Fire up the printing press

Q. What's the most money anyone has ever asked for in a lawsuit?

A. In 1998, Calvin Wedington, an inmate at a federal prison in North Carolina, was unhappy with his medical care. "The incident occurred Early 95 May stemming from a benedril capsule that had been altered from red to green and white. Administered by the evening nurse ordered by duty doctor. I was the 2nd case of a bad benedril at this institution. The mid-night nurse saw me on the floor dry heaving and had me drink 4 cartons of milk to make me vomit. Why did U.S. Marshals hold claim making it time barred preventing criminal charges stature [sic] of limitation to expire. Those involved have left BOP."

Granted, I wouldn't want to take a bad Benadryl and throw up. But Wedington's monetary claim was slightly overstated. "Wedington seeks monetary damages by way of “one check blank to put one sum in excess of a million from attached sheet.” The attached sheet referred to by Wedington appears to reference a figure of ten to the twenty-seventh power, or an octillion dollars."

So if Wedington had won his case, the government would have had two options: print off an octillion dollars and deliver it to Wedington in a wheelbarrow, thus causing Weimar-like levels of inflation, or confiscate the entire gross domestic product for the next million years or so and hand it over to Wedington.

Wedington v. Unknown Named Agents, No. CIV. A. 3:97CV740, 1998 WL 320122 (Jan. 29, 1998)