| I hear it. I feel the severity of the burns, the requirement for skin grafts should come into play, but I can put that aside. It should also be clarified, it was not 700 previous reports of burns, it was 700 previous lawsuits. That implies that there were far more burns and spills that did not result in lawsuits. On your part though, the lack of infamy implies there were plenty of cases that were settled or where the judge agreed with McDonalds. In the Too Much Coffee Man comic (if you'll forgive getting some info from a comic) others have posted: http://www.tmcm.com/tmcm/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit/ It's important to note the emotionally offensive arguments that were made by McDonalds, that actually helped tilt the case over to Stella Liebeck's side. Mainly, I expect, that she was asking for too much money because she was so old that she wouldn't get much more use out of her ahem parts. The awarding of punitive damages, I expect had to do with the 700 previous lawsuits which resulted in no change in behaviour. Spilling a bit of coffee, especially when the cup is at its fullest and hottest, especially when in the cramped confines of a vehicle, is a common enough occurrence that I don't consider it unreasonable that McDonalds should have taken earlier action. The Starbucks approach also highlights the liability - because you must request that temperature, it can more reasonably be claimed that you should know to take extra precaution. Certainly, it can't be claimed that you didn't know just how hot it was going to be. For what it's worth, I've had to revise a little just how clear cut this is. But I still feel that the legal system was working as intended, that this lawsuit doesn't deserve its frivolous reputation, and that it's important for ordinary citizens to have these methods of recourse against giant corporations. |