10 Human Mistakes That Caused HUGE Lawsuits

10 Human Mistakes That Caused HUGE Lawsuits

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at human errors that led to disasters, personal injury, and legal action. We’re not including incidents that were teed up by other factors like technical or equipment flaws.

Snail in the Bottle (1928)

An initially pleasant evening for May Donaghue and a friend included a Scotsman ice cream float at Wellmeadow Café in Paisley, Scotland. She had eaten much of the treat when a dead snail came with the last pour of ginger beer. This was a terrible oversight in the bottling or shipping process by manufacturer Mr Stevenson. The combination of bacteria and sheer disgust caused Donaghue to fall seriously ill. The subsequent writ against Mr Stevenson reached the House of Lords, despite there being no visible injuries that constituted damages under British tort laws. That threshold changed after Donaghue was awarded the modern equivalent of over £40,000. This landmark case has been keeping food manufacturers more on their toes ever since.

The Misdiagnosis of Allan Navarro (2000)

Allan Navarro entered the University Community Hospital in Tampa complaining of a serious headache and double vision. These are signs of a stroke, but also a bad sinus infection. An unlicensed physician's assistant diagnosed the patient with the latter and sent him home with painkillers. The next day, Navarro was rushed into surgery, and permanently lost the use of his limbs following a three-month-long coma. An underqualified diagnostician’s snafu led to the Navarro family suing Carrollwood Emergency Physicians for $116.7 million. The court awarded them over $217 million in 2006. After one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in U.S. history, Navarro donated the entire amount of punitive damages to charity. He passed away in 2018.

McDonald's Coffee (1994)

Because Stella Liebeck’s car didn’t have cupholders, she had to use her legs to hold a cup of coffee bought at an Albuquerque McDonald’s drive-thru. The 79-year-old ended up spilling the drink in her lap. It was her mistake, but McDonald’s paid the price. After skin grafts and temporary disability, Liebeck sued the fast-food giant for insufficient containment of and warning about their excessively hot beverage. The public debated over whether this was frivolous litigation or if McDonald’s really was liable. Though Liebeck technically caused her own injury, the court ruled that the extent of it warranted nearly $3 million in damages. McDonald’s now has warning labels on hot coffee cups, but still heats the drink to around 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pentium FDIV bug (1994)

The computer tech company Intel introduced the Pentium microprocessor in 1993. The following year, mathematician Thomas R. Nicely discovered a bug that caused incorrect floating point results in some significant calculations. The legal fallout was not over the bug itself, but Intel’s response. They decided to not go forward with an immediate recall due to the rarity of the error. The reasoning that it wouldn’t be an issue for most users didn’t account for industries that rely on esoteric and precise calculations. Several companies forced Intel’s hand, with the incident ultimately costing them around $475 million in total. It doesn’t take a computer to recognize the poor judgment in ignoring any flaw in a product.

Comair Flight 5191 (2006)

A large aircraft operated by the Delta subsidiary Comair was scheduled to depart Runway 22 in Kentucky’s Blue Grass Airport. However, pilot Jeffrey Clay taxied to the shorter Runway 26. The plane failed to clear a wall and the adjacent woods, killing 49 of the 50 people aboard. First Officer James Polehinke survived with severe injuries and had to have a leg amputated. Most of the passengers’ families filed lawsuits that ultimately cost Comair over $270 million in settlements and damages. Comair in turn sued the Federal Aviation Administration for understaffing air traffic control, leaving U.S. taxpayers with 22 percent of the bill. This goes to show the potentially huge consequences of a single oversight in commercial aviation.

Asiana Airlines Flight 214 (2013)

After traveling from Incheon, South Korea, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 clipped a sea wall during its final descent in San Francisco on the morning of July 6th, 2013. More than 180 were injured in the subsequent crash, and two children were killed. A third was fatally hit by a fire truck when SFFD arrived during the frantic evacuation. The department later settled a lawsuit by the girl’s family in confidence. Meanwhile, an investigation found that the flight crew overrelied on and failed to quickly manage the plane’s complicated autopilot system. Both Asiana Airlines and the plane manufacturer Boeing were hit with more than 100 lawsuits over technology that was too hard to work, and a crew that couldn’t handle the pressure.

Willie King's Leg (1995)

Diabetic vascular disease meant that Willie King’s right leg would have to be amputated at Tampa's University Community Hospital. He awoke to the news that Dr. Ronaldo Sanchez had instead removed his left leg. But of course, the surgeon was just the last party in a system designed to prevent such awful mistakes. It was the surgical order that signed off on the left leg, which was prepped accordingly by staff. Nonetheless, Sanchez was fined, lost his medical license for six months, and paid $250,000 on top of the $900,000 the patient received from the hospital. There’s no real compensation for King having to lose both of his legs. Systemic safeguards count for nothing once the first domino falls.

Jack in the Box outbreak (1992)

More than 700 people in the Western United States contracted E. coli in two months. The origin was contaminated beef delivered to 73 locations in the fast-food chain Jack in the Box. Of course, that shouldn’t be a problem if the meat is fully cooked. The outbreak truly escalated because so many hamburgers were served undercooked during a special promotion. Jack in the Box’s initially successful project to raise customer demand ended with a $50 million class-action suit settlement. They also covered victims’ hospital bills. After legal action reached the provider Foodmaker Inc., the federal government tightened food safety measures and raised the standard temperature for cooking hamburgers. It’s just a shame that this took a misguided promo and many careless kitchens.

American Airlines Flight 587 (2001)

A regularly scheduled flight from New York to Santo Domingo had just taken off when it crashed into a neighborhood in Queens. All 260 people on board were killed, as well as five bystanders. The already devastating tragedy caused a nationwide panic, as this was just two months after the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York. This prompted a speedy investigation which found that First Officer Sten Molin overcompensated with rudder input against wake turbulence, breaking the plane’s vertical stabilizer. American Airlines paid confidential, substantial settlements in lawsuits that alleged anything from improper maintenance and training to a design flaw. The truth is that one pilot’s misjudgment brought more trauma to an already terrified world.

“Take Care of Maya” (2016)

Beata and Jack Kowalski admitted their daughter Maya to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital for her complex regional pain syndrome. But hospital staff were skeptical of this rare respiratory, muscular and skin condition, and concerned about the nine-year-old’s extensive ketamine treatments. Child protective services thus took custody of her on the belief that she was being abused by Beata. After months of futile legal action, Maya returned home and continued treatment after her mother took her own life. Nearly seven years later, the Kowalskis were awarded over $200 million in a malpractice and wrongful death suit. With the popular Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya” preceding this, the world witnessed how even the most trusted institutions are prone to tragic error.

What are some other wrong moves that had big human and legal consequences? Give your testimony in the comments.