11 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits, Settlements, and Victories of All Time

The judicial system isn’t always about serious stuf, as evidenced by the 11 most ridiculous lawsuits, settlements, and victories of all time.

The news is full of stories of lawsuits and settlements just about every day it seems. Also, most of us probably watch a crime show or two in our spare time, especially me since I love Law & Order, so I think we’re all experts in the way the law works (or at least think we are). To be fair, most of those are quite serious offenses. I think the funny ones that we see on the news are lighthearted and a nice change compared to murder trials that we watch like hawks.

When these types of silly lawsuits involve public companies (as several on our list have), they can lead to even more frivolous lawsuits, “thanks” to the new wave of what are called stock-drop lawsuits. When a company’s stock is impacted by the release of a certain news item (like a lawsuit against it), legal vultures often swoop in to round up disgruntled shareholders and launch another lawsuit against the company, usually alleging that the company did not do enough to disclose the negative news sooner. So for shareholders of public companies, the endless barrage of lawsuits flying around is yet another investment data point that must be closely monitored.

In creating this list, we had to search for lawsuits that are even crazier than the ridiculous ones we’re used to seeing. These are the ones that we seldom hear about, which is why they’re so ridiculous. They might make you wonder why they were even entertained by a court, let alone some of them actually being victorious. It makes you question the integrity of a system when it appears that common sense is overruled by greed (allowing more cases means more money for everyone involved, so the justice system has an inherent bias to allow every case it can).

But then, to say that a lawsuit is ridiculous is a matter of perspective, I suppose, because the ones who filed them may not have thought they were (they may also be crazy or just greedy though). These cases were all filed in the US, and while you’re at it, you might as well check out our list of the 10 Most Ridiculous Laws in Texas.

We found these lawsuits from Business Insider and the Washington Times. From those sources, we took their results and averaged them to create our list and rank them. Obviously, a lot of this is a matter of opinion, but we took some of the best and weirdest, so here’s our list of the most ridiculous lawsuits, settlements, and victories of all time.

11. Cheating? So What?

San Francisco Bay Area parents sued a school after their son was kicked out of an honors class for cheating.

10. Suds in the Canal Park’s Fountain of Wind are Very Dangerous 

Someone from Duluth, Minnesota sued the city government for not cleaning up the suds that some prankster put into Canal Park’s Fountain of Wind, which resulted in a laceration to her left lower shin after she slipped.

9. Where’s My Job?

A native of the Bronx, New York, sued her school for her unemployment.

8. You Don’t Have the Right to be Ugly 

A Chinese man successfully sued his wife for $120,000 because she was ugly. This is certainly worthy of being on our list of the 11 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits, Settlements, and Victories of All Time.

7. Popcorn Lung 

A Colorado man sued the distributor of a brand of microwave popcorn after he developed “popcorn lung” disease, after eating too many for a decade. He won $7 million.

6. Froot Loops or Fruit?

Someone from California filed a lawsuit against Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) when he “discovered” that Froot Loops are not really made of fruit, saying if that if he had known that, he would never have bought them. Basically, the “give me money for my ignorance” argument.

5. It Pays to Trip Over Your Baby

A woman sued a furniture store because she broke her ankle when she tripped over her own toddler while there. She was granted $780,000.

4. Bottled Water Was My Idea!

Men from Wisconsin sued PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) for stealing their bottled water idea. The jury awarded them $1.2 billion.

3. I’m Afraid of Ghosts

Someone sued a home seller for selling him a haunted house without his knowledge. The man won the case, with the jury saying poltergeists and ghosts must be disclosed to home buyers. God knows how it was proven that there was a ghost in there in the first place. And now, let’s see the top two entries in our list of most ridiculous lawsuits, settlements, and victories of all time.

2. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD)‘s Coffee Too Hot

A McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) customer sued the giant fast food chain after she spilled her cup of just-bought McDonald’s hot coffee on her lap while in the drive-thru. She was awarded $640,000 by the jury.

1. Red Bull Gives You Wings! Or, Does It?

We all know the popular slogan “Red Bull gives you wings.” Apparently, some took this quite literally, and a man sued Red Bull for not giving him wings. He was granted $13 million.

Most people would think that our justice system is screwed when they read about these lawsuits and the fact that most of them even resulted in victories and ridiculous sums being paid out over absolute nonsense. If nothing else, it’s funny to laugh at all these lawyers and judges with their $100,000 degrees making complete buffoons of themselves and a mockery of the system they’ve devoted their lives to. The prevalence of funny lawsuits means there will likely be other cases to come that could make up a future list of the most ridiculous lawsuits, settlements, and victories of all time, but we hoped you enjoyed this one. Now go sue somebody and have a great day.

Disclosure: None