Strange Media Cases File: Rat Shakes and Don King Goes for the Moon

Two recent lawsuits continue the tradition of media companies being targeted in strange lawsuits. In the first case, a Cleveland man filed suit alleging that he vomited and ran into a door after watching contestants eat rats that had been run through a blender. The damages he asks for from NBC for its Fear Factor broadcast? $2.5 million.

Anyone can file a lawsuit and reach for the moon, and not to be outdone, Don King filed his own case. King’s suit is against sports network ESPN for defamation, and he says the network defamed him in a 2004 broadcast by casting him as “a snake oil salesman, a shameless huckster and worse.” King’s lawyer says King is entitled to damages of how much? $2.5 billion.

Can the $2.5 trillion claim be that far away?

While neither plaintiff will ever collect anything close to what they claim their injuries are worth, and may never collect anything at all, it is likely both defendants will incur defense costs that could, at least in the King case, become quite significant.

Posted on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 11:45AM by

T.R. Franklin in Claim Examples, Defamation, Media |

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