Some Silled Coffee

Have you ever heard of the Liebeck vs MacDonald's Restaurants case? Well if you have not, then why not be informed? Stella Liebeck a 75 year old woman, native of New Mexico was severely burnt by spilled coffee in her nephew's car after buying it from Macdonald's. She instantaneously suffered from third degree burns and later sued MacDonald's. As a result of suing, Stella was badly made fun of by society, because the media has turned and twisted the story for their own profitable gain. This speech is presented, because it is quite an interest for my business law class and I am prepared to speak about the facts. Therefore, we are going to take a factual perspective on Stella's case which includes: why Stella sued, how was MacDonald's accountable and how much damages (money) Stella really got.

Stella Liebeck sued MacDonald's because she spilled hot coffee on herself in a stationed vehicle in the MacDonald's parking lot. Subsequently, she formed a lawsuit against MacDonald's because she spent over 8 days in the hospital with third degree burns to her inner thigh, buttocks, perineum, genitalia and groin areas, which compromised 6% of her whole body (George, 2012) . As a result, Stella had to undergo a very expensive and intensive skin grafting procedure. Not only was she physically hurt, but she was also suffering mentally and emotionally from her scars and unfortunate ordeal. After all, she was an old woman who was not prepared to be hospitalized after drinking coffee resulting in horrible scars for life. It is true, Stella was partly wrong in spilling hot coffee on herself and was not careful, but accidents do happen. The media has taken the case to another level and has made a mockery out of Stella by calling her case frivolous and outlandish. Essentially, the media has failed to understand and present the factual information concerning the case, henceforth, Stella was not to be blamed entirely.

MacDonald's was not an innocent bystander as portrayed by the media; essentially they had to be sued. In the case of MacDonald's, they were were more at fault with concrete evidence of how they could have prevented the incident. Facts have shown that MacDonald's had received over 700 burn reports in the past before the occurrence of Stella's incident. MacDonald's has been serving coffee between 180-190 degree Fahrenheit (scorching hot). According to them, this method was to establish the coffee's maximum taste (Jackson, 2008). In this case, MacDonald's has been very negligent, because they continued to serve super hot coffee to customers knowing that many of them buy and consume coffee on the go; furthermore, they have ignored the ever-increasing burn reports. Not only have they ignored burn reports, but they have also maintained their high brewing/serving coffee instructions. In this situation MacDonald's was wholly at fault.