A Texas couple had a cargo elevator installed in their beach home and used it as a passenger lift, despite warnings that it should not be used to move people.  Now, the couple is now suing the company that did the electrical work on the unit.  The company’s owner says it’s an attempt to keep the case in notoriously plaintiff-friendly Beaumont, but vows he won’t give in: “They want us to roll over, but I’m going to fight.”

A proposed law in New York would require bowling alleys to post signs warning customers not to take their rental shoes outside.  As more bowlers have started wearing their rented shoes outside, alleys have seen an increase in slip-and-fall cases – and an increase in their insurance costs.

A Saudi billionaire is suing Forbes magazine for undervaluing his wealth on its annual list of the world’s richest people.  The billionaire, ranked by Forbes as the 26^th richest, says he is worth $30 billion, not the lowly $20 billion estimated by Forbes.

A shop clerk who shot and killed an armed robber is being sued by the robber’s widow.  “He had no basis to believe that his life was in danger,” says the widow’s lawyer.  “Most robberies end with an attempt to get money.  They really don’t kill the clerks.”

Please finish this lead sentence in a May 9 story in the Louisiana Record: “A New Orleans woman who was allegedly injured when she fell after stepping on a moving treadmill is____.”

A.       grateful the fitness club staff came to her aid swiftly.

B.       embarrassed that she didn’t understand how to use such a simple machine correctly.

C.       suing her fitness club.

If you answered anything but C, then you clearly hold too much faith in the nation’s lawsuit system. As it happens, the New Orleans treadmill case kicks off our monthly “Most Ridiculous Lawsuit” poll where we ask you, our readers, to tell us which lawsuit can rise (or sink) to the level of most ridiculous.

Our second nominee concerns the professional golfer Vijay Singh, who admitted in a January Sports Illustrated article that he had used deer-antler spray, then a banned substance for golfers. The PGA opened an investigation, only to close it after twelve weeks when antler spray was removed from the list of banned substances. Singh promptly sued, despite the fact that he had admitted to using a banned substance – and despite the fact that the 50-year-old golfer has made more than $67 million in his career (courtesy of the PGA).

Our third entry comes to us from neighborly Canada, where an Edmonton jail inmate happened to kill a fellow inmate after stomping on the victim’s head 26 times. (Unfortunately, the United States doesn’t have a monopoly on ridiculous lawsuits.) If you’re thinking that the victim’s family has sued, well, you’d be wrong. The stomping inmate has sued the jail for $500,000 for putting him in the same cell as another inmate.

Finally, to round out this month’s nominees, we have the Philadelphia-area father who’s suing the local high school for kicking his son off the track team. According to the school, the track coach removed the son from the team for unexcused absences from practice. The father disagrees and said the school violated his son’s rights. For damages, the father is asking the school to award his son the varsity letters and championship jackets for the 2012 and 2013 seasons – that, and $40 million.

You can vote on this month’s “Most Ridiculous Lawsuit” here.

A gym member who was injured after stepping onto (and flying off of) a spinning treadmill is suing her fitness club because there were no signs or employees to tell her not to do it.

Professional golfer Vijay Singh is suing the PGA for exposing him to “public humiliation and ridicule.”  The golfer admitted to using deer antler spray, a banned substance, during a magazine interview.  The tour started a follow-up investigation but dropped the case after the World Anti-Doping Agency decided deer antler spray should not be a banned substance.

A police officer who was fired after he was cited for drunk driving is now suing the city, claiming a violation of his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The former officer, who was not injured when he drove an unmarked police car into a ditch while off duty, is seeking $6 million in the suit.

A Chicago Bulls fan is suing star Derrick Rose for sitting out the season after an injury, saying that Rose’s absence has caused him mental anguish and led to weight gain.  Rose tore his ACL in the playoffs last year, and hasn’t played at all this season as he rehabs.

A New York homeowner who won a $1.6 million verdict when runoff water flooded his property is not entitled to punitive damages.  The homeowner, who is “petrified” of bullfrogs because of a childhood incident, wanted an additional $250,000 in damages for the frogs that now inhabit the flooded land.  However, as part of the verdict, a drainage ditch will be dug in the hopes that the water recedes and the frogs leave with it.

While the fantasy flick, Oz the Great and Powerful, has racked up big bucks at the Box Office — a real-life “Oz” may be forced to spend big bucks to fight a ridiculous lawsuit.

Apparently, TV doctor “Dr. Oz” featured a home insomnia cure in which he recommended viewers warm their socks in the microwave with rice inside.   One New Jersey man claims he suffered burned feet as a result of this “cure” — and has taken Dr. Oz to court.

That’s just one of the lawsuits we feature in this month’s “Most Ridiculous Lawsuit” poll.

Click here to vote in this month’s poll.

If you think this “Dr. Oz” lawsuit is crazy — just wait until you read more about our other nominees:

• Man hit by truck on rotating platform in showroom sues auto dealer .

• Shopper sues department store after walking face first into glass display.

• Woman suing over “severe and permanent injuries” still able to complete half-marathon .

Which of these do you think is the most ridiculous?

Click here to cast your vote.

Each month, we scour the news to find lawsuits just like these and present them as part of our Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign.  We never find a shortage of crazy lawsuits to present, and we’re betting that the more Americans read about these ridiculous examples, the more they will clamor for reforms that make America’s legal system simpler, fairer and faster for everyone.

A class action lawsuit alleges that the St. Louis transit organization printed receipts with too much information, although no passengers are known to have suffered identity theft as a result.  Customers who saved their receipts from 2010-2011 are eligible for $72 worth of passes or a cash payment of $30, while those that don’t have their receipt get one free ride.

A man who spent 30 minutes listening to “It’s a Small World” when the ride broke down has won $8,000 in a lawsuit against Disney.

A frequent flier is suing United Airlines for the way it calculates reward miles.  Like most airlines, the company uses the “great circle distance,” or the number of miles between two points.  However, the disgruntled flier wants the company to calculate the actual number of miles flown by each customer.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is facing a class action lawsuit from visitors who paid the suggested entry fee of $25, not knowing that they could enter the museum even if they paid less.

Alleging that a tip for curing insomnia by filling one’s socks with warm rice  left him with burned feet, a New Yorker is suing Dr. Oz for recommending it on his show.  The plaintiff, who suffers from numbness in the feet due to diabetes, says Dr. Oz’s warning to make sure the socks don’t get too hot was insufficient.

A North Carolinian who was injured after he walked into a clear glass display case is suing Macy’s for creating a dangerous situation in the store.  The plaintiff adds that he is in no way responsible for the incident.

A man who was arrested for shoplifting after he filled two produce bags with pounds of “free samples” is suing the supermarket that reported him and the sheriff’s deputies that arrested him, saying they overreacted to the situation.

A dealership is being sued by a man who claims he was hit by one of their trucks…as it slowly rotated on a viewing platform.  The plaintiff claims a salesperson invited him to take a look at the truck without warning him of the dangers that the spinning platform created.