Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike V. Florida
There is no question she was hurt and hurt bad but your comment "I can assure you she deserved every penny." Why? She place a hot coffee cup where it did not belong, she pried the top off the hot coffee when it was between her legs. Would a reasonable person knowing that the coffee was as hot as every other McDonald's place it there and remove the top allowing the coffee to spill? I'm sorry I'm one for personal responsibility. Every thing is not someones else's fault.
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Mike, sounds like your mind is set on this and none of the facts will change it. Please just consider these reasons why the woman may well have deserved every penny and why, sometimes, these "frivolous" suits are not so frivolous at all.
1. For at least 10 years, McDonald's knew its coffee, when served at 180-190 degrees, was causing severe burns. In that period, more than 700 were severely burned from spills, including children and infants. And not all of them brought the trouble on themselves due to what you might think was their own stupidity. Sometimes a McDonalds employee would spill it on a customer. The company did nothing.
2. Sure, personal responsibility is important. The jury found--and the judge agreed--the victim here was 20% responsible for the spill. Never mind the temp, she should have known better, you say. And how many people who need to add sugar and/or cream to the coffee just handed to them at the drive-thru pull safely to the side of the road to get out and add it?
3. But more important, ANY product we buy is, by law, required to be fit for the purpose for which it is sold. With food, that means it must be fit for consumption. Coffee served at 190 degrees is not fit for consumption. Even if you don't spill it, it's a third-degree burn waiting to happen. This is not the opinion of the "old woman's money-grubbing, scumbag lawyer." McDonalds admitted this in court. The company also admitted consumers are not warned and are unaware the temperature of the coffee is SO hot it poses a risk. (What? You don't carry a thermometer to check it before you drink? You expect it to be about the 30-40 degrees cooler, the same temp as it is virtually everywhere else in town where you buy hot coffee? How negligent and irresponsible of YOU!)
4. The "McDonalds coffee woman" was never out looking for a so-called jury jackpot from a bunch of stupid citizens who might take pity on a poor, elderly woman. She and her lawyer would have been happy to settle the case for just $20,000--the amount of her medical bills that were not covered by her insurance. No, McDonalds said, here's $800, take it or leave it. THAT'S what prompted the lawsuit. In fact, the way the company acted and how it dealt with its own issue of personal/corporate responsibility was summed up in a single word: callous. That's what the appellate judge decided, not me.
5. Finally, keep this in mind: burns from liquids this hot is not just a minor inconvenience and a little temporary pain. 190-degree coffee causes the worst kind of a burn (third degree) in three to seven SECONDS. It causes not only disfiguration but years and sometimes a lifetime of pain and suffering and permanent disability. It can only be treated with very expensive skin grafting, special whirlpool treatments, and plastic surgery.
Yes, the woman should not have opened hot coffee in the car. Had it been served at 130 degrees instead of 190 as McDonalds insisted, she would have suffered briefly and learned a lesson that she should have known by her age anyway...BUT she wouldn't have been in the worst kind of unbearable pain, scarred for life and in suffering for her final years.
All things considered, NOW do you think she might have deserved every penny? And aren't you glad there was SOMEONE to help her stand up for herself, even though you may have thought of of personal injury lawyers as money-grubbing scumbags?