Stella Liebeck Became The Target of Jokes Despite Suffering Life-Altering Injuries

Did you hear about the lady that spilled hot coffee on herself while driving and sued McDonald's for millions? Can you believe that she would sue McDonald's for her clumsiness? Of course coffee is going to be hot! What is this world coming to?

If you ever found yourself saying these things in the past, congratulations - you were successfully manipulated by a McDonald's PR campaign.

The facts of the story of Stella Liebeck and the "hot coffee lawsuit" are much different than what the majority of the general public thinks happened.

Most people think that an opportunistic lady spilled coffee on herself while driving and took the opportunity to frivolously sue a multi-billion dollar company for millions of dollars.

This is not what happened.

The story of the "hot coffee lawsuit" started on February 27th, 1992.

Liebeck, a 79 year-old grandmother, drove with her grandson to a McDonald's in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Liebeck, who was in the passenger seat, removed the lid of her cup of coffee to add cream and sugar. The car was parked and not moving at the time.

Disaster struck as the coffee spilled into Liebeck's lap.

The coffee was extremely hot - court testimony stated the coffee was as hot as 190 degrees Fahrenheit, which is significantly hotter than what most other restaurants serve coffee at (the standard is between 140-150 degrees Fahrenheit).
This was an important point, as 190 degree Fahrenheit coffee can cause third-degree burns within three seconds, which is what happened to Stella Liebeck.

Liebeck suffered third-degree burns to 6% of her body. In fact, her skin was completely burnt off on some portions of her body, with nothing but muscle and tissue remaining.

Liebeck was in the hospital for over a week, as she needed skin grafts to help recover. In addition, Liebeck spent another two years receiving medical treatment, and she was permanently disfigured as a result of the injury.

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Liebeck went to McDonald's and asked for compensation for her injuries.

Liebeck asked for $20,000 to help pay for her medical costs and other expenses, and McDonald's offered $800. The two sides went to a mediator, who suggested payouts of $300,000 and then $225,000 to Liebeck. McDonald's refused, and the two sides went to court.

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A key revelation in court was that McDonald's had gotten into trouble in the past for serving scalding hot coffee, and had actually paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in past settlements.

On August 18th, 1994, a jury found in favor of Liebeck. They said that McDonald's had 80% liability for the injury, while Liebeck had the remaining 20% liability. Sure, Liebeck had spilled the coffee on herself, but the coffee was far too hot and McDonald's KNEW that the coffee was dangerously hot.

The jury awarded Liebeck $160,000 in compensatory damages ($200,000 was the actual number, but Liebeck had 20% of the liability) and another $2.7 million in punitive damages.

The judge reduced the punitive damages to $480,000, giving Liebeck a total award of $640,000.

McDonald's vowed to appeal the case, though the two sides eventually settled out of court.

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McDonald's did their absolute best to make out Liebeck to be a greedy opportunist, and it certainly worked, as Liebeck was a national joke.

In fact, Seinfeld had an episode in which Kramer was advised to sue a coffee shop after suffering a mild burn, which was ultimately healed by applying a topical balm.

In reality, Liebeck suffered traumatic, painful and life-altering injuries due to excessively hot coffee. McDonald's was aware that their coffee was much too hot, as they had paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements in the past.

Liebeck was quite modest with her initial compensation request from McDonald's, and their refusal to pay $20,000 resulted in them losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Filed under: General Knowledge