This incident happened, however the initial post is highly misleading. "McDonald's" (a corporation) did not burn anything. An elderly woman was served a cup of coffee -- the same coffee their restaurants serve to millions of people every day, without incident -- and in this woman's case, she spilled it on herself which caused severe burns. Not claiming McDonald's is faultless, probably the coffee was in fact dangerously hot, however the OP makes it sound like the woman was assaulted with a blowtorch or something where an employee intended to harm the victim.