Tom Kirvan
Legal News, Editor-in-Chief
Legal News, Editor-in-Chief
Early in my newspaper career, I was involved in covering a story about a man who bought a car wash at a local gas station.
It proved to be anything but a run-of-the-mill writing assignment, even for a somewhat seasoned newspaperman who had covered virtually everything that a small-town community could offer, including a murder, a kidnapping, a gang rape involving players from the high school football team, a half-dozen teen deaths in separate car crashes, a massive blaze at the local Ford plant that police suspected was caused by arson, and the ouster of a school superintendent after he was involved in a drunken public episode.
In this instance, the seemingly routine trip to the car wash cost the longtime resident “$5,000,” blared the opening to the story.
There was no point in burying the lead, I figured.
His misfortune began shortly after he entered the car wash when one of the spraying attachments broke free and began wildly pummeling his relatively new four-door sedan, cracking the windshield, several windows, and dinging and damaging virtually every other section of his car.
The story, of course, didn’t stop there, as it eventually evolved into a lawsuit against the gas station establishment for causing the car wash trauma the customer experienced while suffering various minor injuries. After some legal jousting, the parties reached an undisclosed settlement that several local attorneys theorized might have been as high as $20,000.
In other words, that was some kind of car wash.
Years later, in 1992, there was another mishap that grabbed national headlines when a 79-year-old New Mexico woman sued McDonald’s for burns she suffered after spilling a cup of coffee she purchased through the convenience of the drive-thru window.
The story, in the bite-size form that was told by late-night comedians and some legal commentators, amounted to this: woman buys $1 cup of coffee, promptly spills it, sues fast-food giant, and gets $3 million.
End of story? Not quite.
The case, which one major television network labeled “the poster child of excessive lawsuits,” was widely portrayed as a woman suing a corporation for a quick buck over her own careless actions.
In reality, the lawsuit proved to be something far different, particularly after it was revealed that McDonald’s was guilty of “callous” and “reckless” behavior in serving its coffee at a scalding hot temperature that ranged from 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit – roughly 40 degrees higher than that served by other fast-food companies.
The woman was a passenger in a car driven by her grandson when they stopped to place an order for some coffee. After the car stopped, she tried to hold the cup securely between her knees while removing the lid. In the process of trying to remove the lid, the cup tipped over, pouring scalding hot coffee over her lap, causing her to sustain third-degree burns to 6 percent of her body and lesser burns to 16 percent of her body. In a matter of seconds, the skins on her thighs and genital area melted away.
She was then rushed to hospital, where she spent the next eight days undergoing a series of skin grafts and other procedures that left her disfigured and disabled.
Despite the extensive injuries she suffered and the cost of the medical treatment she incurred, the woman initially sought just $20,000 from McDonald’s, an amount that would cover her past and projected medical expenses. She also wanted the company to make policy changes to serve its coffee at safer temperatures in the event of a spill. McDonald’s refused to change its policy, offering instead to cover just $800 worth of her medical expenses.
When the case went to trial, a jury awarded the plaintiff $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages for McDonald’s outrageous conduct. The amounts were later reduced by the judge, who ruled that the plaintiff was partially to blame for her injuries from the way she removed the lid from the cup.
During the trial, company officials testified that McDonald’s required coffee to be served at the excessive temperature to ensure that it stayed hot for commuters, even though the temperature can cause third-degree burns in a matter of 3 to 7 seconds.
Officials also acknowledged that it had known about the risk of severe burns from its coffee for more than 10 years after facing nearly 700 other claims and lawsuits from 1982-92.
The day after the verdict, news media reports indicated that the coffee at McDonald’s outlets was being sold at a temperature of 158 degrees, some 30 degrees cooler than that spilled on the plaintiff and other burn victims. Coffee spilled at the reduced temperature was determined to cause third-degree burns in about 60 seconds, thereby increasing the margin of safety significantly and making McDonald’s earlier policy look even more reprehensible.
