McDonald’s is being sued over a hot coffee spill, again.
McDonald’s is being sued over a hot coffee spill, again.
This time, a San Francisco location is being accused of serving a “scalding” cup of coffee with an improperly attached lid, which allegedly resulted in the coffee pouring out on plaintiff Mable Childress’ body and causing “severe burns” after she tried drinking it.
The lawsuit, filed last week, alleged that the elderly woman is suffering from “physical pains, emotional distress and other damages.” The restaurant’s negligence was a “substantial factor” for her injuries, it alleged.
Childress also said in the lawsuit that the restaurant employees “refused” to help her, a point that the McDonald’s denied.
In case anyone still has misconceptions about the famous case that came before. McDonald's spun public opinion, but she had a legitimate case.
https://youtu.be/Q9DXSCpcz9E
Beat me to it. I remember as a teenager hearing adults laugh about this, “how could you not know coffee is hot?? Hahaha”. Holy shit the McDonalds PR really fucked that lady over. It wasn’t until at least a decade later that I learned the reality of the situation and how horrific her burns were.
Just want to add that this wasn't just McDonald's spinning it for their own purposes, it was part of a larger effort of tort reform - spreading the conception that people are suing for everything, even hot coffee hur dur, so that the public would support things like caps on pain and suffering damages and punitive damages. Corporations wanted more leeway to maximize profits(the reason McDonald's coffee was so hot was because they could get more coffee out of the beans that way), even if it hurt people, and the public jumped right on board. This was part of the same strategy as denigrating plaintiffs attorneys as "ambulance chasers" and the like. It got to the point that even when people were harmed, they still wouldn't sue because they didn't want to be lumped in with "those entitled people suing over everything". It became a point of pride to get fucked over by corporations and to do nothing about it. Really disgusting how easily the public was manipulated by all that.
What I don't understand is how she was appealed down to $480K, but the family in FL got $800K for not warning that the nuggets were fresh out of the fryer. The former was way, way, worse.
Yep, wife used to work for Starbucks. You're supposed to check/calibrate the thermostat on the machine on a regular basis so you get the coffee hot but not boiling, third degree burns hot. For whatever reason, it has to be done because the thermostats will gradually deviate from their initial settings. If you fail to check your thermostats, eventually someone's going to burn the fuck out of themselves with a hot drink. Water, which is the main ingredient in any coffee product, has an enormous heat capacity, and will absolutely fuck your shit up before you have a chance to do anything about it.
IIRC, McDonald's was either deliberately tampering with their thermostats or just failing to check them when that famous case went down, which was how they were found to be negligent.
I don't think I understand how it can be hotter than 100 celcius.
I'm not defending McDonald's here, they can rot.
Like, coffee is mostly water, and water boils at atmospheric pressure at 100c. Milk boils slightly more than 100. I guess the lid would pressurise the steam a little? Maybe the coffee grinds hold the heat far more than the water? I wouldn't have thought it would be diluted too much to make a difference.
I guess this is a stupid question, because it happened. But how can boiling water cause third degree burns in the quantity of 500ml? I thought it'd have to be much more than that and very prolonged?
Childress also said in the lawsuit that the restaurant employees “refused” to help her, a point that the McDonald’s denied.
What aid did she expect the minimum wage mc donalds workers to provide? They could have handed her napkins and called an ambulance but I'm pretty sure providing first aid is well outside their job description and training. Even then, first aid for burns would just be removing any clothing covering the burned area (that isn't stuck to the wound) and then running cold water over the area. Then, depending on the extent and degree of the burns, you get them to a hospital. I'm not sure if this is another 3rd degree burns "fused labia" situation, but if it is then the article really glossed over that fact.
And do what? That's what I'm asking. What was she expecting them to do that they didn't do? What actual action did she expect them to take that they didn't take? What is "acting like a human" in this situation?
You're implying that these people were being selfish assholes but I can't think of anything they could have done. Yes this lady is now covered in hot coffee. The employees can't just magic that coffee off of her, even though I'm sure they wished they could have in that moment. They have napkins available. That's the only means they had available to remove the coffee short of stripping an old woman in a mcdonalds which would have opened them up to all sorts of other problems. As I said in my origional post, they could have given her napkins and called an ambulance. You can't just undo a coffee spill and there is very little you can do for large burns in the field.