{"id":1237,"date":"2014-06-17T17:13:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T00:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2014-06-17T17:13:08","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T00:13:08","slug":"remember-the-mcdonalds-coffee-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/remember-the-mcdonalds-coffee-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Remember the McDonald’s Coffee Case?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the 1990’s a New Mexico jury awarded Stella Liebeck more than $2.8 million against McDonald’s because she spilled hot co\"coffee\"<\/a>ffee on her lap.\u00a0 This has been brought up to me many times over the years as proof of the dangers of frivolous personal injury suits.\u00a0 “She sues<\/em> because she is burned by hot coffee?\u00a0 Ridiculous.”\u00a0 A new documentary is on Netflix called Hot Coffee<\/a>\u00a0which explores the case and its aftermath.\u00a0 I invite you to take this short quiz to see what you know about this case:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Stella Liebeck was: (a) A 16 year old girl (b) A 32 year old mother of 3 (c) A 79 year old widow.\u00a0\u00a0 Answer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 When the accident occurred, Stella was: (a) Driving (b) In the passenger seat of the moving car (c) In the passenger seat of a parked car.\u00a0 Answer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 The temperature of the coffee was: (a) Over 180 degrees F. (b) Around 120 degrees F. (c) Around 150 degrees F.\u00a0 Answer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Stella Liebeck’s injuries were mainly: (a) A painful rash on her thighs which lasted for a month (b) Third degree burns on 6% of her body (c) Painful blistering on her thighs and buttocks: Answer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 The case went to trial because: (a) McDonald’s offered to pay her medical bills, but she thought they should pay punitive damages (b) McDonald’s offered $250,000 but she wanted $1,000,000 (c)\u00a0 She asked for payment of her medical expenses and lost income (about $160,000) but McDonald’s offered only $800.\u00a0 Answer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Had McDonald’s been given any notice that hot coffee may be a problem? (a) About as much notice as you and I have that hot coffee is hot<\/em> (b) A couple of people over the past 5 years had been burned (c) McDonald’s had received about 700 complaints of burns from excessively hot coffee.\u00a0 Answer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The point is:\u00a0 READ ON<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the 1990’s a New Mexico jury awarded Stella Liebeck more than $2.8 million against McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap.\u00a0 This has been brought up to me many times over the years as proof of the dangers of frivolous personal injury suits.\u00a0 “She sues because she is burned by hot Continue reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1240,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions\/1240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}