Now, as the late radio personality Paul Harvey often said in his broadcasts, “you know the rest of the story,” which is about as sad and sickening a case of corporate greed can be.
It proved to be anything but a run-of-the-mill writing assignment, even for a somewhat seasoned newspaperman who had covered virtually everything that a small-town community could offer, including a murder, a kidnapping, a gang rape involving players from the high school football team, a half-dozen teen deaths in separate car crashes, a massive blaze at the local Ford plant that police suspected was caused by arson, and the ouster of a school superintendent after he was involved in a drunken public episode.
In this instance, the seemingly routine trip to the car wash cost the longtime resident “$5,000,” blared the opening to the story.
There was no point in burying the lead, I figured.
His misfortune began shortly after he entered the car wash when one of the spraying attachments broke free and began wildly pummeling his relatively new four-door sedan, cracking the windshield, several windows, and dinging and damaging virtually every other section of his car.
The story, of course, didn’t stop there, as it eventually evolved into a lawsuit against the gas station establishment for causing the car wash trauma the customer experienced while suffering various minor injuries. After some legal jousting, the parties reached an undisclosed settlement that several local attorneys theorized might have been as high as $20,000.
In other words, that was some kind of car wash.
Years later, in 1992, there was another mishap that grabbed national headlines when a 79-year-old New Mexico woman sued McDonald’s for burns she suffered after spilling a cup of coffee she purchased through the convenience of the drive-thru window.
The story, in the bite-size form that was told by late-night comedians and some legal commentators, amounted to this: woman buys $1 cup of coffee, promptly spills it, sues fast-food giant, and gets $3 million.
End of story? Not quite.
The case, which one major television network labeled “the poster child of excessive lawsuits,” was widely portrayed as a woman suing a corporation for a quick buck over her own careless actions.
In reality, the lawsuit proved to be something far different, particularly after it was revealed that McDonald’s was guilty of “callous” and “reckless” behavior in serving its coffee at a scalding hot temperature that ranged from 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit – roughly 40 degrees higher than that served by other fast-food companies.
The woman was a passenger in a car driven by her grandson when they stopped to place an order for some coffee. After the car stopped, she tried to hold the cup securely between her knees while removing the lid. In the process of trying to remove the lid, the cup tipped over, pouring scalding hot coffee over her lap, causing her to sustain third-degree burns to 6 percent of her body and lesser burns to 16 percent of her body. In a matter of seconds, the skins on her thighs and genital area melted away.
She was then rushed to hospital, where she spent the next eight days undergoing a series of skin grafts and other procedures that left her disfigured and disabled.
Despite the extensive injuries she suffered and the cost of the medical treatment she incurred, the woman initially sought just $20,000 from McDonald’s, an amount that would cover her past and projected medical expenses. She also wanted the company to make policy changes to serve its coffee at safer temperatures in the event of a spill. McDonald’s refused to change its policy, offering instead to cover just $800 worth of her medical expenses.
When the case went to trial, a jury awarded the plaintiff $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages for McDonald’s outrageous conduct. The amounts were later reduced by the judge, who ruled that the plaintiff was partially to blame for her injuries from the way she removed the lid from the cup.
During the trial, company officials testified that McDonald’s required coffee to be served at the excessive temperature to ensure that it stayed hot for commuters, even though the temperature can cause third-degree burns in a matter of 3 to 7 seconds.
Officials also acknowledged that it had known about the risk of severe burns from its coffee for more than 10 years after facing nearly 700 other claims and lawsuits from 1982-92.
The day after the verdict, news media reports indicated that the coffee at McDonald’s outlets was being sold at a temperature of 158 degrees, some 30 degrees cooler than that spilled on the plaintiff and other burn victims. Coffee spilled at the reduced temperature was determined to cause third-degree burns in about 60 seconds, thereby increasing the margin of safety significantly and making McDonald’s earlier policy look even more reprehensible.
Now, as the late radio personality Paul Harvey often said in his broadcasts, “you know the rest of the story,” which is about as sad and sickening a case of corporate greed can be.
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