Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThis
Just Desserts
Prison, it turns out, is a great place to learn about tort law. Three inmates from the Kane County Jail in Illinois sued the county sheriff and Aramark food services in 2007 for supplying prisoners with subpar food, including soggy cookies and cakes. The $2 million they sought would buy them a nice drying rack for their desserts.
Disposition: No Mrs. Fields for these prisoners—the judge dismissed the case.
Blonde Ambition
Charlotte Feeney says blondes have more fun, and that's why she sued cosmetics giant L'Oréal for $15,000. Feeney insisted her life was ruined when she accidentally touched up her naturally flaxen locks with brown dye from a mislabeled box.
"I was sick to my stomach," she said in an affidavit. "I have a bad hair day every day. I had headaches. I don't like myself. I stay home more than ever in my life. I wear hats most of the time." What's more, she told her doctor that she doesn't know how to dress now that she's no longer a blonde—one reason her doctor prescribed medication to treat anxiety and depression.
So why didn't she dye her hair blonde and wait for her natural color to grow back? Who knows, but the real question is, What's wrong with being a raven-haired beauty? "Blondes get more attention than brunettes," she said. "Emotionally, I miss that."
Disposition: No doubt an Audrey Hepburn fan, the judge dismissed the suit last October, ruling that Feeney never proved that L'Oréal was to blame for the mix-up.
ePay Up
Ask Steve Shellhorn and he'll probably tell you that if you have nothing nice to say about someone, lie. Shellhorn, a Seattle native, bought coins on eBay from Charles Burgess, who then asked for feedback, a regular practice on the site. Was the service good or bad? Shellhorn was torn. The Morgan silver dollars were in fine shape, and the price was fair. But the packaging left a lot to be desired.
"The coins were hanging out of the envelope," he later told Seattle's King 5 News. There should have been proper packing to keep them in place. With that in mind, Shellhorn left neutral feedback, neither good nor bad.
The lukewarm response got a hot one from Burgess. Charging "fraud" and "extortion," he sued Shellhorn for $10,000 over his "childish and vindictive" behavior, which, he feared, could harm future sales.
Disposition: Misery loves company, and Shellhorn had plenty. It turns out that Burgess made it a habit to go after less-than-thrilled customers. The judge sided with Shellhorn but not before he'd spent $500 for an attorney.
Suing in the Rain
You may recall the Washington, D.C., judge who, two years ago, filed a $67 million lawsuit against a dry cleaner for allegedly losing a pair of his pants. Now, in that fine tradition, comes Nello Balan, who sued a Rothschild and a supermodel for $1 million over the loss of an umbrella.
It all began on April 25, 2007, when a model named Le Call dined at Balan's Manhattan restaurant, Nello. When she left, it was raining. Since supermodels have been known to wither in such conditions, the restaurateur kindly lent her an umbrella. Not the cheap kind, manufactured to break at first gust. No, this one was leather. A gift from fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, it was valued at $5,000.
Cut to a month later, and the umbrella is AWOL. A quick call to Le Call revealed that she'd lent it to Nathaniel Rothschild, the future fifth Baron Rothschild. But when Rothschild's chauffeur returned the umbrella, it was in two pieces, matching Balan's emotional state upon seeing his beloved umbrella.
Disposition: Balan eventually lowered his demand to $30,000. But even that was too much for the judge, who tossed water on the umbrella suit and fined Balan's lawyer $500 for filing a frivolous claim.
Advertisement 
