An elderly Chinese woman has decided to leave her 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) fortune to her pet cats and dogs, claiming that they were always there for her, unlike her three children.

The woman, made her first will some years back, splitting all her possessions among her three children, but she recently had a change of heart after being neglected by her human offspring. She claims that her children never visited or at least arranged for her to be taken care of when she was ill, and they hardly ever contact her, so she has decided to leave all her assets to the only creatures that have always been by her side – her pet cats and dogs. The Shanghai-based woman has already changed her will to reflect her wishes that all her money be used to care for her pets and their offspring after her passing.

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An Indian man who has been separated from his wife for nearly 40 years and has been trying to divorce her for 27 years, had his request for divorce dismissed by the Supreme Court earlier this month.

It’s no secret that divorce is a taboo subject in India, a country where the legal annulment of marriage is usually only obtained in cases of clear proof of violence or cruelty by one of the spouses. Family and social pressure often force people to remain engaged in unhappy marriages, but even when one of them demands a divorce, it is rarely granted by the courts. These irrefutable facts were recently confirmed once again in a court case that made international news headlines. An 89-year-old retired Air Force Officer and qualified doctor who had been trying to divorce his 82-year-old wife, a retired teacher, for almost three decades, has once again been denied by India’s Supreme Court, despite agreeing that their marriage was ‘beyond salvation’.

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An Australian man tried to sue a Melbourne hospital claiming that he was ‘permitted’ and even ‘encouraged’ to attend his wife’s C-section, which caused the onset of a mental illness.

In January of 2018, Anil Koppula’s wife gave birth to a healthy baby via cesarean section at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. He was allowed in the operating room during the procedure, and seeing his wife’s organs and blood allegedly caused the onset of a psychotic illness. Now, years later, he is trying to sue the hospital for AU$ 1 billion in psychological damages. Koppula, who represented himself during the legal proceedings, claimed that the hospital breached its duty of care it owed to him, adding that the psychotic illness caused the breakdown of his marriage.

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A Chinese man was fired by his employer for spending too much time in the toilet during work hours. The man reportedly took bathroom breaks of between 47 minutes and 6 hours.

Chinese news media recently reported the bizarre case of an employee surnamed Wang who sued his employer for wrongful termination after being fired for spending too much time in the toilet during work hours. After undergoing surgery for an anorectal issue, the man continued experiencing pain and discomfort, so he started spending three to six hours in the toilet every day. Wang’s former employer claims that during a period of 10 days, he took a total of 22 bathroom breaks, which lasted between 47 minutes and 6 hours. Citing provisions in the staff handbook relating to tardiness, leaving work early, and authorized absences, the unnamed company from Tianjin terminated Wang’s employment.

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A Colombian doctor has been ordered by a court of law to financially support a patient’s baby until it turns 18 after the patient ended up conceiving the baby despite undergoing a vasectomy.

Diego Naranjo, a doctor from Medellin, Colombia, will have to pay millions of pesos to support one of his patients’ baby after he assured the man that the vasectomy he had performed had been successful and he no longer needed to use other means of contraception. However, the man ended up leaving his wife pregnant and having an unplanned baby. Subsequent sperm tests showed that the vasectomy had in fact not been successful, and the parents of the baby sued the doctor, claiming that his mistake had had serious implications, both financial and emotional. A judge has now ruled that the doctor must support the baby until it turns 18 years old.

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A Spanish court recently ordered a Malaga businessman to pay his ex-wife 204,000 euros “as compensation for unpaid domestic work done in the home” during the 25 years they were married.

A woman who dedicated 25 years of her life to supporting her entrepreneur husband and taking care of their two daughters was recently granted 204,000 ($215,000) in compensation for all her unpaid work. The couple married in June of 1995, when they were in their twenties, and signed a separation of assets the very next month. The document basically stated that each spouse retained exclusive ownership of property acquired during the marriage. This turned out to be a lot more beneficial to the husband, who started multiple businesses, while the wife took care of their two young daughters and did all the domestic work.

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A French court recently ruled that a man fired from a consulting firm for not being fun enough at the workplace has the right to be as boring as he likes.

In 2015, Cubik Partners, a French management consultancy based in Paris, fired Mr. T, whose full name was not disclosed for privacy reasons, arguing that he was difficult to work with, a poor listener, and simply boring. What the company apparently meant, however, was that Mr. T didn’t go out with his colleagues enough after work, as part of the company’s “fun-based” approach to team building. The employee, on the other hand, clarified that he simply refused to forcibly partake in various excesses, such as consuming large quantities of alcohol and even sharing a bed with colleagues afterward.

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A Canadian judge recently canceled a marriage annulment after discovering that the “wife” who testified during court proceedings had been an imposter.

Warren and Gina Zant married in the tropical Cook Islands on Nov. 27, 1999, but split two decades later, filing a separation agreement that stated that the ex-wife would receive survivor benefits under Warren Zant’s Operating Engineers’ Pension Plan. However, last year, the husband filed a bizarre case with the British Columbia Supreme Court in Kamloops seeking the annulment of his former marriage, based on a testimony of his ex-wife, who claimed that she had been fully aware that their marriage had not been legally binding. Only the woman claiming to be Gina Zant was apparently an imposter.

