A Reasonable Outcome for an Unreasonable Case
Generally the basis of a personal injury lawsuit is an actual injury, or at least some type of actual damages. However, from time to time a case comes along that pushes the boundaries of reality too far and makes a farce of the judicial system.
For some reason a Canadian hairdresser had been awarded $341,775 in damages in a personal injury lawsuit that he filed after finding a fly in his water bottle. Waddah (Martin) Mustapha claimed in his lawsuit that he suffered extreme emotional trauma because he saw the fly in his water bottle. He did not actually drink from the bottle of water.
In a moment of sanity, the Supreme Court of Canada threw out the award for damages that were awarded to Mustapha in a lower court. The Globe and Mail reported that the court found that Culligan of Canada Ltd. could not have reasonably foreseen the man's extreme reaction to merely seeing the fly and can not possibly be found liable for his psychological disturbance.