[SarahW]

The jury in that coffee case was punishing McDonalds because
McD's rather arrogantly announced their super-hot (much, much hotter than home-brewed) coffee would continue to be kept at scalding temps; they didn't care about the high number of sever injuries it had caused before, had caused in the present case, or would cause in the future.

[Cultural Jihad]

As I heard it, the corporation consciously decided that the costs of litigation on injuries was going to be less than the costs of retrofitting defective coffee urns, and they foolishly opted to play cheap on fixing the defective equipment.

[not-an-ostrich]

I had an out patient biopsy and drank coffee before leaving hospital. I was still out of it enough I didn't notice the coffee was scalding. I had blisters. I didn't sue but I called and yelled at various hospital administrators.