I know you've heard about this famous case involving the lady who sued McDonald's over her coffee being too hot, but do know the facts of the case? I'm hoping this blog sheds a new light on the "McDonald's coffee lady". : )

Studies have shown that people care less about how good their coffee tastes than whether it is hot. So restaurants, coffee shops, and other sellers make their coffee hot. McDonald's however, discovered that it was in hot water for making it's coffee TOO DAMN HOOOTTT! Consider the facts:

Stella Liebeck, an 81-year-old resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, visited a McDonald's drive-through window with her grandson. Her grandson, the driver of the vehicle, placed the order. When it came, he handed a hot cup of coffee to Ms. Lieback. As her grandson drove away from the drive-through window, Ms. Liebeck took the lid off the coffee cup she held in her lap. The coffee spilled all over Ms. Liebeck, who suffered third-degree burns on her legs, groin, and buttucks. She required medical treatment, was hospitized, and suffered premanent scars from the incident.
Ms. Liebeck sued McDonald's for selling coffee that was too hot and for failing to warn her of the danger of the hot coffee it served. McDonald's rejected Ms. Liebeck's pre-trial offer to settle the case for $300,000 and went to trial.
At trial, McDonald's denied that it had been negligent and asserted that Liebeck's own negligence-- opening a hot coffee cup on her lap-- had caused her injuries. The jury heard evidence that McDonald's enforces a quality control rule requiring its restaurants and franchises to serve coffee at 180 to 190 degrees hotter than coffee served by competing restaurants chains, and approximately 40 to 50 degrees hotter than normal house-brewed coffee.
Based on this evidence, the jury concluded that McDonald's acted recklessly and awarded Ms. Liebeck $200,000 compensatory damages (reduced by $40,000 for her OWN negligence) and $2.7 million punitive damages. After the trial court judge reduced the amount of punitive damages to $480,000, the parties reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount. Because of this case, McDonald's and other purveyors of coffee have reduced the temperature at which they sell coffee and have placed warnings on their coffee cups.

What do you now think of the "McDonald's coffee lady" after hearing the facts? Do you agree that McDonald's acted recklessly? Do you think an award of punitive damages was warranted?