The "Stella" awards are kin to the Darwin Awards. The name is derived from the 1994 case in which a New Mexico jury awarded Stella Liebeck, 81, about $2.9 million in damages after she sustained third-degree burns to her legs, groin and buttocks after she spilled a cup of McDonald's hot coffee on herself. This case inspired the "Stella" Awards for the most frivolous U.S. lawsuit.

These are clear candidates:

January 2000: A jury awarded Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, $780,000 after she broke her ankle by tripping over a toddler running loose inside a furniture store. Store owners were understandably surprised at the verdict, since the misbehaving child was Ms. Robertson's son.

June 1998: Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles won a $74,000 award plus his
medical expenses after his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman didn't notice someone was at the wheel of the Honda while he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

October 1998: Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a
house he'd just robbed, by way of the garage. Unable to get the garage
door up, since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning, he found he couldn't re-enter the house either because the door had locked when he shut it. The family was on vacation, so Dickson was locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food. He then sued the homeowner's insurance company, claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury awarded Dickson $500,000.

October 1999: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after the next door neighbor's beagle, chained and in his neighbor's backyard, bit Williams on the buttocks. The award was less than Williams sought because a jury felt the dog might have been provoked by Williams who was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

May 2000: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft
drink and broke her coccyx. The soda was on the floor because Carson, 30 seconds earlier, had thrown it at her boyfriend during an argument.

December 1997: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the
owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the
bathroom window to the floor and knocked out two front teeth. Walton had been trying to sneak out through the ladies' room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

And the winner! Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who in November 2000, bought a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home.  On his first freeway trip home, he set the cruise control at 70 mph, then calmly left the driver's seat to go make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly the Winnie left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. A jury awarded him $1.75 million plus a new Winnie. (Winnebago later changed their owner's manuals, just in case other complete morons might buy their vehicles!)