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Man dies after locking himself inside car

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Batman, Jun 12, 2015.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    And she had offered to settle with McDonald's for some paltry sum well before trial. I can't recall all the details off-hand, but I know that it was a way more meritorious case than the accepted narrative would lead one to believe. And I'm not the most plaintiff-sympathetic person around at all.
     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I had looked it up earlier. She had, if I recall, something like $10K in medical bills, and McDonald's had first offered her $800. She had wanted something like $30K, and McDonald's refused.

    She ended up with a mid six-figure settlement after the appeals, and had died a few years later still getting treatment for her injuries.

    It wasn't a frivolous lawsuit by no means.
     
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    The true story is: She was with her grandson, went through the drive through and bought coffee. His car didn't have cup holders. The coffee was between her legs, and she went to add cream and sugar. When she pulled off the lid she spilled the coffee. She was wearing cotton sweat pants. And she suffered very serious burns. It required skin grafting.

    She did offer to settle for something like $20K and McDonalds wanted no part of it. When it went to trial, a jury awarded $640K compensation and $2.7 million in punitive damages. The judge reduced the actual verdict to just the $640K, and they settled for a lesser amount rather than going through the appeals process.

    Whether it was a meritorious case is debatable. She claimed gross negligence and said McDonald's was selling a defective product. I think most people who used that case as a poster-child for how overly litigious this country is, focused mostly on the punitive damages. It seemed outrageous at the time, regardless of the question of McDonald's liability. And it fed a growing trend, in their view, of dubious lawsuits and outrageous damage awards.

    At trial, the plaintiff showed that there had been a bunch of other people who seriously burned themselves on their coffee -- and McDonald's had actually paid out settlement checks of as much as $500K. In this case, for some reason, McD's decided to hold a line. Their view, which many people agree with, is that when you put a cup of hot coffee between your legs in the car and you spill and burn yourself with it, it's no more the restaurant's fault than it would be GE's fault if you accidentally burned your hand on the stove.

    I think the one thing about that case that is true is that the story of what happened lost some of the the detail and context over the years.
     
    sgreenwell likes this.
  4. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    You know, that eye ain't so red anymore at 72.
     
    Vombatus likes this.
  5. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    Seriously, beware of hot coffee. It can be a dangerous thing.

    My sister had her shoulder, upper arm and underarm scalded with it when she was two years old, when her twin brother accidentally knocked a cup of it off a table and spilled it onto her way back then. I still remember my mom soaking my sister in tepid-cold water as per emergency personnel and then rushing to the hospital with her while I spent the day at the next-door neighbor's house so she could do it.

    My sister's in her 40s now and still has raised, angry-looking scarring left from that incident.
     
  6. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    McDonals's coffee is still noticeably hotter than other coffees. If I ever get it, I can't even sip it for 20 minutes.
     
  7. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    RaceTrac, of all places, has better coffee.
     
  8. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Not nearly that bad, thank goodness, but a couple of years ago we were on vacation and making coffee in the hotel room. It was a Keurig-like maker, but one that had a slightly different design and was tricky to figure out the first time you used it. I ended up flooding the dispenser-thing and having it pour all over my arm. It wasn't third degree burns, but it wasn't pleasant. Looked and felt like I had a bad sunburn on my forearm for the rest of the trip.
     
  9. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    I always wondered how Starbucks avoided a lawsuit given how hot their coffee usually is.
     
  10. Vombatus

    Vombatus Well-Known Member

    Smarter clientele than McD's.
     
  11. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    McD's keeps (or kept) their coffee at something like 185 degrees. Your average cup of coffee is 135-140.
     
    sgreenwell likes this.
  12. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    No doubt. That was an unfortunate landmark moment for America.
     
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