WOW! I remember this case and thinking it was ridiculous that she was getting $2 million dollars for spilling coffee in her lap. BOY WAS I UNINFORMED! And so were all of you. The press at the time did not share the real story here. This is an amazing story, and worth listening to. The media did no service to any of us back then in their reporting of this story, and as we all know much of the mainstream media has gone totally downhill in regard to accurately reporting FACTS on almost everything. Another thing I did not realize was, at the time of this story in 1992, the Republicans and Newt Gingrich were crafting the Personal Responsibility Act. They used this story to show how frivolous lawsuits were a reason why they needed to implement this act. But this woman did NOT sue frivolously. Yes, she had some responsibility, but so did McDonalds as their coffee was so hot that it caused 3rd degree burns on her lower extremities. This was an ELDERLY woman, and the pics of her burns are horrendous. She was seated in a parked vehicle, with the cup between her knees, when she took off the lid and accidentally spilled the entire cup of coffee into her lap, and it pooled in the passenger seat, not only burning her upper legs but also her lower legs, buttocks, and back before she could get herself out of the car. Her grandson rushed her to the hospital, and she was in for a week for treatment. She wrote McDonalds and asked them to pay her medical bills of $10,000, and to lower their coffee temperature so this did not happen to anyone else. They offered her $800. So she got a lawyer and sued. The jury gave her a lower award for the damages as she also had some responsibility, but the jury also felt the coffee was too hot when they saw the pics of the burns this elderly woman received. They also implemented a higher punitive judgement on McDonalds to send a message to them that they needed to make their coffee served at lower temperatures. Really interesting story....
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 16:58:59 +0000
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