Current Events > 80 year old woman sues SF McDonald's because of another Hot Coffee Incident.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Lukey_Bug posted...

If the lid wasnt secured being handed to her yeah she should sue. But when I worked at McDs like 20 years ago Id have old people come in for coffee and ask is the lid on tight? And then proceed to squeeze the fuck out of the cup until the lid popped off and spill on their hand and then complain like I didnt have that shit on there.

That is what I figured happened. The article said her groin area was burned, so I am guessing she put the coffee between her thighs and accidentally squeezed popping off the lid and spilling the contents. It is pretty much the same as the 90s case. That case had less to do with lids, and more to do with the tempeture of the coffee. Kinda frustrating because while I am not a McDs fan, there is almost so much idiot proofing you can do, I mean it is not like you are going to JB weld the stupid plastic lid on so some senile granny can't pop it off, so you have to give millions to morons or learn to serve iced coffee I guess

SayHeyyShohei posted...

When did I say I expected a different result?

So you go there expecting a lid to be put on improperly? Why do you continually go to these places with bad service?

pedro45 posted...

So you go there expecting a lid to be put on improperly? Why do you continually go to these places with bad service?

It's not going to get put on improperly everytime. In fact most of the time it won't.

You also seem to think that the 1 out of 100 times this happens to me would be the reason I stop going to certain places.

Weird argument.

ChocoboMogALT posted...

I'm not sure about the FDA stuff, but McDonald's strategy to impugn the plaintiff is well documented and was effective.

Duh, anyone that gets sued impugns the plaintiff. The FDA stuff is the wild part.

deathproof12 posted...

I don't understand how coffee is hot enough to cause third degree burns

Historically, coffee was made by boiling water. You just can't make coffee the way people like without bringing it up above 170 degrees. Five seconds at 120 degrees can cause 3rd degree burns; obviously coffee would rapidly cool after spilling out of the cup, but it can still be dangerous. Generally, people start responding with pain around 105 or 110 degrees, so if you've ever had something that made you go "ah" then that was likely hot enough to cause 3rd-degree burns in the right situation. Most places serve coffee above 140 degrees.

MICHALECOLE posted...

Okay but like is there a legal temperature a coffee is supposed to be? Like a guideline? if there is a how hot is too hot guideline then sure.

the top being faulty means much more to be, honestly

No, it falls under general product liability. For example, if you break your wrist while snowboarding you can't successfully sue anyone (normally). It's a recognized danger and the activity and slope are designed with safety in mind. Coffee is hot. Consumer preference is for hot coffee. Industry guidelines for coffee say that the best flavor is from hot coffee. Cups, lids, and cardboard sleeves are all designed with the temperature of the coffee in mind. Caution is added to the cups. We all kind of know that coffee is hot e.g. we wouldn't let a baby play with hot coffee. That's why generally courts throw out hot coffee lawsuits.

Outside of safety failures (lid not secure would be a safety failure), is this a sufficient defense for coffee makers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52-qDGdQy80

There's a lot of stuff that's dangerous, like pant zippers. Around 2000 people a year in the US go to the hospital room because they zipped up their junk; a handful of them suffer long-term consequences.

There's a court case that is written by a judge that goes fairly in depth.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-7th-circuit/1365042.html