Almost a year ago, Justice Dennis Hori approved Warren Zant’s request to have the marriage annulled, which meant the loss of his ex-wife’s interest in the man’s pension plan, after hearing the testimonies of two people who identified themselves via “remote audio connection” as Warren and Gina Zant. However, the court would later hear from Gina Zant, who appeared distraught with the annulment, claiming to have never been involved with the case at all.

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After nearly three years of litigation with entertainment giant DC Comics, a small neighborhood bakery in Chile has retained the right to use the brand “Superpan”.

41-year-old Gonzalo Montenegro has been selling bread in his native Quinta Normal, a commune in the Santiago province, for over three decades. As a youth, he would promote his products by wearing a green “Peter Pan” t-shirt, and one with the iconic symbol of the “Man of Steel”. It was the second one that really stuck with people, and before long, they started calling him “Superpan”, a play on words combining “Superman” and “pan”, the Spanish word for ‘bread’. Over the last 28 years, Montenegro used ‘Superpan’ as a brand to sell his bakery products, but some three years ago, he learned that he was being sued by DC Comics, the owners of Superman.

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An elderly couple in Germany has taken their next-door neighbors to court over a very active rooster that allegedly crows about 200 times a day, making it impossible for them to rest.

76-year-old Friedrich-Wilhelm and his wife Jutta, a couple from Bad Salzuflen, in Western Germany, claim that they haven’t had a quiet day at home in a long time, all because of Magda, their neighbors’ rooster. The domestic bird allegedly starts crowing every day at around 8 am, and doesn’t stop until sundown, when the owners lock it up with their other chicken. After years of trying to reason with their neighbors about Magda, Friedrich and Jutta have taken them to court in order to resolve the matter.

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A South Korean civil court recently ordered a 31-year-old man to pay his ex-girlfriend 1.5 million won ($1,150) as damages for urinating in her designer handbag.

This bizarre story dates back to last October, when the defendant in this case, a 31-year-old man from Seoul, South Korea, whose identity has not been revealed, for privacy purposes, allegedly got into an argument with his girlfriend at the time. The two were at the girlfriend’s house in Gangnam-gu, and somehow started fighting about the amounts of money the woman was spending and the debts she was racking up. At one point, the man allegedly went into the bedroom, brought out one of his girlfriend’s Louis Vuitton handbags, unbuttoned his pants, and started urinating in it right there in front of her. She didn’t like that very much, so she filed a complaint against him with the police.

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A Chinese court recently issued a controversial ruling, ordering a woman to pay 3.79 million yuan ($560,000) to her lover’s wife, because their relationship wasn’t recognized by law.

Scorned wives suing their husbands’ lovers isn’t unheard of. On the contrary, a quick Google search of the phrase “alienation of affection” reveals that it’s still quite a common practice, although this law tort was abolished in many jurisdictions around the world. But whereas that refers to one spouse suing a third party for damaging their marriage and usually leading to divorce, a recent case in China saw one wife sue her husband’s mistress to return all the material possessions he had given her during their affair. The court sided with the woman and ordered the mistress to pay a whopping 3.79 million yuan to her lover’s wife.

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A UK man who ate a festive ham sandwich at a Christmas market he was visiting with his family in December of 2017 claims the snack has been causing him uncontrollable flatulence ever since.

Tyrone Prades has been living a nightmare for five years, and he claims that it has all been because of a festive roll he ate at a Christmas market in Birmingham. Mere hours after eating the snack, Tyrone was hit by stomach cramps, fever, vomiting and diarrhea, and was bed-ridden for five weeks. That alone sounds like an awful experience, but it was only the beginning of his troubles. Ever since that fateful day, the 46-year-old man has been suffering from regular and uncontrollable flatulence that causes him embarrassment and stomach noises that wake him up in the middle of the night.

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Chinese social media was recently rocked by the controversial story of a man who sued his stepson after divorcing his mother, asking for compensation for raising him.

Only a few months after divorcing his wife, a Chongqing man surnamed Tang reportedly took his stepson Liu to court, asking for 35,200 yuan (approximately $5,285) as compensation for the money spent on raising him during the marriage. Tang reportedly married Liu’s mother in 2009 when the boy was 10 years old and helped raise him until 2021, when the woman filed for divorce. About three months after the separation, Tang filed a lawsuit against his stepson, asking for over 30,000 yuan as compensation for living expenses.

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A German Federal Court recently ruled that a man who broke his back by falling down the stairs from his bedroom on his way to his home office should be covered by his employer’s workplace accident insurance.

According to court documents published last Wednesday, Germany’s Federal Social Court ruled in favor of an unnamed area sales manager who broke his back in an accident that occurred in his home in 2018. The man was allegedly walking down the stairs from his bedroom on his way to his home office when he slipped on his spiral staircase and broke a thoracic vertebra. The plaintiff’s lawyer argued that his client, who typically starts his workday without eating breakfast, was headed for his home work station, which makes his accident work-related and should be covered by insurance.

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