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submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

McDonald’s is being sued over a hot coffee spill, again.

This time, a San Francisco location is being accused of serving a “scalding” cup of coffee with an improperly attached lid, which allegedly resulted in the coffee pouring out on plaintiff Mable Childress’ body and causing “severe burns” after she tried drinking it.

The lawsuit, filed last week, alleged that the elderly woman is suffering from “physical pains, emotional distress and other damages.” The restaurant’s negligence was a “substantial factor” for her injuries, it alleged.

Childress also said in the lawsuit that the restaurant employees “refused” to help her, a point that the McDonald’s denied.

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[-] ZephyrXero@lemmy.world 333 points 9 months ago

In case anyone still has misconceptions about the famous case that came before. McDonald's spun public opinion, but she had a legitimate case. https://youtu.be/Q9DXSCpcz9E

[-] Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world 125 points 9 months ago

Beat me to it. I remember as a teenager hearing adults laugh about this, “how could you not know coffee is hot?? Hahaha”. Holy shit the McDonalds PR really fucked that lady over. It wasn’t until at least a decade later that I learned the reality of the situation and how horrific her burns were.

Fuck McDonalds.

[-] chaogomu@kbin.social 75 points 9 months ago

Jay Leno did the most to further that hit job. He spent months spreading lies, all while McDonald's became a major sponsor of his show.

[-] kameecoding@lemmy.world 38 points 9 months ago

it also made it onto Seinfeld, it was also pushed by Republicans and their mouthpieces (Fox) that the country ia going to hell everyone can sue for anything bla bla bla, typical moral panic stuff.

that shit was so widespread I heard about the anyone can sue rhetoric about the USA as a kid, and I am from Slovakia

[-] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 17 points 9 months ago

As ALWAYS with conservatives it's just a reflection of themselves. They sue people more often and for bigger sums.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago

Well the "anyone can sue" is very much a real thing. But you can also counter-sue to recover "reasonable legal fees" (court costs, attorney fees) etc. if it's found to be exceptionally egregious and litigious.

But most of the cases you hear about are similar to the Maccas one where there are giant details left out of the public narrative.

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[-] CynicRaven@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

Geeze, seriously? He also got massive mileage out of denigrating Monica Lewinsky.

[-] NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world 99 points 9 months ago

Just want to add that this wasn't just McDonald's spinning it for their own purposes, it was part of a larger effort of tort reform - spreading the conception that people are suing for everything, even hot coffee hur dur, so that the public would support things like caps on pain and suffering damages and punitive damages. Corporations wanted more leeway to maximize profits(the reason McDonald's coffee was so hot was because they could get more coffee out of the beans that way), even if it hurt people, and the public jumped right on board. This was part of the same strategy as denigrating plaintiffs attorneys as "ambulance chasers" and the like. It got to the point that even when people were harmed, they still wouldn't sue because they didn't want to be lumped in with "those entitled people suing over everything". It became a point of pride to get fucked over by corporations and to do nothing about it. Really disgusting how easily the public was manipulated by all that.

[-] Confound4082@lemmy.ml 73 points 9 months ago
[-] Fosheze@lemmy.world 36 points 9 months ago

The name of my garrage band.

[-] Sharkwellington@lemmy.one 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Aka hot enough to weld flesh together.

[-] thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 62 points 9 months ago

I'm not going to watch the video since the case was covered in both my business law and ethics courses, but absolutely do not look up the images of her injury.

It's brutal.

[-] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 27 points 9 months ago

What I don't understand is how she was appealed down to $480K, but the family in FL got $800K for not warning that the nuggets were fresh out of the fryer. The former was way, way, worse.

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 40 points 9 months ago

What's nuts is that she originally only asked for like $32k to cover the cost of the fucking skin grafts she needed.

[-] CaptFeather@lemm.ee 15 points 9 months ago

The only thing I can think of is maybe the '91 case wasn't adjusted for inflation? That would make it a little over 1 mil today

[-] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 20 points 9 months ago

Tl;dr: the burn fused part of her vulva, and they didn’t want to pay medical costs.

