Darwin wrote:
] quoted:
] ====
] Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the
] passenger seat of her grandson's car when she was severely
] burned by McDonald's coffee in February 1992. Liebeck ordered
] coffee that was served in a Styrofoam cup at the drive-through
] window of a local McDonald's.
]
] After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward
] and stopped momentarily so that Liebeck
] could add cream and sugar to her coffee. (Critics of civil
] justice, who have pounced on this case, often charge that
] Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in motion
] when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed
] the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic
] lid from the cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents
] of the cup spilled into her lap.
]
] The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and
] held it next to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that
] Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns)
] over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs,
] perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was
] hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent
] skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement
] treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but
] McDonald's refused.
]
] During discovery, McDonald's produced documents showing more
] than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982
] and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns
] substantially similar to Liebeck's. This history documented
] McDonald's knowledge about the extent and nature of this
] hazard.

I remember when I first heard about this case. I thought that the woman was over exaggerating her injury. Everything I read was from terrible news sources (The local Phoenix paper). It wasn't until recently that I discovered just how much she actually had to go through because of her burns. Their coffee really is too damn hot.

cyantist wrote:

] I remember when I first heard about this case. I thought that
] the woman was over exaggerating her injury. Everything I read
] was from terrible news sources (The local Phoenix paper). It
] wasn't until recently that I discovered just how much she
] actually had to go through because of her burns. Their coffee
] really is too damn hot.

These cases (and hers in particular) are often cited as proof of over-litiguous society. But having learned a lot more about this over the years, it's a poor example. McD's coffee was being served too hot. In fact, the reason why a multi-million dollar settlement was given was because it was proven that McD's consistently served its coffee at a temperature that was dangerous or even lethal. They would typically settle with people for medical costs, but then they stopped doing that, which prompted larger suits. The coffee was being kept at boiling temps in an effort to keep health inspectors from complaining about it sitting, often for hours at a time, at cool temps. McD's tried to point the blame at health inspectors, but given their track record of trying to 'cover up' the infractions by settling claims over the years, the jury determined that they were indeed responsible for injuring their customers. The jury was quoted as saying that they felt only a large punitive judgement would get McD's to change their operating procedures and keep them from going back to small claims settlements.

So if anything, this was more the case of big company abuse of consumers than over-litiguous society.