Stella Leibeck suffered second and third degree burns over 16% of her body, spent a week in the hospital, and only sued McDonald’s, who had been repeatedly warned that 180 degree coffee was too hot, refused to cover her medical bills.
IIRC : her attorney also had warned McDonald’s numerous times in the past of this risk.
Wow, and here I was thinking a spilled coffee was nothing. Even when I buy from Starbucks, I can usually start drinking it almost right away. I can’t imagine McDonalds coffee at 180 degrees. I never buy my coffee from them.
She was widely criticized as being an opportunist. To the contrary, her intentions were modest.
The problem is that the national standard for coffeemakers says the coffee should be between 170 & 205 deg. McDonald's coffee in that case was 180-190 deg, or right in the middle of where it should be.
She was burned because she spent roughly 90 seconds in contact with the coffee, and they admitted that even coffee at 160 deg would have caused 3rd degree burns if left in contact for over 30 seconds.
The whole case was a sham.
Stella was 79. The jury awarded her 2.9 million, reduced on remittitur to $600,000, then settled under a confidential agreement.
You would think McDonalds would learn, but they can lose a number of these cases and still make money selling scalding-hot coffee.
Cue the violins. Perhaps the idiot should not have put the coffee between her legs. She "only" sued McDonald's, eh? Perhaps whoever built her car was responsible for her stupidity too. People like you and her should not go outside.