[dreamcompiler]

The McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit was widely portrayed as being frivolous, but it was not [0].

tl;dr:

The victim was an older lady who was a passenger; she was not the driver. She received third-degree burns because the coffee was very close to boiling temperature. She required skin grafts and was permanently disfigured.

So then the question becomes: Why do most people think this lawsuit was frivolous? That's not by accident.

[0] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/watch-hot-coffee-a-powerf_b_8...

[dpark]

I feel bad for that lady but that doesn’t mean the lawsuit had merit. Many similar lawsuits have been dismissed. Coffee is hot. Hot stuff can burn.

Her lawyers argued that coffee should never be served above 140 degrees. No one wants coffee at that temperature (certainly not anyone who’s going to add cold milk that would make it tepid). 140 degrees isn’t even “safe to eat chicken” temperature.