Friday, December 27, 2024
The Truth About the McDonald's Coffee Lawsuit
Adam Conover of Adam Ruins Everything explains what really happened in that case where the woman sued McDonalds over the coffee she spilled in her lap. You may have heard it was a frivolous case based on greed. But you probably heard that from McDonalds.
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4 comments:
Yes, it was a serious and justifiable negligence case. Its distortion in the press and popular culture has always bugged me. I feel bad for the endlessly mocked plaintiff.
Bah, the coffee was hotter than corporate McD recommends but a large portion of their customers are trades people who grab a coffee but don't drink it till they get to the job site. They pressured this place to turn up the heat.
Now this woman squeezed the flimsy takeout disposable cup between her legs while struggling to open a packet of something probably sweetener. You must have experienced trying to open a reluctant package of ketchup, candy, whatever and experienced the body gyrations that come with it. But I digress...
So during this period of frustration... before she's had her coffee, mind you... she squeezed the cup between her legs.
The cup had no choice but to regurgitate it beverage contents. Even I have been known to expel content when squeezed by a woman's legs. But I digress...
Seems to me there is plenty of blame to go around.
Yes, she received serious injury.
Yes McD lawyers just wrote it off as another spilled coffee from a fast buck artist without investigating the extent of her injuries, and making an insulting offer after being pressured (still in corporate lawyer mode thinking).
But the size of the award was way out of proportion.
xoxoxoBruce
There's a reason for a judgement being all out of proportion for the injury. A proportional judgement would be ruinous for a mom and pop cafe, but McDonald's would just see it as the price of doing business. Really big corporations don't feel any responsibility until the cost is astronomical.
For example, the recent $15 million settlement ABC paid to Trump to avoid a libel trial seems like a lot of money to you and me, but ABC is owned by Disney, and $15 million is a pittance for them to make the problem go away.
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