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Ranked #2 of the Stella Awards 2003

*Stella Award -
The Stella Awards were inspired by Stella Liebeck. In 1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New
Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages, but that's not the whole
story. Ever since, the name "Stella Award" has been applied to any wild,
outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits

Now get a load of this:

#2: Doug Baker, 45, of Portland, Ore. Baker says God "steered"
him to a stray dog. He admits "People thought I was crazy" to
spend $4,000 in vet bills to bring the injured mutt back to
health, but hey, it was God's dog! But $4,000 was nothing: he
couldn't even take his girlfriend out to dinner without getting
a dog-sitter to watch him. When the skittish dog escaped the
sitter, Baker didn't just put an ad in the paper, he bought
display ads so he could include a photo. His business collapsed
since he devoted full time to the search for the dog. He didn't
propose to his girlfriend because he wanted the dog to deliver
the ring to her. He hired four "animal psychics" to give him
clues to the animal's whereabouts, and hired a witch to cast
spells. He even spread his own urine around to "mark his
territory" to try to lure the dog home! And, he said, he cried
every day. Two months in to the search, he went looking for the
dog where it got lost -- and quickly found it. His first task:
he put a collar on the mutt. (He hadn't done that before for a
dog that was so "valuable"?!) After finding the dog, he sued
the dog sitter, demanding $20,000 for the cost of his search,
$30,000 for the income he lost by letting his business
collapse, $10,000 for "the temporary loss of the special value"
of the dog, and $100,000 in "emotional damages" -- $160,000
total. God has not been named as a defendant