Yea, I've heard that argument, i.e. McDonalds purposefully made the coffee very hot, so that breakfast customers would linger, THUS she was burned worse than she would have been if it was a lower temperature.
My answer to that is, "So?". If it wasn't the first cup of coffee that she had ever gotten from McDonald's then she was well aware of the temperature. Common sense dictates that ordering hot beverages in the drive-thru is a Caveat Emptor action. When the cup enters your hand, its your baby, and your responsibility.
The ideal water temperature for brewing coffee is 195-205 degrees F. The hottest temperature that unpressurized water can be at is 212F. So your case is either that we should all get subpar coffee, or that 7 deg F makes a huge difference in the severity of burns.
If someone dumps a cup of coffe on you, it is there bad, but I'm having a hard time seeing a human arm that is long enough to reach from inside McDonalds all the way to inside the woman's car.
It was also the cups. The covers did not fit tightly.
And the courts had warned Mickey D’s to fix the issue or face stiffer penalties.
They ignored the court.
I think they got the message.