Personal injury is a legal term for an injury to the body, mind, or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property. As a Lawyer, I come across a lot of personal injury cases which in fact need to be settled justly. However, what happens when law and creativity get mixed up? Well, the personal injury lawsuits filed become some of the most inane and absurd cases. At times, the jury accepts it, claiming it to be an “out of box” suit. But at other times, the extremity of these suits becomes plane ridiculous.
Here are some of the creatively hilarious personal injury cases:
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10. Universal Studio’s Haunted House of Horror gives women psychological trauma
Cleanthi Peters, 57, brought her 10-year-old granddaughter to Universal’s annual Halloween Horror Nights back in 1998. She sued Universal Studio for $15,000 claiming that the Haunted House of Horror was too scary and caused her psychological trauma. She further alleged that a costumed employee with a chainsaw attacked her and then chased them toward the exit of the attraction, at which time she slipped and fell. Her complaint also states that the individual continued to attack after she had fallen.
9. Chinese Man sued his wife after she gave him an ugly child
This is an apt case for caveat emptor. In this case, a Chinese man named Feng Jian sued his wife for giving him a daughter who was “ugly beyond description”. Initially, he thought his wife had cheated on him, as there was no way a good-looking man like him could produce such an unattractive baby. So, he got the DNA test was done, which proved that the baby was in fact his.
However, there was a little secret that his wife had kept from him. She later disclosed that before meeting him, she had undergone $100,000 worth of cosmetic surgeries in South Korea. Mr. Feng sued his wife for not telling him about the plastic surgeries and making him think she was actually beautiful. The Court ordered her to pay him $120,000 for his claims of marriage under false pretenses.
8. Weatherman gets sued for predicting good weather
A woman in Israel sued a television station “Channel 2” for making inaccurate weather predictions. On that day, the station’s weatherman Danny Rup had predicted good weather. But the prediction was proved wrong when it started raining that day. A woman sued them for wrongful prediction, contending that due to the station’s prediction for sunny weather, she dressed very lightly. Due to this, she not only caught the flu, missed four days’ work and spent $38 on medication but also her illness caused her psychological damage and stress and therefore, the station should compensate for the personal injury that she suffered.
The conclusion of this lawsuit is even more bizarre. She walked away with $1000 and an apology from Danny Rupp for his wrongful prediction.
7. Portland guy sues Jordan and Nike for being a look alike of himself
Not everybody wants to look like Michael Jordan after all. In 2006, Portland-born Allen Heckard filed a $416 million lawsuit against Michael Jordan, contending his uncanny physical resemblance to the NBA star caused him emotional pain and suffering, defamation and personal injury. He sued Nike simultaneously for the same amount, claiming that Nike was responsible for making Jordan a famous star. Allen Heckard is about 6 inches shorter than Jordan and 8 years older than him. He said he could not attend religious services, ride public transportation, play sports in public parks or eat at a restaurant without getting mistaken for the former Chicago Bulls guard. He, however, dropped the case later.
In a bizarre incident, two teenage girls, Taylor Ostergaard, 18 and Lindsey Zelitti, 19, decided to skip classes, stay home, bake homemade cookies and surprise their neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, with an anonymous delivery of cookies.
At around 10:30 p.m. they knocked on Young’s door, who became frightened and called the police. The next day, she got admitted to the hospital for an anxiety attack. She contended that the knock on the door caused an anxiety attack.
The girls sent Young an apology note and offered to pay her medical bills. But she still sued them and walked away with $900.
5. Sea World gets sued when whale killed a man swimming with them
Swimming with whales always finds place in peoples’ bucket lists. But when a man goes out of his way to achieve this, Sea World gets sued. While the man surely could not fulfill his other contents of the bucket, it was the Sea World in Florida who was dragged to the Court.
In this case, this 27-year-old man from Florida had a lifelong dream of swimming with a killer whale. While there are Orga safaris and excursion that helps people to fulfill this dream, this man decided to take matters into his own hand. He managed to hide from the security guard and stay in the park until after closing. When the coast was clear, he dove into the tank where the killer whale named Shamu was swimming. Shamu did much more than fulfilling this man’s dream. Unfortunately, he was killed.
His parents then sued Sea World claiming that there were no public warnings that the killer whales could, in fact, kill people and that the cuddly, friendly stuffed whales that were sold in gift shops wrongfully portrayed Shamu as friendly and that no one could resist playing with Shamu after looking at those stuffed whales. They filed a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of their son for several million dollars in damages.
They were not successful and the Sea World did not have to pay for the damage.
4. Pimp sues Nike after brutally beating a man with Nike shoes
Sirgiorgio Clardy, a 26-year-old pimp living in Portland, Oregon, sued Nike for not placing a warning label in their shoes specifying that they could be used as dangerous weapons after he was sentenced to 100 years in prison for brutally beating a man with his Air Jordan Nike shoes.
Clardy started beating this man after he refused to pay for Clardy’s prostitute. The man required innumerable stitches on his face and had to go through plastic surgery.
Clardy was also sentenced for beating one of his prostitutes so violently that she started bleeding from her ears.
Clardy wrote a 3-page complaint contending that Nike “failed to warn of the risk or to provide an adequate warning or instruction” that their shoes are a “potentially dangerous product.”
3. Fear Factor viewer sued NBC over rat-eating contest
In 2005 a man named Austin Aitken sued NBC for $2.5 million for airing “Fear Factor”. In this reality show, people compete with each other for a winning prize of $50,000. They are required to perform various stunts, including eating worms and insects. While Aitken did not have any problem with that, one particular episode that they showcased was a cause of his personal injury, which he demanded to be settled.
In his handwritten lawsuit, Aitken contended that NBC accepted the release of this particular episode where the contestants were eating rats mixed in a blender in pursuit of winning the competition. When he saw this scene, it made his blood pressure rise, making him dizzy and lightheaded. At once, he stood up and while running away from the TV, he ran into the doorway, causing him to sustain a head injury. “I didn’t see the doorway on route to my room,” his lawsuit reads. “I ran into it causing suffering, injury and great pain.”
Asked why he didn’t shut off his television before the rat-eating, Aitken said he couldn’t do it quickly enough. The case was dismissed.
2. David Blaine and David Copperfield sued for stealing Godly power
Christopher Roller filed a $50 million lawsuit in Minnesota against magicians David Blaine and David Copperfield for stealing his “Godly Powers” and using them to earn profit without his permission, and demanding that they reveal the secret magic to him. Roller believes that these magicians are defying the laws of physics, and thereby using Godly powers.
It got insanely crazy when he contended that he was suing them because he believes that he IS God and that Blaine and Copperfield are stealing powers that belong to him.
Back in 2000, Roller further made outrageous statements on his websites, which includes that he believes Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates will be running against him in 2008’s US election and that Tom Hanks is to star in a biopic of his life.
1. Nebraska Senator sues God (Chambers Vs. God)
In 2007, Nebraska Senator Ernie Chambers sued God for “directly and proximately [causing], inter alia, fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornados, pestilential plague. In his lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction, Chambers contended that God, along with his followers of all persuasions, “has made and continues to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons.” He also argued that Nebraska Court has jurisdiction in this matter as God is omnipresent and therefore, is also present in Nebraska. He attempted to make God appear in order to serve him by saying “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” but like almost every other defendant, God did not appear.
The case was finally closed on February 25th, 2008 as God didn’t have any recorded address.
With no God physically present in this world, we have very little choice but to rely on our judicial system for justice. But the human mind has the capability to twist even God’s vows and man-made laws with bizarre claims. No wonder, God himself stands convicted in silent testimony trying to prove his innocence.