Coffee With Two Scoops Of 3rd Degree Burns

First, let me start by admitting my love for the premium cable channel HBO, it is home to some of my favorite shows.  Second, let me recommend a documentary that premieres tonight titled "Hot Coffee".  I haven't seen it but HBO never seems to disappoint.

Most people have heard of the civil suit against McDonald's where hot coffee was spilled on a person and then awarded millions of dollars.  But that's about all they know.  Almost every late night comedian, if not all, has told jokes about the verdict.  The tort reform movement began with and continually uses this case as an example of how ridiculous our civil justice seems to be.  How ridiculous is it?

The woman that won the case against McDonald's was 79 years old.  She was sitting in the passenger seat of the car and prior to placing her sugar in the coffee the styrofoam cup collapsed from the 180 degree beverage spilling into her crotch.  She was wearing a sweatsuit, nylons and, of course, granny panties but still received third degree burns and required several surgeries that included skin grafting (skin from her thighs was removed and actually placed inside her genital area to help heal the wound). When she brought the lawsuit forward, her first lawsuit ever filed, she sought McDonald's to pay for the bills that her Medicare didn't cover.

During the lawsuit McDonald's agreed to settle the case for $800 (yes, eight hundred dollars).  Prior to Liebeck's case McDonald's had paid out over 700 times for people that had also been burned by coffee.  In a unanimous decision the jury found McDonald's liable and awarded Liebeck the equivalent of two days of coffee sales revenue from the large corporation.  Jury members that were interviewed stated they were angered at the callous attitude displayed by Mickey D's during the trial. 

Eventually, in part because of the public backlash toward the audacity of such a person to not know coffee is hot, the judgment was reduced by the judge to three times the medical bills.  From there McDonald's agreed to settle for less than that amount and only if Liebeck would agree to a gag order.  She died at the age of 91 and never got to publically share her side of the story.  I haven't seen the documentary yet but I anticipate it will be gripping.  That is if you find large corporations taking advantage of elderly ladies, demonizing them, and then lobbying to pass legislation that prevents people like Liebeck from ever "taking advantage of the system" again gripping.  Luckily for Liebeck she could provide an American birth certificate during the ordeal so it couldn't be spun as an immigration issue.