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Light Shed On Something I Thought I Knew
Do you notice now that when you go through the drive through at restaurants, there are little warning signs in the windows that say be careful...hot beverages may be hot.... Did you know thost signs haven't always been there? How many times have you heard mention the woman who sued McDonald's for spilling coffee on herself and was awarded millions of dollars? How many times have you heard that used as a shining example of the fact that we live in a sue happy society where no one takes responsibility? We throw around these things that we have heard via email or partially on the news or around the water cooler, but we don't necessarily know the story.
Last night in class, our teacher reviews the Stella Liebeck Story with us and it made me see the whole thing in a different light.
Stella Liebeck was 79 years old back in 1992 and her grandson had stopped in the McDonald's drive thru so she could get a cup of coffee. He pulled up a ways and stopped so she could take off the lid and put in her cream and sugar. When she pulled the lid off, the cup, which was filled to the brim, spilled all over her lap. She was wearing cotton sweatpants which absorbed the liquid and held it close to her skin where she sat for about 90 seconds. During that time, she suffered third degree burns to her legs and groin. She spent 8 days in the hospital and had to continue with skin grafting operations for 2 years after that.
She went to McDonald's and asked them to pay her medical bills (she was on Medicare, but it didn't cover all of it). They refused. She hired an attorney who approached them and again they refused. Finally they offered her $800. (this was towards what was now over 100,000 in medical bills!
At this point, the case moved forward and McDonald's was sued. During investigation, it turned out that McDonald's franchises were encouraged to keep their coffee at a piping 180 degrees! This is about 60 degrees warmer than coffee would be if you made it at home and about 45 degrees warmer than you would get in a restaurant. It is hot enough to cause third degree burns in a matter of a few seconds.
Stella was awarded 200,000 by the jury for compensatory damages (this is the money to cover her medical bills). Then the jury was furious because of the way McDonald's had treated her, so they wanted to award punitive damages. They came up with a number of about 2.6 million dollars (which at the time was equal to about 2 days of coffee sales for McDonalds.) The judge lowered the amounts to 160,000 (because Stella was considered to be 20% at fault, so 20% of her settlement award was rescinded) and then he lowered the punitive damages to 480,000 which is three times the compensatory. She did not receive even this amount of money because McDonald's appealed saying it was too much and her attorney appealed saying it was not enough.
In the end, they settled out of court in a sealed settlement agreement, so no one knows how much she was awarded exactly. Mrs. Liebeck died in 2004 at the age of 91.
When you hear the complete story, it does give you a different take on the situation. So consider yourself enlightened in case you didn't already know!
Thanks for sharing that. The news only gives us a little tidbit and then we never hear the end or complete story. It makes more sense now that she sued. Blessings.
October 17, 2008 10:49 AMThat's so interesting. Thank you for sharing...I, too, had never heard that side of the story. It completely changes my opinion of the lawsuit! I never knew McDonald's had kept their coffee so hot. That's NUTS.
October 18, 2008 1:24 PMWow that's very interesting. It's sad though that she was treated so poorly. I rarely get anything hot to drink at a restaurant. It's too hot for my likings.
October 18, 2008 10:59 PMJust goes to show what I've been saying for years about the almost total uselessness of the media. They'll give you only a portion of the story--and many times that portion raises more questions than it answers. Local TV news media are particularly bad about this--although if you can catch the same story on all four channels you might get what resembles the full story, as they'll each choose different parts to tell!
October 21, 2008 3:38 PM
