LibAnswers: Debunk and Reveal - 2024

What was the McDonald's Hot Coffee Lawsuit?

On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck burned herself when she tried to pour milk and sugar into her 49-cent McDonald's hot coffee. The liquid was hot enough that it burned through her clothes in three seconds. Liebeck suffered third-degree burns on 6% of her skin and lesser burns over 16%. She was in the hospital for eight days while she underwent skin grafting (a process that replaces skin with other skin).

McDonald's coffee was served at a temperature between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit. McDonald's had long known this was 20 to 30 degrees hotter than the coffee served at most other restaurants.

                                                                                                                                                     Hot Coffee

This temperature range was indicated in its operations manual. In the 10 years before the case, over 700 people scalded by coffee burns made claims against the company. But McDonald's never lowered the temperature of its coffee. A McDonald's Quality Control manager testified that McDonald's knew of the risk of dangerously hot coffee. The company had no plans to turn down the heat or warn their customers of the scalding danger.

Did the lawsuit happen immediately?

Initially, Liebeck wrote a letter to McDonald's, asking them to compensate her for her medical expenses, somewhere between 10 and 20,000 dollars. McDonald offered her $800. She then consulted with a plaintiff's attorney, Reed Morgan, who said he offered to drop the case for $300,000 and was willing to accept half that amount. But McDonald's declined.

Then, on August 8, 1994, they took McDonald's to trial, which ended on the 17th of the same month.

A twelve-person jury found McDonald's 80% responsible for the incident and Liebeck 20% at fault. Though the coffee cup had a warning, the jury decided that it was neither large enough nor sufficient.

The jury reached its verdict on August 18, 1994. The judge ruled in Liebeck's favor.

Stella Liebeck in court

How did the media respond?

Liebeck stated that she was not after money but sought to change McDonald's policy regarding coffee temperature.

However, once the jury recommended 2.7 million dollars, many people took the information and ran with it. They arrived at this amount from Morgan's suggestion to penalize McDonald's for two days of coffee revenues, about $1.35 million per day. With the truth twisted, the lawsuit was framed as if Liebeck had intentionally poured the coffee on herself and won 2.7 million dollars. In reality, she received less than $500k.

Proponents of tort reform often cite the Liebeck case misleadingly, presenting an inaccurate or incomplete summary of the facts to frame the case as frivolous litigation.

ABC News called the case "the poster child of excessive lawsuits."

McDonald's asserts that the case outcome was a fluke and attributed the loss to poor communications and strategy by an unfamiliar insurer representing a franchise.

What happened to Liebeck afterward?

Liebeck passed away on August 5, 2004, at age 91. According to her daughter, "the burns and court proceedings (had taken) their toll," and in the years following the settlement, Liebeck had "no quality of life." She said the settlement had paid for a live-in nurse.

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References:

Simmons, Andy. "Remember the Hot Coffee Lawsuit? It Changed the Way Mcdonald's Heats Coffee Forever." Reader's Digest, Reader's Digest, July 15, 2021, www.rd.com/article/hot-coffee-lawsuit/.

Inc., Dow Jones & Co. "Wayback Machine." A Matter of Degree: How a Jury Decided That a Coffee Spill Is Worth $2.9  Million, The Wall Street Journal, September 1, 1994, web.archive.org/web/20150923195353/http:/www.business.txstate.edu/users/ds26/Business%20Law%202361/Misc/McDonalds%20coffee.pdf.

Staff, Legacy. "Stella Liebeck: Hot Coffee and Cold Truth." Legacy.Com, April 29, 2020, www.legacy.com/news/culture-and-history/stella-liebeck-hot-coffee-and-cold-truth/.

Report, Retro. "Scalded by Coffee, Then News Media." The New York Times, The New York Times, October 2,1 2013, www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002507537/scalded-by-coffee-then-news-media.html?playlistId=100000002148738.

Pearle, Lauren. "'I'm Being Sued for What?'" ABC News, ABC News Law & Justice Unit, May 2, 2007, web.archive.org/web/20150327160920/http://abcnews.go.com:80/TheLaw/story?id=3121086.

FindLaw Staff. "The McDonald's Coffee Cup Case: Separating Mcfacts from McFiction - Findlaw." Www.Findlaw.Com, February 2,2 2024, www.findlaw.com/injury/product-liability/the-mcdonald-s-coffee-cup-case-separating-mcfacts-from-mcfiction.html.