![]() His response may have seemed reasonable given the huge scale of McDonald’s. It was not significant given the size of the McDonald’s customer base. He also said that the 700 complaints McDonald’s had received about the coffee causing burns did not concern him. A McDonald’s executive described it as an “industry standard” that responded to customers wishes for coffee that would still be hot after a car ride home. But even the outcome of the lawsuit-a $2.9 million verdict that people saw as Liebeck hitting the jackpot-was a fiction.ĭuring the course of the trial, McDonald’s employees said that serving coffee at 180-190 degrees was standard policy. McDonald’s rebuffed them, offering $800, so they found a lawyer. Her family wrote a letter to McDonald’s asking the company to pay her hospital bills and check whether its coffee machine was faulty. If you’re not as lucky, you will get 3rd degree or full thickness burns requiring skin grafts and surgery.” Liebeck spent a week in the hospital, amassing hospital bills of $10,000. According to her surgeon, “Any hot liquid, if it’s in the range of 180 degrees or hotter, if it’s in contact with your skin for more than just a few seconds… if you’re lucky it will produce second degree burns. Liebeck coffee at 180-190 degrees fahrenheit. She had third degree burns on 6% of her body the pictures of her injuries are shocking. “I was in terrible pain.” She went into shock, and her grandson rushed her to the emergency room, where she underwent surgery and received skin grafts. “All I remember is trying to get out of the car,” Liebeck later explained. When she fumbled with the lid and spilled the coffee on her sweatpants, she began to scream. Since his car had no cupholders, she placed the cup between her legs. ![]() Liebeck bought coffee and breakfast at a McDonald’s drive-through, her grandson, who was driving, pulled over so she could add cream and sugar. But it is also, arguably, part of a much larger story: the least publicized death of a constitutional right in the history of the United States-the right to a trial by jury.Īfter Mrs. The story of Stella Liebeck is one of rumors and assumptions. In fact, it’s an example of America’s civil justice system working as intended. The elderly New Mexico resident, Stella Liebeck, was not greedy and her lawsuit was not frivolous. There’s just one problem: the story is incredibly distorted. “We’re a litigious society,” George Bush told supporters while advocating for legislation to curtail frivolous lawsuits. The anecdote is also popular with politicians. “You’re gonna walk out of a rich man,” his lawyer tells him confidently as they prepare to sue the coffee shop. In a Seinfeld episode, Kramer burns himself while hiding coffee in his pants as he enters a movie theater. Nearly every late night comic has a bit about suing over hot coffee. This story is the poster child for the absurdity of the American legal system. In 1992, an elderly woman in New Mexico bought coffee at a McDonald’s drive through, spilled it on herself, and successfully sued for nearly $3 million.
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