Thursday, 22 May 2008

Is that a fly in your water, or are you just crazy?

There have been a number of lawsuits over the years in which people have been rewarded for being unlucky, weak, and/or just plain stupid. The most famous probably being the $3m McDonalds coffee incident. This is a kind of reverse-Darwinism where the genetically deprived prosper, and ordinary folks suffer because of higher insurance rates and reduced share values.

As one of the ordinary folks (I hope) I am therefore pleased to read that a similar case was recently overturned by our Supreme Court:
A hairdresser who claimed the torment of finding dead flies in his bottled water wrecked his sleep, his sex life, his business and his ability to take showers has lost his bid for psychological damages in a ruling Thursday morning in the Supreme Court of Canada.

The decision means Martin Mustapha loses the $341,000 award he won from Culligan Canada after convincing a judge that he suffered enduring distress when he noticed one whole fly and another half one in an unopened bottle of drinking water [link]
I find it ironic that seeing a fly in a bottle of water cause him to stop taking showers, which no doubt attracted more flies. Seriously, how does somebody that sensitive make it into adulthood not confined to a straight jacket?

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