America since the country began. It was a real wake-up call regarding how painful true racism is. There were so many restaurants and places I wanted to visit, but we couldn’t get in unless our Japanese concierge booked it or we had an Asian tour guide with us. This trip opened my eyes, and now I have a better understanding of what minorities deal with every day here at home.
Minorities aren’t getting denied access to restaurants in America, I’m not sure where you got that idea.
Really? “Many” places? Unless you were trying to find adult-only venues, you definitely wouldn’t be turned away from most spots. It’s extremely rare for a one-week visitor to be denied entry anywhere. I’m white and have lived in Japan for five years now. There are plenty of Japanese people who are scared to visit America because the only news they get is about trigger-happy locals shooting people. Your comment is basically the flip side of that misunderstanding.
RE: Fact #24 (Debito Arudou Beat Bathhouse Discrimination) – Gomenasai, my name is Ken-Sama. I’m a 27-year-old American Otaku. I draw anime on my tablet and spend my days playing superior Japanese games. I train with my katana every day; this weapon is folded over a thousand times and is far superior to anything else on Earth. I earned my sword license two years ago and keep getting better. I speak fluent Japanese and know all about the bushido code. When I get my visa, I’m moving to Tokyo to attend a prestigious high school. I hope to become an animator for Studio Ghibli. I own several kimonos I wear around town to get used to them so I can fit in better. I bow to my elders, but rarely does anyone manage to respond. Wish me luck in Japan!
RE: Fact #47 (Fiat Love Letters Frightened Women) – “Yesterday we saw each other again. We met on the street and I noticed how you glanced interestedly in my direction. I only need to be with you for a couple of minutes, and even if it doesn’t work out, I promise you won’t forget our little experience together.”
I suspect that’s one of those ideas that sounded way better in the person’s head. They really should have run that by a focus group or two.
RE: Fact #38 (Cena Settled Ford GT Lawsuit) – if you have the money to buy a car like that, you can probably afford to pay whatever settlement Ford demands for breaking the contract.
RE: Fact #34 (Kidnapper Sued Hostages For $235, 000) – “Is… Is he asleep?” “I think so.” “Let’s get out of here!” “Should we? We promised to stay.” “What? Get the hell out of here!” “I want to leave, but we gave our word.” “Are you crazy? We’re hostages!” “It’s the honor system. We’re expected to keep it.” “The honor system? This guy is holding us at knifepoint!” “Well, I’m not leaving. A promise is a promise. If we bolt now, we’re no better than him.” “He’s a fugitive who attacked us! Let’s escape while we still can!” “You go if you want to, I’m staying.”
RE: Fact #44 (Nikko Jenkins Filed Wrongful-Release Lawsuit) – I understand the technicalities, but the phrase ‘four consecutive death sentences’ will never not be ridiculous. I just picture a team of doctors ready to declare him dead and another team waiting to resuscitate him immediately afterward.
RE: Fact #29 (Storage Wars Planting Claims Survived) – As someone who works in storage, this checks out. People make money off auctions, but it’s usually from tools, furniture, or electronics. Most people aren’t keeping anything valuable AND interesting in a locker unless they are hoarders, and those people are usually too possessive to let their units go unpaid for.
I was a huge fan of the show back in the day. Dave Hester was always edited to look unlikeable, and while his finds were usually pretty boring, he still somehow made decent money. Meanwhile, the other buyers were always pulling out weird, amazing items for fascinating collectors. Dave occasionally brought something to a collector, but it was rare and never as unique as what the others were getting. When I heard about the accusations, everything clicked. It made me appreciate him a bit more. He could definitely be a bully at times, but it explained a lot of his behavior, especially his obvious disdain for the more reckless buyers.
RE: Fact #16 (Mum Bett Sued For Freedom) – After she won her freedom, she changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman. Her former master asked her to keep working for him for a wage, but she chose to work for the lawyer who helped her win the case instead.
The audacity of that guy. Acting like he could have easily paid her as a free employee the whole time if it weren’t for ‘local custom.’
RE: Fact #45 (Stacey Hightower’s Fatal 911 Delay) – I can’t imagine a judge hearing that and thinking, “Yeah, that makes sense, but I’m going to have to owe you one.”
RE: Fact #21 (George Harrison’s Autograph Guitar Lawsuit) – She also helped fend off the intruder who broke into their house. If I remember correctly, she used fireplace pokers. I think the guy had a knife, which is how George Harrison ended up getting stabbed.
That story is truly awful, although I do love the bit where George Harrison, while getting loaded into the ambulance, asks his new housekeepers, “So, what do you think of the job so far?”
I also heard George said about the attacker: “He wasn’t a burglar, and he certainly wasn’t auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys.”
RE: Fact #50 (Professor’s License Listed Clean Toilets) – I can see why he sued. I lived in Bozeman for a while, and the culture is definitely racist. If I were a betting man, I’d say the professor had dealt with plenty of slights during his time there and just decided this was a good chance to make an example of someone.
