whoa canada
someone needs to turn down that sass level
Two things to know about Canada!
We are smart enough to know hot things should be hot.
We are sorry if you donât
fun story about the reason they do that (at least in America)
once this lady spilled her McDonaldâs coffee on herself and ended up getting like 3rd degree burns and since there was no warning on the cup she was able to claim she didnât know it would be hot (or at least that hot) and won a lawsuit against McDonaldâs for $1 million
Thatâs what the media smear campaign against her would have you believe, anyway. The truth of the matter is that the McDonaldâs in question had previously been cited - on at least two separate occasions - for keeping their coffee so hot that it violated local occupational health and safety regulations. The lady didnât win her lawsuit because American courts are stupid; she won it because the McDonaldâs she bought that coffee from was actively and knowingly breaking the law with respect to the temperature of its coffee at the time of the incident.
(I mean, do you have any idea what a third-degree burn actually is? Third-degree burns involve âfull thicknessâ tissue damage; weâre talking bone-deep, with possible destruction of tissue. Can you even imagine how hot that cup of coffee would have to have been to inflict that kind of damage in the few seconds it was in contact with her skin?)
Yeah Iâm tired of people joking about either the âstupidâ woman who didnât know coffee was hot or the âgreedyâ woman making up bullshit to get money.
She was hideously injured by hideous irresponsibility, it was an absolutely legitimate lawsuit and the warning on the cups basically allows McDonalds to claim no responsibility even if it happens again. Every other company followed suit to cover their asses.
So they can still legally serve you something that could sear off the end of your tongue or permanently demolish the front of your gums and just give you a big fat middle finger in court. âThe label SAID it would be HOT, STUPID.â
obligatory reblog for the great debunking of the usual ignorance spouted about this case
obligatory mention that the media smear campaign to twist teh facts on this case and get public opinion against the victim was deliberate and fueled by the right wing tort reform movement
it was seized upon to limit the rights of consumers to hold giant corporations accountable for wrongdoing
watch the documentary Hot Coffee, it lays out all of the facts and examines the response to this case and explains why everything you think you know about this case is bullshit, and explains why tort reform is bullshit in an entertaining and informative manner
The woman injured in Liebeck v. McDonaldâs Restaurants was 79 years old at the time of her injuries, and suffered third-degree burns to the pelvic region (including her thighs, buttocks, and groin), which in combination with lesser burns in the surrounding regions caused damage to an area totaling a whopping 22% of her bodyâs surface. These injuries that required two years of intensive medical care, including multiple skin grafts; during her hospitalization, Stella Liebeck lost around 20% of her starting body weight.
She was uninsured and sued McDonaldâs Restaurants for the cost of her past and projected future medical care, an estimated $20,000. The corporation offered a settlement of $800, a number so obviously ridiculous that Iâm not even going to dignify it with any further explanation.
The settlement number most often quoted is not the amount that the corporation actually paid; the jury in the first trial suggested a payment equal to a day or two of coffee revenues for McDonaldâs, which at the time totaled more than $1 million per diem. The judge reduced the required payout to around $640,000 in both compensatory and punitive damages, and the case was later settled out of court for less than $600,000.
Keep in mind that at the time, McDonaldâs already had over 700 cases of complaints about coffee-related burns on file, but continued to sell coffee heated to nearly 200 degrees Fahrenheit (around 90 degrees Celsius) as a means of boosting sales (their selling point was that one could buy the coffee, drive to a second location such as work or home, and still have a piping hot beverage). This in spite of the fact that most restaurants serve coffee between 140 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit (60 to 71 degrees Celsius), and many coffee experts agree that such high temperatures are desirable only during the brewing process itself.
The Liebeck case was absolutely not an example of litigation-happy Americans expecting corporations to cover their asses for their own stupidity, but we seem determined to remember it that way. Itâs an issue of liability, and the allowable lengths of capitalism, and even of the way in which our society is incredibly dangerous for and punitive towards the uninsured, but it was not and is not a frivolous suit. Please check your assumptions and do your research before you turn a burn victimâs suffering into a throwaway punchline.
#donât fricking get me started on Liebeck v. McDonaldâs Restaurants the level of misinformation floating around is staggering#I know that itâs an older case but it still makes me really mad that people treat it as this big dumb thing?#the fact that the media took a serious case and turned it into what it is to us today should piss people off#the level of distortion of facts is astonishing and upsetting and nobody seems to hear about it?#sorry Iâm done I just#it upsets me when a legal travesty like this is just dragged out for some#âhaha americans are sOOOOOOOo dumb!!1!â humor#I MEAN GODDAMN IF YOUâRE GOING TO MAKE FUN OF AMERICANS AT LEAST MAKE FUN OF US WITH FACTS OKAY
jesus, i actually didnât know about any of this, thanks for clearing that up
Liebeck v. McDonaldâs Restaurants at the American Museum of Tort Law
The McDonaldâs Hot Coffee Case: Know the Facts at Consumer Attorneys of California
Always reblog. The deliberate misinformation/corporate propaganda about this case is misogynist and ageist as FUCK.
