Many of our clients remember the “McDonald’s spilled hot coffee case,” where “some greedy old lady got millions of dollars against poor McDonald’s just because coffee is hot.” They wonder why they can’t get as much money from their case as “that dumb old lady” got for getting burned by hot coffee.
This fun video looks at that 1992 case from the perspective that “Everything you’ve heard about it is wrong.” Give it a gander; it’s entertaining and well worth its run time of under 6 minutes.
Our take: Yes, coffee is supposed to be hot, but should it be served so hot that it actually melts skin and requires multiple surgeries and years of recovery.? Why did McDonald’s ignore over 700 prior complaints of serious injuries from their coffee and continue to serve coffee to their customers at much hotter temperatures than any other coffee provider? And she received much less money than the media had us believe.
Sometimes, businesses put the almighty dollar ahead of the safety of their customers, and that is never a good policy.