RE: Fact #1 (Skiplagged Founder Faced Airline Lawsuit) – As I understand it, he found a way to book a flight with a layover in your actual destination city. If you aren’t checking bags, you just walk out of the airport at the layover, skip the last leg of the trip, and you’re where you need to be.
RE: Fact #35 (Exonerated Prisoner Defeated Ex-Wife’s Claim) – Imagine how many people in his life suddenly crawled out of the woodwork once they heard about the money. You could almost say, “Sure, I’ll give everyone a thousand bucks for every time they actually wrote or visited me while I was gone.”
When you win the lottery and it hits the news, suddenly every old friend and relative you haven’t spoken to in years starts calling. They act like your best friend and can’t wait to see you, usually because they’re looking for a loan for a new car or a bigger house. Ouch.
RE: Fact #38 (Cena Settled Ford GT Lawsuit) – Cena got his hands on a new 2017 Ford GT and turned around and sold it a few months later, violating the sales agreement that banned hand-picked owners from selling for two years. The contract was specifically designed to prevent that kind of flipping, but I guess some people don’t think rules apply to them.
RE: Fact #27 (Facebook Boast Cost Father $80, 000) – A friend of mine was managing a reality TV star. He got off a call and told me, “They just got cast on Survivor! Don’t say anything or I have to pay a million-dollar penalty.” I was just thinking, why the hell would you tell me that?!
RE: Fact #5 (Rectal Exam Included Television Actors) – Even if they were med students, the doctor should have informed him and asked if observation was okay. I have been in that situation a few times, and I was always given the chance to say no.
I dumped my old doctor when I realized midway through an exam that he had a live Skype call running for a group of unseen medical students. He never asked me. I only found out because he started talking into a microphone about me as if I were not there, and when I asked what was going on, he flipped on the TV and annoyed-ly said, “I was not talking to you, I was talking to my students.” I do not know how he has such high Google reviews. I would have been fine with it if he had just asked permission!
RE: Fact #6 (Intermittent Wipers Won Kearns Millions) – He didn’t see a cent for 25 years after creating it, lost a bunch of cases on technicalities, and I’m pretty sure the legal battle was still dragging on when he died. No amount of money would be worth that kind of life stress for me.
I think it is Walmart that has the reputation for refusing to settle and fighting every case to the bitter end. It might be pricey in the short term, but it discourages people from suing since most don’t have the time or money for a never-ending court battle.
A friend of mine who did legal work for Walmart said they actually settled plenty of suits. They might have fought back harder than the company we were both working for, but they definitely weren’t taking every single case to trial.
RE: Fact #23 (Tolkien Estate Forced TSR Renamings) – I get trying to protect names like Hobbit, Ent, or Balrog, but most of those other terms existed long before Tolkien. I don’t see how the estate thought they had a case for those.
It is the same logic as when King tried to trademark “Candy, ” or the React channel tried to trademark “React.” These companies have delusions of grandeur driven by profit, betting that judges will be as easily swayed as the ones who decided corporations are people but somehow exempt from the same laws.
The Tolkien estate was very protective after he died. Since Christopher Tolkien passed away, they have become much more lenient, leading to current cash-grab projects like Golem or the upcoming Dwarves of Moria.
RE: Fact #46 (Carborundum Rejected Lanier’s $10, 000 Offer) – These corporations hurt and sicken people due to their own arrogance and negligence, and they need to be held accountable. That said, don’t let this distract you from the fact that if you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you might be entitled to financial compensation.
RE: Fact #14 (Barbara Kruger Mocked Supreme’s Lawsuit) – Nothing says you’re a sucker who wasted way too much money like wearing a Supreme shirt.
Nobody buys Supreme because it’s quality gear. I lose respect for people who buy it just to flex a brand name.
RE: Fact #47 (Fiat Love Letters Frightened Women) – They were supposed to get a follow-up letter 4, 6 days later revealing the car, but the Spanish mail service was shaky. A lot of women got the letters way late or never at all, so Fiat ended up having to apologize via certified mail.
RE: Fact #33 (Marvel Investigators Created Lawsuit Evidence) – Next thing you know, they’ll sue Crayola for giving kids the tools to draw Marvel characters.
RE: Fact #48 (Michael Oher Challenged Tuohy Conservatorship) – Imagine someone making a movie about you where they claim you couldn’t read or write. It’s no wonder he was pissed, even beyond them using him to make money.
RE: Fact #17 (Weatherman’s Sunny Forecast Cost $1, 000) – It could have been sunny, and she still might have caught the flu from someone she crossed paths with. Dressing warmly wouldn’t have changed that. Stormy weather doesn’t actually cause a viral infection.
RE: Fact #9 (Manitoba Defeated Provincial Egg Barriers) – This was a massive deal for trade back then. Even over a century into confederation, the feds and provinces were still figuring out exactly where their powers started and ended under the constitution.
RE: Fact #2 (Lottery Tip Unleashed Lawsuits, Kidnapping) – Was it that show “The Lottery Ruined My Life”? It was nuts. Every episode was filled with random people coming out of the woodwork to claim a slice of the money. I remember one winner saying that if you make money in business, people don’t feel entitled to it, but if you win the lottery, people act like they deserve a cut just because you got lucky.
