Case: Sera Sera

[bcholmes]

Today's Globe includes an editorial called "I Came, I Saw, I Sued", which includes some interesting statements.

First, it brings up the apparently obvious truth that the US is the land of the frivolous lawsuit. Second, that Stella Awards honours such frivolous lawsuits. The awards are apparently named after Stella Liebeck, who sued McDonalds (I do wish people would bother to learn about that case). I suspect that the Stella Awards are about as meaningful (and truthful) as the Darwin Awards.

It then goes on to describe a totally frivolous lawsuit: a class action suit has been launched against Sony Pictures. Apparently, Sony made some commercials for movies such as Vertical Limit and The Hollow Man quoting a fictitious movie critic. And the facts of the case aren't disputed. Sony has acknowledge that one of its employees "embellished" the movie reviews by quoting "David Manning", a supposed film critic for The Ridgefield Press. Sony has fired the employee in question and apologised for its role in these misleading commercials.

What interests me is that the editorial apparently argues that it is frivolous to sue Sony for this deception. As if to say that it doesn't really matter that movie reviews were invented for the purposes of promoting a movie -- such a thing must not have had any effect on movie-goers.

Comments

[rosefox]

Note the following from the Stella Awards site:

We know quite well that not all of the cases we present will turn out to be frivolous abuse of the American Justice System. Many of these cases indeed involve real issues, real injuries, and deserve real compensation. And some don't. That's why we stress that you should read the cases before you judge.

How about, for instance, Stella herself? Much of the coverage about Stella Liebeck has been grossly unfair. When you have a more complete summary of the facts, you might change your mind about her. Or maybe not -- that's up to you.

[...]The Court of Public Opinion has also issued its verdict: Stella has become an American icon. Rightly or wrongly, she is a symbol of the American Tort system gone wrong, and most have heard of her case -- and have an opinion on it. For more than 10 years, the term "Stella Award" has been used to refer to any lawsuit that sounds outrageous. Because of this huge name recognition, we chose to continue the name that has captured the public's attention like no other: "Stella Awards". But rather than use fabricated stories to illustrate a real problem, our goal is to legitimize the "Stella Awards" name by reporting real case stories (in the This is True tradition) to get the point across much more powerfully.

I'm a longtime fan of This is True, and Randy Cassingham. I'd be quite surprised if anything made it into the Stella Awards without being checked out pretty thoroughly.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

So part of the confusion, here, is my fault. The link I made to the Stella Awards site (which seems to refer to itself as the "TRUE Stella Awards") is not part of the original Globe article, and I suspect you're right about the accuracy of that site.

However, the Globe refers to a case of a man suing the makers of his Winnebago because he misunderstood the purpose of cruise control. This story appears to be associated with a hoax-like Stella Awards claim that I think is about as reliable as the Darwin Awards.

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

In fact, that one is on the True Stella Awards site under the "Hoaxes" (http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html) section.