Frivolous Lawsuits

I remember back in the mid 1990’s, the firm I was working for represented a Florida company that wanted to open offices in Alabama. After a little research, the company decided to form a separate corporation to do business in Alabama. Why?

A judgment was won by an Alabama doctor who learned after buying a $40,000 BMW that his new car had been repainted to repair undisclosed damage. The plaintiff’s punitive damage award? $4,000,000.00. The Alabama Supreme Court cut that amount in half to $2 million.

But that’s a blog for another time. Its about frivolous lawsuits, not tort reform.

Several years ago, Cleanthi Peters sued Universal Studios in Orlando claiming the theme park's annual Halloween Horror Nights haunted house attraction was too scary and that it caused her emotional distress.

In 2005, Cleveland paralegal Austin Aitken filed a four page handwritten lawsuit against NBC for $2.5 million, claiming that an episode of “Fear Factor” caused him “suffering, injury, and great pain.” He said that watching the contestants eat rats on television made him dizzy and light-headed, causing him to vomit and run into a doorway. The case was dismissed by the Judge.

In an attempt to make a point as to frivolous suits, in 2007, Ernie Chambers, a state Senator from Nebraska, filed a lawsuit against God, seeking a permanent injunction ordering God to "cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats...of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent". Chambers asked for the court to grant a summary judgment and requested that the Judge set a date for a hearing as expeditiously as possible and enter a permanent injunction enjoining God from engaging in the types of deleterious actions and the making of terroristic threats. A Judge eventually threw the case out, stating the Almighty wasn't properly served due to his unlisted home address

Who are these people? (Okay, I know, Senator Chambers was trying to make a point)

We can go from the desperate, to the truly sad and schizophrenic. Does the name Jonathan Lee Riches mean anything to you? Probably not if you don't follow weird news and ridiculous lawsuits.

Riches is currently doing time at a federal correctional institute in Salters, South Carolina, incarcerated for wire fraud. His projected release date is March 23, 2012.

To keep himself busy while serving his (plea bargained) time behind bars, Riches has filed over one thousand lawsuits in federal district courts across the U.S. A list of his cases can be found http://news.justia.com/cases/jonathan-lee-riches/

Jonathan Lee Riches v. Benazir Bhutto, Pervez Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz and Immigration and Naturalization Service was filed in the California Eastern District Court in November of 2007. Riches is seeking a temporary restraining order against Defendants to stop his extradition to Pakistan on March 2012 because he will be tortured. He claims that the case is one of mistaken identity and that Pakistan wants another Jonathan Lee Riches, who is an international fugitive and made nuclear weapons with Pakistan scientist A.D. Khan.

Some of the more, ahem, interesting cases are:

Jonathan Lee Riches d/b/a Gordon Gecko, et al v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Riches claims that Blizzard’s World of WarCraft caused Riches’ mind to live in a virtual universe, where Riches explored the landscapes committing identity theft and fighting cybermonster rival hackergangs.

In Riches v. Michael Vick, Riches alleged that, among other things, Riches alleges that Vick stole two white mixed pit bull dogs from his home in Holiday, Fla., and used them for dogfighting operations in Richmond, Va. The complaint goes on to allege that Vick sold the dogs on eBay and “used the proceeds to purchase missiles from the Iran government.”The complaint also alleges that Vick would need those missiles because he pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in February of of 2007. Riches' also claims Vick was attempting to ‘kidnap’ Riches’ mind and to force him to lose weight. Riches demanded that the $63 billion be delivered, in ‘British silver and gold’ shipped via truck, to the front gates of the prison where Riches is incarcerated. The Court found that Riches’ assertions in the complaint, including his claim that Michael Vick ,threw snowballs at his car, did not qualify as a claim of imminent danger of serious physical injury.

If you, or someone you know, hasn't yet been sued by Jonathan Lee Riches, please raise your hand.