If you actually read more than a headline, you would know that the said person acquired second and third degree burns due to coffee being over 20 C higher than normal levels, and several surgeries were required. I also believe that she was over 50 at the time.
Yes, I know that case. Liebeck v McD. Raised questions about US tort reform. I don’t believe McD owes the woman a duty of care over coffee being hotter than other establishments’ coffee, and I think it is not responsible for determining whether a customer is reasonably likely to consume the coffee in an unstable environment where she can foreseeably injure herself. I downright think you shouldn’t let juries decide these kinds of cases. The jury system should be confined to fact-finding in criminal cases.
You should have added the rest of the facts so that other ghers can see how stupid the US legal system is.
1) Plaintiff was in a car without cup holders. AKA an environment unsuited towards balancing coffee cups or consuming liquids in general.
2) She put the coffee between her legs and tried to pull off the lid to add her cream and sugar. Again, there is a reasonable expectation that coffee might spill. I have spilled coffee sitting on a desktop when I had to pull off the lid and it didn’t come off easily. Why would I put hot coffee between my legs and try to do the same? P increased her risk unnecessarily!
3) She wasn’t wearing anything waterproof. Again, reasonable expectation that hot liquids would be absorbed by her clothing, causing injury. She should have considered the danger, if she was so inclined to open a hot cup resting between her legs.
4) She was 79. She should know how clumsy or dextrous she is, and act accordingly. There’s no legal duty to check if your customer is a senile person with shaky hands.
5) There was a freaking warning on the coffee cup.
This case is another one of those “pack the jury with equally stupid and irresponsible peers of this woman”. A similar case after that was dismissed by an Appeals court – that’s significantly more authoritative because it’s a panel of judges deciding and not twelve brain-dead people from the boonies.
What surprised me was that McD didn’t hire better lawyers. They probably didn’t treat the case seriously. They also made the mistake of settling, rather than appealing. An appeals court would not issue a decision that screws up all hot beverage sales in its jurisdiction. Juries are anonymous, but no judge wants to be responsible for being the guy who turned hot cocoa into mildly lukewarm cocoa.
Thanks to this case, we have a precedent for hot coffee being considered ‘defective’. Just great. I believe the rest of the world should take note, and only serve Americans food at room temperature so that Americans don’t burn themselves and look for ambulance chasers. Oh, and Americans shouldn’t be permitted to hold forks and knives also, because these might be ‘unreasonably sharp’ and slip in somebody’s sweaty or greasy hand.
I had an Indian friend tell me, it should be the law to follow the Chinese way, and only use chopsticks and spoons in restaurants because it is reasonably foreseeable that some clumsy old American will cut herself with knife or fork leading to sepsis and death and $100m lawsuits. I told him that somebody might poke his eye out with chopsticks or some kid may stick chopsticks in his nose and cause brain damage, so it’s better to just use spoon and hand. And since some of these 400lb Americans might break a chair and fall and hurt his back leading to more lawsuits, everybody should eat off the floor.
So I concluded: Americans should eat like Indians.
