- Your Honor, I must be punished for my crimes against myself.
Have you ever messed up something so bad in your life that you wished you could sue yourself? What if we told you that people have done just that?
Most self-suing cases get dismissed by the courts because, let’s be honest, they’re ridiculous. Occasionally, however, they do allow people to sue themselves.
That’s when things get weird. Here are six odd cases of people suing themselves for wild reasons.
1. David Jennings
Our first court case took place all the way back in 1899. As reported by Cherryvale Evening Clarion, David Jennings, the treasurer of Labette County in Kansas, sued himself over a sidewalk tax.
As the treasurer, Jennings was required to collect taxes from the owners of the properties the path cut through—including himself. However, he filed a lawsuit against the treasurer (that is, himself) to prevent him from collecting the tax (from himself).
Jennings argued that the sidewalk was laid on his property against his wishes. He shouldn’t, therefore, have to pay the treasurer (himself) because he didn’t want the sidewalk in the first place.
He also claimed that the sidewalk was only approved because the local councilmembers received kickbacks from the factory that manufactured the bricks used to build it. Sadly, the story doesn’t tell how this intriguing piece of local politics resolved itself.
2. John Fred Heiniger
The second case we’ll cover is a short one, mostly because there’s not much detail. On June 26, 1912, John Fred Heiniger’s court case against himself received a few lines in the Los Angeles Herald.
Heiniger had filed a lawsuit against himself to acquire a quiet title on a property. A “quiet title” means the property’s ownership can’t be challenged by anyone.
Heiniger won the suit against Heiniger and got his quiet title. The article doesn’t tell why or how he ended up suing himself.
It does say, however, that in addition to being the plaintiff and the defendant, Heiniger also served as witness and process server during the case.
3. Larry Rutman
Larry Rutman of Owensboro, Kentucky, threw a boomerang in 1996. The boomerang did what it does, circled back through the air, and hit Rutman on the head.
So, Rutman sued Larry Rutman for causing himself bodily harm. Incredibly, the courts didn’t dismiss the case as frivolous and ruled in favor of Rutman the plaintiff.
Rutman was sentenced to pay Rutman $300,000 in damages. However, as he didn’t have the cash, his insurance company instead ended up footing the bill at no cost to Rutman.
Sound too ridiculous to be true? That might just be, as there are no court records of Rutman’s supposed lawsuit. Many people have attempted suing themselves in similar situations, though, so perhaps there’s a seed of truth to the story.
4. Emert Wyss
From now on, the stories start getting more convoluted. In 2004, Emert Wyss, an attorney from Illinois, advised his client, Carmelita McLaughlin, to sue Alliance Mortgage.
Alliance had acquired a mortgage that McLaughlin took on a house and, according to Wyss, she could sue them to recover supposed illegal fees she’d been charged. However, those fees had been charged by Centerre Title Co. — which Wyss owed.
Long story short, Wyss told McLaughlin to sue him to recover fees that he had charged her.
According to expert opinions, Wyss was likely after a 10% cut of any settlement in the case, as he had been the referring attorney. His involvement with Centerre, however, was quickly discovered, and the judge kicked Wyss off the case.
5. Barbara Bagley
In 2011, Barbara Bagley and her husband, Bradley Vom Baur, were driving through the Nevada desert, when their car crashed. Sadly, Vom Baur was thrown from the vehicle and died in the accident.
Bagley tried collecting compensation for the accident and her husband’s death from her insurance company, but they refused to pay as she had caused the accident herself. So, she did the only logical thing you could do.
Barbara Bagley sued Barbara Bagley.
We run into a whole can of legal worms here. Bagley, acting in the role of Vom Baur’s sole heir and estate holder, sued herself as the driver of the car. Bagley the heir argued that she should be able to collect damages from Bagley the driver, who in turn argued the opposite.
In this case, Bagley the driver was represented by the lawyers of the insurance company. Meanwhile, Bagley the heir had hired a private attorney to represent herself.
It sounds stupid, and it is. The courts initially deemed Bagley’s lawsuit frivolous, but finally Utah Supreme Court, through some very literal reading of Utah law, decreed that the suit had legs to stand on.
In the end, Barbara Bagley won and lost, and received the insurance money she’d been after.
6. Thomas Parkin
Finally, we have the case of Thomas Parkin and his mother, Irene Prusik. This one gets really weird, so hang on to your seat.
In 1996, Prusik transferred the ownership of her house to Parkin, who took a $200,000 mortgage on it. He defaulted on the payments and lost the house, which was sold in 2003 to one Samir Chopra.
Sadly, Prusik died that same year. With his mother’s death, Parkin put in motion a bizarre plan to get the house back.
He concealed his mother’s death from the authorities by giving a bogus social security number to the funeral home. Then, posing as his mother, Parkin sued himself, claiming he had forged the transfer document to the title of Prusik’s house.
While he was at it, he kept collecting his mother’s monthly $700 social security check for years. But let’s focus on the house.
Once the case went to court, Parkin and Chopra both started accusing each other of fraud. However, attorneys and police alike grew suspicious and started digging into Parkin’s past.
They discovered that Irene Pruskin was, indeed, dead, and that Parkin had filed the lawsuit against himself. To catch him, they requested a meeting between Pruskin and Chopra.
Shockingly, Irene Pruskin showed up. Only, it was really Thomas Parkin in a red sweater, skirt, large eyeglasses, and lipstick. He was even breathing through an oxygen tank like his mother had done.
Parkin’s plot quickly fell apart when a picture of his mother’s tombstone was slapped on the table. His suit against himself was dismissed and Parkin was later sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Parkin isn’t the only man to dress as his mother for social security benefits. There was also the Italian man who pulled off a stunt dubbed the Mrs. Doubtfire Scam.