Fun fact: anytime you hear a story that boils down to “and then some ABSOLUTE FOOL sued this totally innocent megacorporation for assloads of money AND WON! Can you believe it? Ridiculous. Some people, right?” 99 times out of 100, the corporation super fucked up, the plaintiff 100% deserved that money,.and you’ve just been fed corporate propaganda.
“Hot Coffee Lady” had to get skin grafts and was at least the 11th customer to be hospitalized. The coffee served to her was in violation of a court order requiring McDonald’s to sell their coffee at a safe temperature.
The “warning: contents hot” label is a passive-aggressive move by McDonalds because they implemented it at the same time that they finally complied with legal requirements to serve safe beverages.
Every time you see “warning contents hot” and roll your eyes because of course it’s hot, you’re assuming that you and McDonald’s agree on the definition of “hot.”
What’s more, you assume you’ve always agreed, which is the baseline for assuming that the lady who sued had unrealistic expectations.
Yeah. I don’t remember the corporate policy for McDonalds coffee temperature at the time, but i do remember that it was *near boiling.*
Your Starbucks? Not near boiling. Not likely to make you need massive reconstructive surgery on your hoo hah if you spill it in your lap.
I make my coffee with boiling water too, so who exactly am I supposed to sue when I spill it on myself at home?
The coffee served to her was 190F. A temperature which can produce third degree burns in less than 3 seconds.
Documents obtained from McDonald’s showed that from 1982 to 1992 the company had received more than 700 reports of people burned by McDonald’s coffee to varying degrees of severity, and had settled claims arising from scalding injuries for more than $500,000.
They knew that this practice was dangerous. They had hurt HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE already. Then, this woman had to go to the hospital for SKIN GRAFTS on her fucking GENITALS and all she wanted was for McDonalds to pay her god damn hospital bills.
why do you americans expect everyone to know how much 190F is?
And this doesn’t answer my question at all.
If you do something dangerous and you get hurt, then you have responsibility for that.
If a super mega-corporation has hurt hundreds of people through repeated negligence and seriously injures you, then THEY have responsibility for that.
“Why is it MURDER if someone stabs me but not murder if I stab myself?”
u ever been so riled up u forgot how to google
working at starbucks i once spilled black coffee on my hand trying to put a lid on it. i screamed ‘fuck’ turned and put my hand under cold water right away. like mid customer. that shit was still so hot that my vision went black all of a sudden, from the shock of it all (i guess that’s what happened anyway, i got sent in the back with oj and chocolate and kindly asked not to yell fuck in the store again, i never went to doctor or anything), even if it didn’t leave a mark after an hour or so. i can’t imagine how hot that coffee was for that poor woman.
I got a Second degree burn once as a teenager working in a movie theater. We were having a rush, and the popcorn was about to burn, and in my haste to save the popcorn, I slammed my forearm against the side of the popper kettle- filled with boiling oil. None got on me, and it was just for a moment, but it was, ya know, very hot.
I must have had some adrenaline going because didn’t realize how badly I had hurt myself until a minute or so later when all of a sudden I went very woozy. I just thought I had banged my arm right up until my body started going into shock. Once the people around me realized what had happened , I was spirited off the the managers office. Water, gaze, ice, everything. (I think they were scared I would sue) I couldnt drive home, I couldnt think straight. My mom had to come get me.
It took weeks and weeks to heal. Easily the worst injury I’ve ever had so far in my life. I still have a scar on my arm from that.
Her burns were worse. So so much worse, and I can’t imagine it.
Additionally– as with most of these cases– the GRANDMOTHER (she was in her 90s when this happened to her) and her family originally only wanted McDonald’s to cover her medical costs (about $8,000 if I remember correctly). They only went to court when McDonald’s said no… three times and then on the fourth time said they would pay a pittance (under $100).
So yeah. NO SYMPATHY. (Watch the Documentary “Hot Coffee” to really get an idea of how bad this was, please, to all naysayers. It includes pictures for your small-brains!)
