The case of Stella Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants—more commonly known as the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit—is often cited as a classic example of frivolous litigation in the United States. In much of the public’s eye, Stella Lieback was a greedy plaintiff who spilled warm coffee on her lap while driving and decided to cash in by suing a big corporation for millions of dollars.
Jun 13, 2016 · Myth: This was a case of a greedy claimant looking for a deep pocket. Reality: Mrs. Liebeck spent six months attempting to convince McDonald's to pay $15,000 to $20,000 to cover her medical expenses.McDonald's responded with a letter offering $800. Mrs. Liebeck also asked McDonald's to consider changing the excessive temperature of its coffee so others would not …
Dec 03, 2018 · McDonald's refused to raise its compensation offer above $800. Stella Liebeck filed suit. Her lawsuit asked for $100,000 in compensatory damages (including for her pain and suffering) and triple punitive damages. These punitive damages were sought in order to send a message to McDonald's that their coffee was dangerously hot.
Nov 04, 2021 · McDonald’s refused. After filing the lawsuit and prior to trial, the demand to resolve the case was $20,000.00. Not a small amount of money to be sure. However, it is not the millions of dollars you heard about. At trial, McDonald’s own witnesses admitted that the temperature they served coffee at was “ NOT SAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION ”.
But the jury's punitive damages award made headlines — upset by McDonald's unwillingness to correct a policy despite hundreds of people suffering injuries, they awarded Liebeck the equivalent of two days' worth of revenue from coffee sales for the restaurant chain.
$20,000(McDonald's claimed customers wanted the coffee this hot.) Liebeck didn't want to go to court. She just wanted McDonald's to pay her medical expenses, estimated at $20,000.Dec 16, 2016
Stella LiebeckIn the 10 years before the case, more than 700 people who were scalded by coffee burns made claims against the company. But McDonald's never lowered the temperature of its coffee. The plaintiff in the case was 79-year old Stella Liebeck.Dec 3, 2018
The jurors awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages for her pain, suffering, and medical costs, but those damages were reduced to $160,000 because they found her 20 percent responsible. They awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages. That amounted to about two days of revenue for McDonald's coffee sales.
Liebeck was taken to the hospital, where it was determined that she had suffered third-degree burns on six percent of her skin and lesser burns over sixteen percent. She remained in the hospital for eight days while she underwent skin grafting.
She received third-degree burns over 16 percent of her body, necessitating hospitalization for eight days, whirlpool treatment for debridement of her wounds, skin grafting, scarring, and disability for more than two years. Despite these extensive injuries, she offered to settle with McDonald's for $20,000.
The aftermath of the McDonald’s hot coffee case. The case of Stella Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants— more commonly known as the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit—is often cited as a classic example of frivolous litigation in the United States. In much of the public’s eye, Stella Lieback was a greedy plaintiff who spilled warm coffee on her lap ...
Since the verdict was handed down in 1994, a number of lawsuits have been filed against coffee vendors, including Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Burger King, as a result of coffee-related burns. In most cases, the coffee temperature was not as hot as the coffee in Stella’s case and the plaintiffs were not successful.
Why didn’t Stella try to settle the case before filing a lawsuit? One of the common misconceptions about the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit is that Stella was eager to sue McDonald’s for millions of dollars. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Unable to settle, Stella filed a personal injury lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico alleging that McDonald’s was “grossly negligent” for selling coffee that was “unreasonably dangerous.”. Enjuris tip: A person or business acts with gross negligence if they act with a “reckless disregard for the safety of others.”.
Stella suffered third-degree burns (the most serious and painful kind) on more than 16% of her body, including her inner thighs, genitals, and buttocks where the skin was burned down to the layers of muscle and fatty tissue. Enjuris tip: Learn more about burn injuries and burn injury lawsuits .
At the end of the trial, the jury awarded Stella $200,000 in compensatory damages (reduced to $160,000 because the jury found her 20% at fault) and $2.7 million in punitive damages (reduced to $480,000 by the judge). Both parties appealed and the lawsuit was ultimately settled for less than $600,000.
Most other restaurants serve coffee at 160 degrees, which takes 20 seconds to cause third-degree burns (usually enough time to wipe away the coffee). Home coffee makers typically brew coffee at about 135-150 degrees.
But even after that, the myth of “the woman who got rich after abusing the court system over spilled coffee” persisted. Liebeck’s attorney Kenneth Wagner said Liebeck was concerned about the number of other people who had been burned by McDonald’s coffee—and that the number included children.
They awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages. That amounted to about two days of revenue for McDonald’s coffee sales. The trial judge reduced the punitive damages to $480,000, while noting that McDonald’s behavior had been “willful, wanton, and reckless.”. The parties later settled for a confidential amount.
At this temperature, spilled coffee causes third degree burns in less than three seconds. Other restaurants served coffee at 160 degrees, which takes twenty seconds to cause third degree burns. That is usually enough time to wipe away the coffee.
