Radiation Rumble

They say good fences make good neighbors. Unfortunately for Arthur Firstenberg, fences can't keep out electromagnetic radiation. In 2010, Firstenberg sued his neighbor, Raphaela Monribot, for $1 million, claiming that her use of electronic equipment such as cellphones and wireless routers had caused him to suffer a disorder called electromagnetic stimulus (EMS) and forced him to leave his home. “Whenever I returned home, even for a few minutes, I felt the same sickness in my chest and my health was set back for days,” he claimed in court documents.

But when Firstenberg refused to submit to testing to examine his supposed pain, a district judge ruled that he had “failed to carry his burden of proof that the evidence he seeks to admit is scientifically reliable,” noting that several reliable studies have failed to prove any link between the electromagnetic radiation and EMS.

© Nottage Design

Tarnished Table

Scratching is never a good thing in billiards, especially when what you're scratching isn't the cue ball, but your $73,000 glass pool table. The owner of such a table is suing the maker, Nottage Design of Australia, claiming that his pricey purchase was “scuffed, scratched, damaged—essentially destroyed” after he played on it with standard pool balls.

According to the lawsuit, Nottage assured customers that the table's finish was “inherently scratch-resistant, so scratching through normal usage does not occur.” But after buying the table, the owner received a stack of shipping papers that included “an inconspicuous bullet point on a sheet of paper in a thin sealed envelope” informing users that only custom pool balls should be used on the surface. The buyer claims that this amounted to hiding the information, and is seeking $219,000 for the alleged deception.

Sword Shard

A quest for some Middle Ages flavor turned unexpectedly authentic for two South Dakota newlyweds, when a mock sword fight at a Medieval Times dinner theater allegedly left one of them blind. Dustin Wiseman and his wife Melissa, who were on their honeymoon at the time, say they were watching the fight from the front row at the company's Buena Park, Calif. location when a shard of metal from a titanium sword flew into Dustin's eye.

According to the couple's attorney, Wiseman has undergone at least three surgeries, but is still legally blind in his left eye. The pair is seeking $10 million from Medieval Times, arguing that it failed to properly protect its guests from injury.