[-] Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

I just corrected someone about that last month who was using it as complaint about society. They had no idea about the details.

[-] errer@lemmy.world 66 points 9 months ago

McDonald’s should be considered guilty unless proven innocent given their track record. Nail em to the wall lady!

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.ml 22 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They were guilty of making coffee to hot years ago. I have no idea how they were sued for 800k off of selling removeden tenders that were still hot.

Edit: Is the term chicken actually sensored? Appears it shows now, strange

[-] JustAManOnAToilet@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The "en" isn't censored but the first part is, I thought maybe you'd misspelled "fucking" to "fucken" and it censored that. Maybe just chick is somehow censored? Testing testing c h I c k chick chicken ...

Edit: no, and now I just sound like a very hungry madman.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago

Thanks for the support.
Also C h i c k chick chicken sounds like a fats food commercial we'll see in the coming years.

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[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 65 points 9 months ago

I don't think "burns herself" is quite the turn of phrase I would've chosen but then I don't like the taste of boot leather so... yeah.

[-] NightAuthor@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

Yeah, I swear I’m reading more and more articles/headlines that seem slanted in favor of the corporate side.

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 9 points 9 months ago

Possibly. Or maybe you're more aware of it now.

[-] NightAuthor@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Yeah, hard to say without a systematic review of news media I’ve consumed.

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[-] dethb0y@lemmy.world 48 points 9 months ago

I'm honestly surprised this doesn't happen more often than it does, considering how much coffee McD's sells.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 31 points 9 months ago

They're supposed to serve it at a safe temperature, and they usually do.

tbh I'm not sure how they managed to overclock their coffee maker. Did they just heat it up on the stove?

[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 43 points 9 months ago

Yep, wife used to work for Starbucks. You're supposed to check/calibrate the thermostat on the machine on a regular basis so you get the coffee hot but not boiling, third degree burns hot. For whatever reason, it has to be done because the thermostats will gradually deviate from their initial settings. If you fail to check your thermostats, eventually someone's going to burn the fuck out of themselves with a hot drink. Water, which is the main ingredient in any coffee product, has an enormous heat capacity, and will absolutely fuck your shit up before you have a chance to do anything about it.

IIRC, McDonald's was either deliberately tampering with their thermostats or just failing to check them when that famous case went down, which was how they were found to be negligent.

[-] JDubbleu@programming.dev 46 points 9 months ago

They determined that the average customer stayed in a given McDonald's after ordering for x minutes, so they made the coffee so hot it couldn't be consumed within x minutes in an attempt to get people not to utilize their free refills on coffee. The coffee was so hot it was dangerous. All to save a customer from getting 2 more cents worth of coffee.

[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 12 points 9 months ago

Shareholders don't ruin someone's life in exchange for an extra 0.0001% return this quarter challenge (impossible)

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[-] agent99@lemm.ee 33 points 9 months ago
[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 20 points 9 months ago

The real question is why would anyone still get coffee at McDonalds?

[-] Poob@lemmy.ca 13 points 9 months ago

Up in Canada (at least my part), McDonald's coffee is a great affordable coffee. It's better than Starbucks or (🤮) Tim Hortons. It's not going to compete with a bespoke artisan coffee shop that squeezes cat butt glands or whatever justifies selling a $5 cup for $10, but it's better than almost everything else for the price.

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[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 12 points 9 months ago

It's fairly cheap for getting coffee out and it's better than Starbucks coffee. Sure, go to a cafe if you have the means, but many don't.

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[-] MrLuemasG@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

You can usually get it for a dollar with the app and it's better than a lot of the stuff that can be made at home with an automatic coffee maker. I used to get it a lot until I could afford to support smaller coffee places

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[-] TronnaRaps@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 months ago

At least in Toronto, it's one of the better options.

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[-] CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Last time I visited the US, McDonalds and Dunkin' Donuts was easy places to get coffee on the road that wasn't see through, like pure water, or tasted like shit

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[-] Pistcow@lemm.ee 12 points 9 months ago

Who doesn't like coffee hotter than the surface of the sun?

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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
486 points (96.0% liked)

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