Jury Awards $50 Million Against Starbucks

Ekklesian said:
Don't people know the main ingredient in coffee and tea is piping hot water?
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Yes, but the liability factor involves the fact that the cup was not properly pushed in the drink container, plus the lid was not fully shut on the cup—allegedly.
 
The classic case of this type was the one brought against McDonald's 30 years ago. It has been represented as a frivolous lawsuit in popular media since. The fact is, however, that the plaintiff suffered third-degree burns and permanent disfigurement from spilling 88°C coffee on herself. It's easy to say people should know coffee is hot (and I think the warnings printed on coffee cups since are rather obvious and silly), but food really shouldn't put you in the hospital.

This is a similar case: the plaintiff suffered permanent injury. According to the article, the lid on the cup wasn't secure, so it would appear that the Starbucks bears greater responsibility for his injury than McDonald's did in their case - that woman's scalds were, at least, self-inflicted from carelessly taking her own lid off.

She was awarded about $3M, reduced to around $640,000. I would agree that a $50M judgment is excessive.
 
DrHuk&Duck said:
Yes, but the liability factor involves the fact that the cup was not properly pushed in the drink container, plus the lid was not fully shut on the cup—allegedly.
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I watched the video. No way I'd try to take three quarts of scalding hot water in a flimsy tray in through my car window.

Anyway, here's the answer to problem. No more hot beverages through drive-thrus.
 
Ekklesian said:
Anyway, here's the answer to problem. No more hot beverages through drive-thrus.
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I agree. Handing over trays of scalding hot beverages through a tiny window is asking for a lawsuit. This is not the same as handing out hot burgers that are wrapped in plastic and secured in a folded paper bag. Common sense.
 
Ransom said:
She was awarded about $3M, reduced to around $640,000. I would agree that a $50M judgment is excessive.
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I learned that nearly all cases, both civil and criminal, are settled out of court. There are a myriad of reasons from wasting money in attorney fees to just the surprise factor of not knowing how a jury is going to react—regardless of how vetted pre-trial. I’m 99% confident that Starbucks was probably offered a settlement somewhere in the ballpark of $5 million or so, and they balked at it, therefore the plaintiff’s attorney said we’re going for the stars—and it worked!
 
All I can say this is more evidence that the human genome is deteriorating.
 
DrHuk&Duck said:
I’m 99% confident that Starbucks was probably offered a settlement somewhere in the ballpark of $5 million or so, and they balked at it, therefore the plaintiff’s attorney said we’re going for the stars—and it worked!
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Which is what happened in the McDonald's case. The plaintiff tried to settle for her medical expenses (about $20,000), but McD's refused, so a jury slapped them with more like $100K in compensation and millions in punitive damages.
 
abcaines said:
All I can say this is more evidence that the human genome is deteriorating.
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I believe all people are the same no matter what generation. People are people, people today are not any worse than people from times gone by.
 
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