Hilarious Lawsuit: The McDonalds’ Famous Coffee Case
Often than not, despite of the long span of time, we individuals had spent on
academe; others simply can’t help but do from ridiculous to outright foolishness. Forget
about depuy hip recall class action on recalled hip replacements as indeed they are
serious things.
But no matter how ridiculous these lawsuits, chances are people tend to believe
them. Are their greediness or for the love of money fueling them to these acts? You will be
the one to decide.
Who can forget the case of Stella Liebeck ofAlbuquerque, New Mexico with her
"McDonald's Hot Coffee" Lawsuit? For the benefit for those who does not have an idea about
this frivolous lawsuit, she spilled the boiling coffee in her lap while driving.Liebeck placed
the cup in between her legs to remove the plastic lid to pour the creamer and sugar. But
while she is removing the lid the entire content of the cup spilled into her lap. And this
leads to a third-degree-burn that covered six percent of her body including inner thighs,
buttocks, groin areas, genital and perineum wherein skin grafting is inevitable. This leads
the poor to ask a $20,000 settlement claim from McDonalds which the food giant refused to
pay. I don’t know if the lawsuit is meant to cover her mistakes. I don’t know if you readers
will take this case seriously just like the hernia mesh patch lawsuit and other related
lawsuits handled by hip lawsuit.
True enough, coffee served at temperatures between 180 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit
is capable of givingperson third - degree burns in just a matter of two to seven seconds. On
the other hand while home-brewed coffee which is served in lower temperatures about 130
two 140 degrees will not burn someone’s skin just like what Mr. McDonalds did to Ms.
Liebeck’s skin.Starbucks and other cafes do served their coffee at hotter temperatures
because of customer preference. And according to the McDonald’s quality assurance
manager, the 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit coffee temperature must be meet in order to
maintain coffee’s optimum taste.
Initially Ms. Liebeck asked for millions of dollars from McDonald. Maybe she realized
that skin grafting does not come cheap. But the jury on the said case realized that Ms.
Liebeck had fault too. She should at least be more careful and be aware that opening the
coffer lid in between her lap is sort of careless. Because of this the compensatory damages
portion ($200,000) was reduced by 20 percent, because they ruled it was 20 percent her
fault.