Overlawyered.com has this story about what may have been the dumbest lawsuit in history.
Grace Fuller claims that she suffered two epileptic seizures because a flight attendant used the phrase “Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, pick a seat, we gotta go” to passengers boarding an open-seating flight late; Fuller and her travelling companion, both African-Americans, ascribed racist meaning to the phrase, and sued under a variety of federal and state claims. Some claims were thrown out, and a jury did what a judge should’ve done sooner, and bounced the rest.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court judgment for defendants.
The airline in question was Southwest. Having flown Southwest more times than I care to recount, I have no doubt that the flight attendant in question was either (1) using some of the “quirky” humor Southwest is known for (I once flew on Halloween on a flight where one SWA employee (not on duty) was wearing a cow suit) or (2) just trying to get the unlucky bunch of people who got C boarding passes to take a seat already. Either way, this stupid lawsuit no doubt cost Southwest hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Hat Tip: Eidelblog
