PEOPLE go to court for many reasons, but today we look at the weirdest court cases filed around the world in 2010.
To sue for love!
A Brooklyn man sued Match.com this year for inflicting “humiliation and disappointment” on lonely hearts “who feel rejected when their emails get no reply”.
Sean McGinn alleged the popular matchmaking website dangles phony date bait by posting profiles of people who no longer subscribe to its RM140 a month service. As a result, lovelorn singles have been “defrauded” out of millions of dollars and countless hours spent sending heartfelt missives in vain, the 37-year-old TV producer said.
Most members of Match.com — which claims 86 million searches a month in the United States — are actually unavailable because they “are cancelled subscribers or never subscribed at all”, according to his suit filed in a Manhattan federal court. The class-action complaint didn’t specify damages, but said they exceeded RM18 million.
McGinn is also demanding that the Internet’s biggest dating site “cease and desist its deceptive practices”, which he claims are “wilfully causing emotional harm to the consumer and social harm to society at large”.
“Match’s policy causes severe emotional distress and anxiety for some subscribers, including those who keep writing emails to one member after another and never hear back because he or she is writing to people who’ve cancelled,” the suit said. “Because the writer has no way of knowing this, he or she may experience profound personal anguish and suffering which is easily preventable by Match.”
The suit also alleges that “Match induces cancelled members to log in creating the appearance that inactive members are active” by sending bogus BlackBerry notifications that read, “Someone has winked back at you.”
Nevertheless McGinn said he’s met someone he’s happy with through the site. “We’re not saying that Match doesn’t provide a valuable service, but they don’t have to misrepresent what they’re offering you”, his lawyer said. About 15 other disgruntled Match.com users are lined up to join the case, she said. McGinn’s suit is the latest in a series of fraud allegations lodged against Dallas-based Match.com and other social-networking sites.
A 2005 suit accused Match.com, owned by media mogul Barry Diller’s IAC Corp, of sending a female employee out on a date with a male subscriber to keep him signed up.
Hmm this sounds like Facebook.com. Anybody wants to sue Facebook, just call … Ha,ha gotcha! A real shitty case
When lawyers talk about a case being ‘shitty’, what they mean is either that the lawyer on the other side is very difficult or the judge is unreasonable or the case itself is messed up. Well you haven’t seen anything yet.
I think I speak for the entire world when I say that when you step into a public toilet, you expect the stall door to lock and if it doesn’t, it is at best an unpleasant experience.
A woman is now suing Wolfgang Puck’s Spago restaurant in the US, claiming she fell off a ladies room commode while trying to balance her butt on the potty and keeping the door closed. In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Marjorie Linden said the bathroom floor was covered in “pools of urine and faeces” — and the only usable toilet didn’t have a latch on the door.
Linden alleged that she was trying to keep the door closed when another woman yanked at the door, hurtling her to the floor and causing serious injury to her head, knee and head. On top of that, she was covered with urine and faeces. (Something smelly about this case.)
Spago reps in a statement said: “In our 27 years of business we’ve never had an issue close to this and the claim is totally without merit.”
Who said Malaysian toilets are filthy? Remember, this is the US!
The case of the dangerous thong
In such litigious times, it’s no surprise that a 52-year-old California woman is suing Victoria’s Secret over a thong injury. Thong injury? Come on man. The real question in this case is how the heck did she hurt her eye while putting on underwear.
According to Macrida Patterson’s lawsuit, it all comes down to the decorative rhinestone heart on the waistband, connected to the fabric by tiny metal links.
In a TV interview, Patterson told the ‘Today Show’: “I was putting on my underwear from Victoria’s Secret, and the metal popped into my eye. It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed.”
Patterson, an LAPD traffic officer, suffered three cuts to her cornea in the May 2010 incident, and has yet to name a figure that she’s seeking, but it will be at least RM90,000.
Of course, women wear thongs for all reasons. Some call it beachwear. Others use it to make an outrageous fashion statement. But many women, including this policewoman, wear thongs simply to hide panty lines or for comfort, and that’s one decision at least this officer regrets. Google googled in court
A Pennsylvania couple has filed a lawsuit against Internet giant Google for their house showing up in Google Maps’ ‘Street View’ feature. The married pair, Aaron and Christie Boring, stated that the service led to their home being available for online viewing, thereby threatening their privacy — the very reason they bought the house.
The lawsuit stated that Google had entered the driveway of the couple’s private property in order to take pictures to be uploaded on the website.
Google spokesperson Larry Yu explained that such claims could be forwarded to the company, which would then remove the image from the system.
“Anyone can get Google to remove the images if they have a good reason to back up their request,” said Yu. “We absolutely respect that people may not be comfortable with some of the imagery on the site. We actually make it pretty easy for people to submit a request to us to remove the imagery.”
The couple, however, decided to skip the request and go straight to filing the 10-page suit.
“It is unfortunate litigation was chosen to address the concern,” Yu added, “because we have visible tools, such as a YouTube video, to help people learn about imagery removal and an easy-to-use process to facilitate image removal.”
May it please my Lord, God comes to court
Ernie Chambers is a US Senator who decided to fight frivolous lawsuits with frivolous lawsuits by suing God. The US constitution does not prohibit the filing of lawsuits nor does it dictate how or who lawsuits can be filed against. So, this leaves the door wide open for frivolous lawsuits.
The scum of this great nation take full advantage of the holes in the justice system, leading to thousands of frivolous lawsuits being filed each year.
In regards to this lawsuit, Chambers claims he had tried contacting God on several occasions. Further, God allegedly causes “calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorisation of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction.”
The lawsuit goes on to request a summary judgement or a hearing to command God to stop engaging in the acts as conveyed in the lawsuit. Hopefully God has a sense of humour and will not punish Ernie Chambers for his lawsuit, even if it was just to prove a point. That is if God really cares about a lawsuit.
Do you have a weird lawsuit you know about or want to file in court? Send your story or your views to [email protected] or SMS 012-4405867. For more news go to my website lexborneo.com.