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10 Weirdest Court Cases of the Last 20 Years
Most of the time here at Law Street I write about the serious side of law, but let’s face it: sometimes the courtroom gets a bit silly, crazy, or downright hilarious. I want to embrace that, too. So, drum roll please — here are the top ten weirdest cases of the last 20 years.
10. Lawyer sues casino for causing her gambling addiction.
In 2008, a lawyer named Arelia Taveras filed a $20 million racketeering lawsuit against casinos that she gambled at, stating that it was the casinos’ fault that she got addicted to gambling and her career was ruined. She claimed that her life was completely upended, and that she often stopped eating and sleeping in the name of gambling. She gambled away all her money, her apartment, her family home, and was $58,000 in debt. And she refused to take any accountability for those actions.
Anyone want to guess how the judge responded to this ridiculous lawsuit? It was real simple:
9. The classic McDonald’s coffee case.
This one is not as silly as the others, given that it did actually lead to genuine reform and ramifications, but I include it on this list because the case has now reached almost urban myth status. In 1994, a woman sued McDonald’s after she spilled a cup of their coffee in her lap, leading to pretty serious injuries requiring skin grafts. She eventually received $2.9 million, which was reduced to $640,000, and now a lot of our coffee cups carry a warning that the beverage is hot. And there have been plenty of copycat lawsuits — one woman in California sued McDonald’s for not putting the lid on tightly enough just a few months ago.
Still…the fact that we needed a lawsuit to tell us that coffee is, indeed, hot, warrants some ridicule.
In 2005, an administrative law judge here in DC had a mild annoyance. His pants had been lost by the dry cleaner. Sucks, right? But usually most people just say c’est la vie. Occasionally someone will ask that the offending dry cleaner pay for a new pair of pants. And others, apparently, sue the dry cleaner for $54 million.
Oh wait, maybe that’s just Roy Pearson. After a dry cleaner in northeast DC, Custom Cleaners, lost his pants, he felt that was a fair price. He claimed that their window sign proclaiming “satisfaction guaranteed” defrauded him.
Those have to be some absolutely amazing pants. In fact, out of curiosity, I googled most expensive pants. And the most expensive pants I could find were $1.3 million and they’re diamond encrusted. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Pearson’s were not. And the entire lawsuit was a waste of time. The judge in the case agreed, and ordered that Pearson pay the legal fees for the owners of Custom Cleaners.
7. The now-famous affluenza case.
At this point, I would guess pretty much everyone’s heard about the affluenza case from this fall. A wealthy young man named Ethan Couch killed four people in a drunk driving accident, and his defense lawyer claimed that he was not guilty because he had “affluenza” — meaning he never learned appropriate behavior or limits because he was too privileged. He also did not end up going to jail, and was instead sent to rehab. The entire thing is sad, disgusting, and justifiably ridiculed by most.
6. Johnny Depp subpoenaed in really weird case.
A couple weeks ago, Johnny Depp was asked to come in and testify in a murder case. His connection? Well, none, really.
The defendant, Nancy Lekon, was a crazy stalker who was in love with him and claims they were dating, even though they definitely were not. She was speeding on her way to supposedly meet Depp when she drove too fast, got into an accident, and killed another driver. Lekon’s lawyer tried to use Depp’s testimony to show that his client was batshit crazy, and therefore not guilty by reason of insanity. All in all, must be pretty weird to testify about your nonexistent relationship with someone you’ve never heard of.
5. Man declared dead, had to sue New York three times to remedy mistake.
In a weird mixup, a man named Juan Antonio Arias’ personal information, like date of birth, social security number, and the like were placed onto the death certificate of a man also named Juan Arias. The issue is that the first man was actually alive. As a result of the mixup, he had his Medicaid benefits yanked, his credit cards cancelled, and his bank accounts closed. He filed a suit three times to prove that he was actually alive, but the first two didn’t work because his lawyer missed deadlines.
He eventually did win — by showing up in court with identification and proving he was alive. Because that was super difficult.
4. That one time a prisoner sued himself.
This one is kind of confusing. A little while ago, a prisoner in Virginia who was in jail for breaking and entering and larceny, sued himself. He claimed that he committed those crimes because he was drunk, and that getting drunk violated his religious beliefs. He wanted to sue himself for his bad behavior in the sum of $5 million. But since he was in prison and a ward of the state, he obviously didn’t have $5 million. So he asked the state to pay him that $5 million.
Unsurprisingly, the suit was dismissed as frivolous, and Judge Rebecca Beach Smith actually called the lawsuit ridiculous.
3. Poltergeists apparently trump legal documents.
This one is on the list not just because the lawsuit itself was ridiculous, but also because the decision itself was just as silly. There was an issue where a plaintiff bought a house, only to discover afterward that it had a reputation for being haunted and contained a poltergeist.
The plaintiff brought the case to the state Supreme Court, and it was ruled that the seller should have disclosed the haunting, even though there’s not much else that sellers in New York need to disclose. For example, someone who sells a property doesn’t need to report if there are termites or cockroaches, collapsing roofs, or foundation problems. But according to this ruling, they do need to report ghosts.
2. White Supremacist theory used by Baltimore Drug Dealers.
Some African-American defendants in Baltimore tried out an interesting new legal theory a few years ago. Nicknamed the “flesh-and-blood” defense by the lawyers and judges in Baltimore, it involved arguing that the court did not have jurisdiction over them. The evidence that they attempted to use to prove this included old, archaic acts of Congress and certain documents related to the Federal Reserve and the Gold Standard. The original theory actually came from white supremacists in the West and the Midwest. Ultimately, it didn’t work, but an entire rundown of the theory is here, and it’s fascinating.
1. All of Chris Roller’s lawsuits.
A former US Navy nuclear engineer has made a lot of headlines for having very interesting court cases. One of my personal favorites was the time that he tried to file a patent giving him all the financial and ethical gains from God’s power on earth.
As a result of that attempt, he tried to sue both David Blaine, James Randi, and David Copperfield, all popular stage magicians. He is saying that they stole his “godly powers” to use them for financial gain. Unsurprisingly, the lawsuit was wildly unsuccessful.
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Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.
Featured image courtesy of [Shane Gorski via Flickr]
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