- Not to be confused with the Stellar Awards honoring Gospel Music, or the Stella Prize honouring women writers in Australia.
The
Stella Awards are awards that were given between 2002 and 2007 to people who filed "
outrageous and frivolous lawsuits". The awards were named after
Stella Liebeck who, in 1992, ordered a cup of
McDonald's coffee at a drive thru, put it in between her knees while sitting in the passenger seat of her grandson's stationary car, and attempted to remove the lid in order to add cream and sugar. The coffee, , spilled from the cup, causing
third degree burns to her thighs and genitals; after McDonald's refused to pay for her
skin grafts, and rejected several attempts at mediation and settlement, Liebeck sued. The awards were an offshoot of the weekly news column
This is True written by
Colorado writer
Randy Cassingham, which featured "wacky-yet-true" news stories. The awards were documented on a website and in a 2005 book, both known as
The True Stella Awards. There are also a number of false Stella Awards circulating on the Internet.
