The Lebanon Daily News
confesses to coming down with a bad case of the Gullibility Virus. In a
recent article they whipped themselves into a state of righteous indignation about a series of frivolous lawsuits. They had read about the lawsuits in an email. (Best part: they titled the article "Sad but true"). A reader later wrote to them:
Austin woman awarded $80,000 for tripping over her own son in store? Fabricated. Los Angeles man trying to steal hubcap gets $74,000 when target vehicle runs over his hand. Never happened. Pennsylvania man gets half a million for being trapped in garage he was trying to burglarize? Bogus. Little Rock man gets $14,500 for being bit by a dog he was shooting with a pellet gun? Hoax. Lancaster woman gets $113,500 for slipping on a soda she threw at her boyfriend? Tell us her name and the lawsuit’s case number. Delaware woman gets $12,500 for injuries while trying to sneak into nightclub? Fiction. Oklahoma lady gets $1.75 million for leaving RV on cruise control while she makes sandwich in back? Balderdash.
The LDN admits to sloppy research, but points out that one of the cases in the email was true, the infamous
McDonalds coffee-burn case brought by Stella Liebeck. I'm probably one of the few people who thinks Stella Liebeck had a decent case, because, in my opinion, McDonalds
was keeping their coffee too hot. I've had this argument with plenty of people, and no one has ever agreed with me.
Thanks, Joe!
Comments
No question there are frivolous lawsuits in America but the McDonalds coffee case is not one of them.
Don't feel lonely, Alex. I've had arguments with people over that one, too. It's just kind of become the "meme" of a "bad lawsuit."
Under the circumstances, why shouldn't Mickey D have to pay millions of dollars in punitive and actual damages.
Ms. Leibeck wasn't driving. Her granddaughter was.
The car wasn't moving when the spill occured. The granddaughter had stopped at Ms. Leibeck's request specifically because opening hot coffee in a moving car is hazardous. (This one really makes the hysterical whiners look stupid.)
The injuries were not minor: she suffered third degree burns over nearly 5% of her body, an injury that would have killed her without reconstructive surgery.
McDonald's did not dispute that the lid to the coffee cup was not put on properly, and was the biggest cause of the spill.
McDonald's not only had several hundred claims for similiar injuries, but had *settled* several hundred of them. Their own quality control engineers testified under oath that serving coffee at 180 degrees is dangerous.
The judgement was not for millions of dollars. The jury didn't award a specific amount, nor did Ms. Leibeck ask for a specific amount. She asked for, and was granted "one day's profits that McDonald's makes from coffee." This amounted to over a million dollars.
The punitive damages were *automatically* reduced to three times the actual damages, a little over $100,000, IIRC, by law in the state in which the lawsuit took place. (This is something the hysterical whiners say should be made law. It already is in most states.)
The jury assigned 20% responsibility to Ms. Leibeck, and the judgement was automatically reduced by that amount.
McDonald's biggest mistake was allowing their corporate execs in to the court room with an attitude of "We're McDonald's, the law doesn't apply to us." Never piss off the jury.
People who whine about this are so committed to the idea that it was all the woman's fault, that you could literally show them a video of an employee throwing flaming gasoline on her through the drive-through window, and they'd still blame her. It's a form of mental illness.
Captain Stealth has a point for actions outside the courtroom but McDonalds absolved her of any legal responsibility. Say what you want about Big Tobacco but they don't even have the political clout to pull this off.
The last time you spilled coffee on yourself, you expected a slight red area, maybe. At the worse maybe a little bubbling of the skin if it was absolutely scalding hot and made direct contact to your skin immediately.
They were using their commercial machinery to make this coffee so hot it could cause THIRD degree burns minutes after being dispensed. That is completely unexpected and impossible in a house coffee maker. They KNEW they had the coffee that hot and were severly injuring people... paying them off.
She can take full responsibilty for the spill, but the damage from the coffee was sue-worthy. Imagine if there was a certain brand of 60w light bulb that would take off your hand like a small grenade if it broke. Your fault you broke the bulb, but would you have expected that kind of damage to your body?
I won the argument in the end 😊
Sadly everyone has an opinion on this without reading the facts. It shows how hoaxes have their running shoes well before the truth has woken up. It also shows how preconceptions (biases) open the doors to that which you want to hear (confirmation bias).
From a US law school summary:
Liebeck sought to settle for $20,000, but McDonald's refused.
McDonald's had documents showing 700 incidents (some with 3rd degree burns) thus proving McDonald's knowledge about the extent
and nature of this hazard.
McDonald's asserted that customers buy coffee on their way to work or home, intending to consume it there. However, the company's own (documented) research showed that customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while driving.
The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages. This amount was reduced to $160,000 because the jury found Liebeck 20 percent at fault in the spill.
The jury also awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages, which equals about two days of McDonald's coffee sales.
Post-verdict investigation found that the temperature of coffee at the local
McDonald's had dropped to 158 deg F.
The trial court subsequently reduced the punitive award to $480,000 - even though the judge called McDonald's conduct reckless, callous and
willful.
Facts heh, get you every time.