RE: Fact #6 (Intermittent Wipers Won Kearns Millions) – There are two fascinating parts to this story. First, he was actually offered a much smaller settlement but turned it down because he cared more about setting a patent law precedent than getting rich. He even acted as his own lawyer to avoid handing over the win to some massive firm. Second, the auto industry tried to argue his invention wasn’t patentable because it used common parts. During a break, he grabbed a copy of “A Tale of Two Cities, ” read the opening line, and argued that Dickens didn’t invent the words, but he was the one who put them in an order that created meaning. It worked, and he won.
There was a movie about this starring Greg Kinnear, too. The line “never trust a Ford” actually stems from this whole situation.
RE: Fact #40 (Scott Stapp’s Sex-Video Lawsuit Settled) – Is this the same Kid Rock who is a major conservative political advocate?
RE: Fact #2 (Lottery Tip Unleashed Lawsuits, Kidnapping) – It is crazy that she lost the initial lawsuit against her coworkers but then won on appeal. The guy who tipped her sued for a new truck and got shut down. Then there is the insane part where she shot her ex-husband in the chest, he took the gun, and she talked him into letting her drive him to the hospital. She also won against the IRS, gave the money to family, and now deals poker. What a story.
I get the coworkers’ side because many jobs force you to share tips with the whole shift. If you found out someone kept a massive tip for themselves, you would feel like you deserved a cut.
RE: Fact #46 (Carborundum Rejected Lanier’s $10, 000 Offer) – My grandfather worked around asbestos his whole life. He had major lung issues and eventually died a long, miserable death. He never wanted to sue because the company gave him a good life. I’ve always wondered if we were actually entitled to anything. We ended up taking care of my grandmother for ten years before she went into a nursing home. She’s still going strong at almost 99!
RE: Fact #34 (Kidnapper Sued Hostages For $235, 000) – Seriously? It took until the last paragraph for anyone to mention “duress”? Contracts made under threat aren’t legally binding.
RE: Fact #42 (Dell Defects Hit Its Lawyers) – I think it wasn’t just dell computers that were effected.
RE: Fact #14 (Barbara Kruger Mocked Supreme’s Lawsuit) – They definitely messed up in the end. Because they didn’t copyright their logo in Italy, there’s an actual Supreme Italy brand that can legally sell their own stuff. They even went on to secure rights in Spain. Watching them partner with unsuspecting companies while all this happens is pretty wild.
RE: Fact #1 (Skiplagged Founder Faced Airline Lawsuit) – This was before United figured out that violence was a simpler way to handle their issues.
RE: Fact #36 (Whataburger Rivals Kept Both Names) – Does that Virginia version still exist? I never saw one when I lived there in the 90s. We usually just stuck to the local burger joint, Five Guys.
RE: Fact #9 (Manitoba Defeated Provincial Egg Barriers) – “I feel wronged, but I won’t sue you. I’ll just copy your rules, get sued for them, and let the court settle it for both of us. Sorry for the trouble.” – Canada
RE: Fact #32 (Keanu Reeves Beat Paparazzo Claim) – He should have countersued. Maybe a legal loss would have actually taught one of these guys a lesson about how to behave.
RE: Fact #50 (Professor’s License Listed Clean Toilets) – This reminds me of the time I didn’t have enough “credentials” to open a bank account with Wells Fargo. I ended up just going to the Walmart next door, buying a fishing license, and walking back in to open the account. I felt like asking, “I’m licensed to fish, am I a real person now?”
RE: Fact #9 (Manitoba Defeated Provincial Egg Barriers) – This whole thing went down in 1971 and was famously called the “chicken and egg war.” Here is the reasoning behind the Court’s ruling: > The Court held that even though there was no direct evidence showing that there was extraprovincial effect of the provincial law, the potential effect was sufficient to find the law ultra vires. The Court found that control of imports was essential to the provincial legislative scheme even though the law made no distinction between eggs produced inside or outside of the province. The Court distinguished the case from the Carnation decision by the fact that the Manitoba regulations intended to provide regulation of inter-provincial trade while in Carnation the law only has the effect of regulating inter-provincial trade.
RE: Fact #35 (Exonerated Prisoner Defeated Ex-Wife’s Claim) – Wait, they’re actually still pushing for it?
RE: Fact #35 (Exonerated Prisoner Defeated Ex-Wife’s Claim) – What a terrible person. The system stole 24 years of that man’s life, and now she’s trying to steal the only thing he has left: his compensation. Greed makes me sick.
RE: Fact #15 (Birthday Party Firing Cost $450, 000) – He explicitly asked his coworkers not to do this because of his panic disorder.
RE: Fact #30 (Student’s Teacher Joke Cost $425, 000) – That’s not the kind of thing you joke about. It could have easily ruined that teacher’s career.
RE: Fact #16 (Mum Bett Sued For Freedom) – >Any time, any time while I was a slave, if one minute’s freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it, just to stand one minute on God’s airth [sic] a free woman, I would. >, Elizabeth Freeman[2]