Legal Marketing & PR

Weirdest Lawsuits and Court Decisions of 2010

By Timothy Stanley

1. New York City street performer the Naked Cowboy is suing competing street performer the Naked Cowgirl in federal court. Both play the guitar in Times Square nearly naked except for cowboy boots and a hat. The Naked Cowboy is claiming that the Naked Cowgirl is “tarnishing the Naked Cowboy?s wholesome image.”
2. A Wisconsin restaurant owner, who famously marketed his establishment with a herd of goats grazing on the roof, is suing a Georgia market for trademark infringement for drawing in customers with their own herd of roof goats.
3. A lawsuit against a San Rafael restaurant accused of negligence for allegedly serving “exploding escargot” was dismissed by a judge citing a “reasonable expectation of the presence and, thus potential personal injury, due to hot grease in orders of escargot which are prepared and served with ‘hot garlic butter.’”
4. A New York State Supreme Court judge permitted a negligence lawsuit against a four year old girl for running into an elderly woman with her bike, holding that because the child was not under the age of four, she could not be “conclusively presumed incapable of negligence.”
5. In a clever case of statutory interpretation by a defendant’s attorney, a man was acquitted of reckless driving for passing a stopped school bus because the word “at” was erroneously deleted from the statute when it was amended in 1970.
6. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that a group of people who were arrested for dressing up as gore-covered zombies and “walking erratically” around a shopping mall to protest mindless consumerism were protected by the First Amendment.
7. The Kansas City Royals were sued after their mascot Sluggerrr threw a hot dog into the stands, allegedly hitting a fan and detaching his retina.
8. A California woman and the Center for Science in the Public Interest are suing McDonald’s, claiming that the fast-food restaurant entices children to order Happy Meals by including toys with the meals. The City of San Francisco has since banned Happy Meals toys unless the meals meet healthier nutritional standards.
9. Lindsay Lohan filed and subsequently settled a $100 million lawsuit against E*TRADE, alleging that their Super Bowl commercial featuring a milk-a-holic talking baby named Lindsey was modeled after her.

Full post as published by Justia Legal SEO Blog on December 20, 2010 (boomark / email).