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0 pointschakintosh1y ago0 comments

> For spilling a hot coffee cup you get $ 2.7 million worth of punitive damages.

What's the context here?

0 comments

A woman spilled McDonald's coffee on herself, fusing her labia together and receiving third-degree burns. She needed skin grafts.

McDonald's knew that their coffee was dangerously hot and had been repeatedly warned about it, so the jury awarded punitive damages.

lupusreal1y ago

FYI their coffee is still just as hot, but they changed their cups.

darby_nine1y ago

> FYI their coffee is still just as hot, but they changed their cups.

This doesn't even make sense—water that hot destroys the flavor of the coffee. Why do they not just make and serve the coffee at a temperature people actually expect? Is it so hard to not be an asshole to your customers?

1 more reply

CoastalCoder1y ago

Adding to the sibling comments:

There was also a lot of public mockery and political grandstanding, at the time, based on a mischaracterization of the suit.

aitchnyu1y ago

Wonder whether the victim should have sued the bad PR machine and set precedent, since this year a woman suffered an injury of similar order of magnitude (I assume) and all the papers go "woman gets wedgie in water slide muhahaha" due to PR spin.

COGlory1y ago

Not OP, but I'm guessing this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Rest...

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