OH ....... MY ........ GOD!!!!!!!

It's amazing what some people can get away with! And isn't it funny how they're all american?!

I love america and all but, Phaleese!

Grow up, get a life and live with it!!!!!!!!!!

was funny tho

Yeah, it's the lousiest system in all the world. Except for all of the other systems.

I pulled this from a BBC website, which apparently cribbed it from a Washington Consumer Rights website. I wouldn't say it's an impartial view necessarily, but it wasn't as frivolous a lawsuit as one might believe, nor did she get as much as mythologizers have made it sound. If you're interested in getting all sides of the story, do a Google search, and you'll pull up articles from both sides of the fence.

"The McDonald's Coffee Case
Sorting through fact and fiction....

Myth: An opportunistic old woman launched a frivolous lawsuit when she spilled her McDonald's coffee on her lap.

Truth: Lieback was sitting in the passenger seat of her grandson's car holding a coffee after purchasing it from a drive-through window of a McDonald's. When she opened the lid to add cream and sugar, she spilled the coffee.

The simple accident caused third-degree burns on more than 6 percent of her body. She was treated in a hospital for a week. McDonald's served coffee 20 or so degrees hotter than the industry standard. The woman, Stella Liebeck, underwent numerous skin-graft surgeries as a result of her third-degree coffee burns to her thighs and groin area. She had permanent scarring on more than 16 percent of her body.

McDonald's had already ignored more than 700 similar claims of coffee burns, many involving children. The company even ignored a request from the Shriner's Burn Institute in Cincinnati to turn down its coffee.

McDonald's refused to pay the then 79-year-old woman's initial medical expenses totaling $11,000. McDonald's actually countered with an offer of $800. And they also refused to turn down the heat on their coffee. Left with $20,000 unpaid bills, she finally hired a lawyer.

A mediator later recommended the parties settle for $225,000. Again, McDonald's refused and the case went to trial.

McDonald's representatives lied to the court and jury about the existence of other claims. A jury reduced the original verdict of $200,000 to $160,000 for contributory negligence - Liebeck spilled it on herself.

Based on McDonald's annual profits of more than $1 billion annually, and more than $1.3 million gross daily coffee sales, the jury levied two days of coffee sales receipts as punitive damages for a punitive damage award of $2.7 million.

A judge later reduced the $2.7 million jury award to $480,000. McDonald's later settled the case for an undisclosed amount, requesting the deal be kept sealed. Most major newspapers ignored the judge's reduction and the final outcome of the case.

Punitive damage awards are not currently allowed under Washington law. Juries undoubtedly return verdicts when faced with a large corporate defendant who has ignored reasonable pleas to resolve such situations or grievances.

In this case, McDonald's simply refused to turn down the heat, so the jury turned it up on McDonald's."

No disrespect DJ Billy, I doubt the other cases are as extreme as they're painted either. (In fact, I think I'll go have a look around for these cases, and double check.)

(Edited by Diandra 23/04/2002 08:29)

Okay, sorry to ruin everybody's fun, but when I typed in "Dickson" and "Bristol" in Google, I got a page from a snopes website which laid out the 6 "lawsuits" above, word for word, with the following at the end:

"Origins: This "and you wonder what's wrong with the world today?" whinge appeared on the Internet in May 2001. All of the entries in the list are fabrications -- a search for news stories about each of these cases failed to turn up anything, as did a search for each law case.

The earliest version concluded with a seventh item that has since been snipped away, likely after someone noticed it was the venerable microwaved poodle legend. Its inclusion would have immediately called into question the truthfulness of the other six cases for any number of folks familiar with urban legends. The remaining six were still false, but they weren't as obviously false as the following poodle tale and thus wouldn't have set the alarm bells ringing:


7. And just so you know that cooler heads do occasionally prevail: Kenmore Inc., the makers of Dorothy Johnson's microwave, were found not liable for the death of Mrs. Johnson's poodle after she gave it a bath and attempted to dry it by putting the poor creature in her microwave for, "just a few minutes, on low," The case was quickly dismissed."

So these were all urban legends. This page ended with a few real-life examples of extreme lawsuits, but they had all been either dismissed or were still in progress, and thus may be dismissed.


(Edited by Diandra 23/04/2002 08:31)

I'm glad you did that reserach, Diandra. When I was reading the initial post, I had a feeling these were just too ridiculous to be absolutely true. I know there are ridiculous and frivolous lawsuits. But these really pushed the envelope of credibility.