9 Bizarre Personal Injury Cases

Let’s face it—we’re no superheroes. We’re not immune to inconveniences that may put our lives in danger. When those incidents happen, we charge them to experience. Or when they’re serious enough, we file a personal injury claim. Make no mistake. These claims are way more prevalent than you think.

In the United States, accidental injuries are the third-highest cause of death. In fact, in 2020, personal injury claims almost doubled from the previous year. 

Of approximately 400,000 personal injury cases per annum, only 4% go to trial. The rest reach a form of settlement. For law officials who handle those cases, that's good news. For us civilians, however, it’s unfortunate. That’s because when these cases don’t go to trial, we’re deprived of knowing the stories behind them since they won’t likely appear in the news. 

To understand what we’re talking about, consider the following bizarre personal injury claims.

1. Inaccurate weather report

In Israel, a woman sued a TV station for airing an inaccurate weather forecast. The woman left her house in anticipation of a sunny day. 

Here, we deduce that she probably did not bring an umbrella. So when it rained, the situation caught her by surprise. The worst part is she contracted the flu and had to miss work for a week; hence. she made a personal injury claim worth $1,000. In the end, the misled woman won.

2. Winning robber

When you install a security device on your property, you expect the technology to work in your favor. However, that’s not what pans out for a tavern owner in Aurora, Illinois.

Jessie Ingram came up with a homemade security device for his establishment. One night, a robber named Larry Harris, who was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, broke into his property. The robber was electrocuted by Ingram’s DIY project.

The robber filed a personal injury claim. Ingram ended up paying $75,000 for damages.

3. Missing doorknob

The last thing you want to happen when you go to a toilet is to get stuck inside. Whichever number you dialed, you want to get out as soon as you’re done with the call.

But that’s not what happened to a certain Cedrick Makara. After doing his business inside a toilet in a building developed by Newark Realty, he realized the door’s missing a doorknob. He inserted a finger into the hole that supposedly held the knob’s clutch mechanism to click open the door. A person from the other side of the door pulled it open, injuring Cedrick’s finger in the process.

Newark Realty ended up paying Mr. Makara $3 million in damages. His wife also received $750,000. Those amounts compensate the victim for loss of livelihood and minor but permanent disability.

4. Snail alert

Personal injury claims are not modern inventions. They’ve existed for a long time. In fact, one of the earliest examples of these cases involved a woman from 1932. Let’s call her Mrs. Donoghue. One day, Mrs. Donoghue was enjoying a Scotsman ice cream float, which is a mix of ginger beer and ice cream.

Halfway through the supposed treat, Mrs. Donoghue saw a snail in the bottle. The snail’s already dead and decomposing. Of course, the wretched sight made the woman ill. She sued the beer maker and the rest, as they say, is history.

5. Potty explosion

Here’s another toilet horror story. A woman from Philadelphia ventured into a toilet in one of the seemingly harmless buildings on Market St. While she was busy with her business, a massive explosion emanating from the pressurized tank thrust her out of the stall. Yes, it sounds like a scene from a slapstick film. But it did happen. And the woman sued, as she ought to.

6. Piping hot coffee

You probably like your coffee hot. But you don’t want it piping hot it becomes a lethal weapon. That’s what a 79-year-old woman named Stella Liebeck had to handle after driving through a McDonald's. She put the cup of coffee between her knees where the cup turned over and the hot liquid oozed into her thighs and groin. In the end, she was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for her trouble.

7. Magical bottle

Personal injury cases are not exclusive to the physical. Some affect an individual’s emotional and psychological state, too. That’s what was up with a man from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He tried suing Anheuser-Busch because his mind and emotions couldn’t get behind false advertising. After downing a 6-pack of Bud Light, he did not find himself magically transported to a tropical paradise.

8. Fear factor

If you’ve seen an episode of Fear Factor, you know how outrageous the show's challenges are for contestants who are brave enough to face their worst fears for money. These challenges have become quite popular and notorious that a viewer once staged his own episode straight from home. He tried to power through rats mixed in a blender. He ended up puking and sick. That led him to sue NBC for $2.5 million.

9. Knife in sandwich

A Subway sandwich is packed with everything you need from protein to veggies. What you don’t want in there is a serrated plastic knife. That’s exactly what one New York customer found in his Subway. He asked the company for damages and ended up $20,000 richer.

Parting Shot

Sure, the personal injury cases cited here sound at best silly and at worst ludicrous. But don’t discount them too easily. Some of these cases, regardless of their wacky details, actually merit full investigation and legal consideration. They can still qualify as a personal injury lawsuit, which is recognized when an individual or company’s negligence proves injurious to a person’s physical and emotional state, as well as reputation.

So, in case you experience a bizarre incident that puts you in danger and where you hold no culpability, don’t shy away from filing a personal injury claim. Who knows, you might win the case. If that happens, you’ll get compensation for the trouble the incident has caused you. And that’s your happy ending.