Which group do calm people “who actually know the facts of the case but still disagree with the outcome” fall?
emphasis mine
and, IIRC, that’s why the judgment was reduced, to account for her portion of the fault. Ain’t it great how the system works?
:smack: nevermind, you’re saying that you think she was entirely responsible not that McD’s wasnt. My bad. Sorry. Man am I moving slow today.
Because someone mentioned something about the temperature of the coffee after it’s been sitting on the hot plate, and dammit, I’m curious as to how much McDonald’s would have budged on the coffee serving temp.
You need some coffee dude.
Oddly, I keep seeing odd metaphors which have absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand. Like that fork thing. No one brings forks to 600 degrees and puts them out. It would be an amzingly unreasonable thing to do, possibly borderline psychotic. On the other hand, 180-degree coffee is apparently quite reasonable as defined by certain groups. If you’re going to metaphor, do it right, please.
hell no, that shit will burn your ass. 
It’s supposed to go in your other end.
How’s this: If someone held the muzzle of a .22 up to their eye to see if the barrell was free from obstruction, and it went off because the person holding it accidentally pulled the trigger, would you think “OMG, the family should SUE the gun manufacturer!” or “Damn. Darwin strikes again.” ?
One of two: stubborn asshole or corporate useful idiot
that explains so much
No, that’s not right.
Try this. Say you come to my restaurant, Dag’s House o’Flapjacks, and order a glass of orange juice to wash down your super stack of flapjacks. As you bring the glass to your lips to take your first sip, you’re surprised to find that the orange juice tastes a little like blood. Odd, you think, and then you notice that your lips have been sliced off and are hanging over your chin by a little flap of skin. Oh, you didn’t know that Dag serves his juice in a glass with a razor sharp rim? It is glass, you know. It’s sharp, people cut themselves on glass all the time. What are you, a dumbass? My glasses are sharp because it’s GLASS.
What? Every other glass you have ever drank from had a nice round rim? Not my problem.
The horrible analogies in this thread are making the baby HeyZeus weep!
Yes, difference being, coffee is served hot. On a consistent basis. Everywhere you go. Glasses of o.j. are not, on the average, served in a tumbler with a razor sharp rim.
Is it really all THAT difficult to use enough common sense to figure out that A) Coffee is served hot. B) therefore, I should not put it between my legs, were it could burn the fuck out of me were I to spill it. ? Yes, I’d say burns so bad that they required skin grafts were excessive. But, can you honestly say the award was not excessive, and the woman should not be held at least SEMI accountable for her own stupidity?
What bugs me about the case is not so much the right or wrong of it, but the way it is held up as some egregious example of litigousness gone mad, which it clearly is not.
I would ask this, what if she had spilled her coffe on herself in a perfectly normal situation. At the table in the restaurant and gotten third degre burns. Surely we have all spilled coffee or some other beverage at some time, it doesn’t make us all careless ninnies. But I wouldn’t expect third degree burns from spilled coffee…third degree is not a mild burn.
I agree with CG but for different reasons. Go back and Look at the link Dead Badger posted. Linky
Time to 3rd degree burn for an adult
160F 0.9 seconds
150F 1.8 seconds
140F 5.4 seconds
130F 30.0 seconds
So even if MD had served their coffee at 135-140 degrees this lady would have still have gotten third degree burns. Her clothing would have held the hot coffee in close contact with her skin. I’m sure that she could not have gotten the clothes off her burnt skin in less that 30 seconds. So while the temp of the coffee may have made the damage worse, she would have been burnt regardless.
Now on the other side of this MD was flat stupid not to settle for medical bills before trial. The atty fees to go to trial had to have been 10 times that.
Oh and guys, I have had many a pizza place serve me a pizza in way under 2 minutes after it came out of the oven. I have burnt the shit out of my mouth from it, and no I am not rich from it yet.
That just screams missed opportunity 
Your line of logic is not correct. Heat dissipates rapidly as it spreads out. within 3 to 4 seconds it will fall below the level necessary to cause severe burns, even on most common clothing. Unfortunately this becomes a problem with heat in excess of 145-150 degrees, because the burn occurs before the heat decreases. Clothing will protect from more severe burns at lower temperature by spreading it out and cooling. At very high temperatures, it unfortunately spreads it out while it’s still extremely hot, and burns a larger area, rather than mitigating the damage.
QtM, MD
You fail to realized that McDonalds served the coffee at a much higher temperature than anyone else.
The award was for what McDonalds made for 2 days of coffee sales. Not 2 days of total sales, but just what they made on coffee. So the total amount was not excessive, if you measure it by McDonald’s ability to pay it. It was enough to get their attention though, and they reduced the temperature of the coffee they serve. And if you were paying any fucking attention to this thread, you would realize that the award was reduced because she was semi accountable for happened.
tsk Somebody’s pissy because their glass analogy sucked.
I’ve been paying enough attention to have read that at 190 degrees, it was the company’s requirement. I also agreed that the injury was over the top, and she shouldn’t have been burned that badly.
It’s got nothing to do with McDonald’s ability to pay. It’s the woman’s stupidity that I find ridiculous, and that she should be rewarded for tucking a hot cup of crappy McDonalds coffee between her legs and then dare to be shocked when it burned her. It’s STUPID.
That said, I also agree that McD should have flippin settled for medical costs.