Legal Beagles

Previous legend || Legal Beagles || Next legend

Red-Hot Golden Arches

Debunked: The McDonald's Coffee Case: Woman foolishly tries to drink coffee while driving, spills it on her lap. In an incredible display of greed, she sues McDonald's and wins $80 million+ in punitive damages.

In February 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a cup of coffee from a McDonald's drive-thru. Her grandson was driving the car; he pulled to the side and stopped the car so that she could remove the lid and add cream and sugar to the coffee. Liebeck placed the cup between her knees to remove the lid, and the entire contents spilled onto her lap.

Lieback suffered third-degree burns over 6% of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks and groin. She tried to settle the claim for $20,000, but McDonald's rejected the offer. Documents produced during pretrial discovery showed that McDonald's had received more than 700 claims about hot coffee -- some including third-degree burns -- from 1982 - 1992. Evidence showed that other vendors kept their coffee at 135 - 140 degrees Fahrenheit, while McDonald's chose to keep its coffee at 180 - 190 degrees, despite its knowledge that those temperatures made the coffee too hot to drink -- because it would burn the mouth and throat.

The damages award was not quite equal to the inflated media reports: Liebeck received $200,000 in compensatory damages, which were reduced to $160,000 to account for her own negligence. Punitive damages -- about two days of McDonald's coffee sales -- were $2.7 million, and subsequently reduced by the trial court to $480,000.

The parties later settled the case.

References:

• "The Actual Facts," from the 'Lectric Law Library
• "Know the Facts," from the Consumer Attorneys of California
• "The McDonald's Coffee Case," Washington Consumer Law Center