But Sam,
The ‘moving vehicle’ aspect of this is spurious. The lady in question was a passenger not the driver, and the car was parked at the time.
RussellM
I wish I could find the info that I found on this case not long ago but I cannot. From what I remember McDonalds served their coffee some 40 degrees hotter than it should be served. This was done so that they could they could get more coffee per pound of beans and increase their profits by a few cents per cup. This could be false though. Immediatly after the case ended, McDonald’s lowered the temperature of their coffee.
A 40 degree difference is HUGE! Look at it this way, when it is 100 degrees out side you break out the swimsuit and lay out by the pool…when its 140, You should probably baste yourself first!
Russellm: The ‘moving vehicle’ argument is NOT spurious - it goes directly against McDonald’s liability. It creates an ‘expectation of use’ that determines whether McDonald’s is needlessly endangering the public. If you are serving beverages to people in vehicles, you should make sure that a bump on the road won’t send them to the hospital.
This is the same principle that mandates seatbelts in cars and not on your sofa. Both are seats, but one is used in a very different way.
I met a soon to be lawyer who had reviewed this case. According to him, the coffee was so hot that it seared the poor womans labia shut. Reconstructive surgery indeed.
The funny thing is that weeks after this judgement was passed down, I pulled into a McDonalds drive thru for a sausage McMuffin and while the coffee was being passed through the window of my car, the lid came into contact with my upper window frame spilling coffee all over my car and person. The employee was so mortified that she called her manager in to settle my nerves. No harm done, I asked for extra napkins and a new cup of coffee (Supersized at no charge of course) and went on my way.
Paranoia=Opportunity?
The true crime is McDonald’s coffee itself! Someone should take them to court for serving such a vile fluid!
Gee I’m a coffee snob…
SamStone
My fault, I wasn’t clear enough.
I agree in general that this is a completely valid point, but in this particular case it is not relevant. Too many people present this as one of the aspects of this particular case - “Stupid woman driving over bumps in the road holding coffee in her lap…”
RussellM