DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts.
The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day.
Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday.
The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of their rural Colorado neighbors on July 31 and dropped off small batches on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message: "Have a great night."
The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a dance where there might be cursing and drinking.
It reported that six neighbors wrote letters entered as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies.
But Young said she was frightened because the two had knocked on her door at about 10:30 p.m. and run off after leaving the cookies.
She went to a hospital emergency room the next day, fearing that she had suffered a heart attack, court records said.
The judge awarded Young her medical costs, but did not award punitive damages. He said he did not think the girls had acted maliciously but that 10:30 was fairly late at night for them to be out.
Freaks like that woman should be locked in a sanitarium where they can't be a menace to society.
God, I remember when I used to work at a supermarket and I had to deal with a couple of obsessive compulsive disorder freaks. The ones who had germ anxiety were the worst ones of all.
However, no one deserves a bigger punishment than the judge. As IGSM mentioned it's indeed a punch in the face to the American justice system.
To me, the Australian, it just seems like there's so many stupid, minute cases that are actually being won by the plaintiff. Ugh, cases like this one really make me wonder what will be next.
Sterotypes aside.
Sometimes all you can do is believe in karma... what goes around comes around. I'd like to think that judge will get what's coming to him at one point or another.
deleted user 07.02.2005 12:38
I read that in the paper! I guess that's democracy for you...
That's inane. If a couple of teenage girls who could have been at a dance left cookies on my doorstep, I'd gain a little more hope for the world.
Come to think of it, I think that's an excellent idea. But I'm a little afraid to do it.
I'm shocked ... that the goofy US legal system did not award punitive damages. She must have had a piss-poor lawyer.
I do not blame the woman as much as I blame the ambulance chasers and our screwy legal system.
geeksandgeeks wrote: That's inane. If a couple of teenage girls who could have been at a dance left cookies on my doorstep, I'd gain a little more hope for the world.
Come to think of it, I think that's an excellent idea. But I'm a little afraid to do it.
I wish someone would leave Erik on my doorstep, but I wouldn't mind cookies.
geeksandgeeks wrote: That's inane. If a couple of teenage girls who could have been at a dance left cookies on my doorstep, I'd gain a little more hope for the world.
Come to think of it, I think that's an excellent idea. But I'm a little afraid to do it.
I wish someone would leave Erik on my doorstep, but I wouldn't mind cookies.
I just spit coffee all over the monitor of this computer. My God, Sara...
geeksandgeeks wrote: That's inane. If a couple of teenage girls who could have been at a dance left cookies on my doorstep, I'd gain a little more hope for the world.
Come to think of it, I think that's an excellent idea. But I'm a little afraid to do it.
I wish someone would leave Erik on my doorstep, but I wouldn't mind cookies.
I just spit coffee all over the monitor of this computer. My God, Sara...
*grin* Well, if Christine doesn't want him, she should give him to the needy, namely, me.
That's absolutely disgraceful. People shouldn't be allowed to sue, they should all pull their fucking fingers out and stop feeling so sorry for themselves. It's like the woman who sued for emotional trauma after Janet Jackson's nipple thing at the superbowl, who the hell do they think they are?
God, stuff like this really gets my back up. Fucking idiots.
I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in America there's just way too many people who in the most despicable ways abuse of their civil liberties, and in this case their right demand their "rights" and sue.
These people sue for the most stupid and pathetic reasons. Most of them for emotional distress, and punitive damages. Of course lawyers have a lot to be with it, and they make the "victims" look far worse than they seem to be.
In my opinion people should be sued for bringing up stupid lawsuits. It's just a waste of time and money.