Here at Crikey, we’ve noticed that creative litigation seems to be everywhere. Here are some recent examples:

A teenage pianist is suing a New Jersey music teacher for allegedly shutting a piano keyboard cover on his fingers. The incident occurred when the 16-year-old pianist played Chopin, instead of the set Beethoven composition, at a Carnegie Hall Young Pianist Competition recital. Along with unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, the lawsuit seeks an apology from the teacher and the awarding of a $350 prize he won during the preliminary competition.

Chinese investors who bought units off the plan in a “lucky” development in Sydney are taking legal action to be released from the sales because of bad feng shui, after the height of the building was reduced from 18 to 14 floors. The investors claim they were attracted by the original 18-storey building because in Chinese mythology the number 8 signifies good luck, fortune and well-being, whereas Chinese words for the numbers four, 14 and 24 sound like the words for “death”, “must die” and “easy to die.”

The parents of 11-year-old Ezekial Losoya are suing Michigan summer camp, Camp Michawana (“Where Christ is first”), after their son was tormented by fellow campers and camp counsellors. The $US75,000 lawsuit alleges the 11-year-old suffered “hurt feelings, mental anguish, and disruption of his faith in Christ and loss of his camera” from action including: twisting and pinching of Ezekial’s nipples, giving him wedgies, telling him about sex and the counsellor’s pregnant girlfriend, telling Ezekial’s sister – a fellow camper – that her brother is “crazy in the head,” allowing other campers to urinate on Ezekial’s leg and Ezekial’s bear… and so on.