Stella Liebeck, the 79-year-old woman who was severely burned by McDonald’s coffee that she spilled in her lap in 1992, was unfairly held up as an example of frivolous litigation in the public eye. But the facts of the case tell a very different story. The coffee that burned Stella Liebeck was dangerously hot—hot enough to cause third-degree burns, even through clothes, in three seconds. Liebeck endured third-degree burns over 16 percent of her body, including her inner thighs and genitals—the skin was burned away to the layers of muscle and fatty tissue. She had to be hospitalized for eight days, and she required skin grafts and other treatment. Her recovery lasted two years.
While parked, Liebeck put the coffee cup between her knees and removed the lid to add cream and sugar, and she spilled it. She was wearing sweatpants, which held the scalding liquid against her skin.
Her recovery lasted two years. Liebeck offered to settle the case for $20,000, but the company refused. McDonald’s offered Liebeck only $800—which did not even cover her medical expenses. When the case went to trial, the jurors saw graphic photos of Liebeck’s burns.
Coffee that other restaurants serve at 160 degrees can also cause third-degree burns, but it takes 20 seconds, which usually gives the person enough time to wipe away the coffee before that happens. “Our position was that the product was unreasonably dangerous, and the temperature should have been lower,” Wagner said.
Other people have reported similar injuries after spilling McDonald's coffee. In September 1997, a seventy-three year old woman suffered first and second degree burns when a cup of McDonald's coffee spilled on her lap. At the time, McDonald's still kept its coffee at 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
The plaintiff in the case was 79-year old Stella Liebeck. How her spill unfolded is widely misunderstood -- she was not driving a car when she was injured. In fact, she was not driving at all. She had gone with her grandson, Chris, to take her son to the airport.
On the way home, Chris pulled into a McDonald's drive-thru for breakfast. He parked the car so she could add cream and sugar to her coffee. Because the car had no cup holders and a slanted dashboard, Stella Liebeck put the cup between her knees and removed the lid.
Stella Liebeck was badly injured. All she remembered was the pain.
Company Policy on Coffee Temperature. McDonald's coffee was served at a temperature between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit. McDonald's had long known that this was 20 to 30 degrees hotter than the coffee served at most other restaurants; in fact, this temperature range was indicated in its operations manual.
Serious, third degree burns occur at 185 degrees Fahrenheit in just two seconds. Skin grafting and other expensive medical treatment may be needed to treat injured customers. The costs can exceed tens of thousands of dollars and inflict prolonged pain. Some customers can become permanently disabled.
McDonald's refused to raise its compensation offer above $800. Stella Liebeck filed suit. Her lawsuit asked for $100,000 in compensatory damages (including for her pain and suffering) and triple punitive damages. These punitive damages were sought in order to send a message to McDonald's that their coffee was dangerously hot.
McDonald’s own documents showed that they were aware of over 700 cases where customers were badly burned by the coffee between 1982 to 1992. But it was cheaper to do nothing. At first, Ms. Liebeck and her family just wanted McDonald’s to cover her medical expenses in relation to this incident.
But because McDonald’s conduct was so reprehensible, they awarded $2.7 million dollars in punitive damages, which was eventually reduced by the judge to $480,000.00. To give you an idea, that’s less than McDonald’s makes from the sales of its coffee in a single day.
After getting their food and a cup of coffee, her grandson stopped briefly so that she could add cream and sugar. She placed the coffee between her legs and in the process of taking the lid off, some coffee spilled onto her lap.
McDonald’s refused. After filing the lawsuit and prior to trial, the demand to resolve the case was $20,000.00. Not a small amount of money to be sure, but not the millions of dollars you heard about. At trial, McDonald’s own witnesses admitted that the temperature they served coffee at was “NOT SAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION”.
The infamous McDonald’s Hot Coffee Lawsuit is often lauded as an example of “frivolous lawsuits” brought by people who are just trying to scam businesses into paying them money.
In the process she spilled the coffee over her lap and groin. Because she was wearing cotton sweatpants, her pants absorbed the coffee and held it against her skin resulting in third-degree burns to her thighs , buttox, and groin. Ms.
During the trial it came to light that between 1982 and 1992, McDonalds had received over 700 reports of people burned by McDonald’s coffee and had settled over $500,000 in claims from these injuries .
In 1994, Stella Lieback, a 79 year old woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a cup of coffee from a McDonald’s drive through. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a car that contained no cup holders. Her grandson was driving the car and had pulled to a stop in the McDonald’s parking lot so that she could add cream ...
Liebeck’s attorney argued that coffee should never be served at a temperature hotter than 140 degrees and that when testing samples of coffee served all over town, it was served everywhere else at a temperature at least 20 degrees cooler than that from McDonald’s.
But because she caused the spill, they reduced the amount to $160,000. The jurors then awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages, which, they reasoned, was equivalent to about two days’ worth of McDonald’s coffee sales. The total was $2,735,000 more than Liebeck’s lawsuit had requested.
Why Liebeck decided to sue. When Liebeck’s medical bills topped $10,000, she contacted McDonald’s and asked to be reimbursed. “We couldn’t believe that this much damage could happen over spilled coffee,” Liebeck’s daughter, Judy Allen, said in Scalded by the Media, a 2013 documentary about the case. “We wrote a letter to McDonald’s asking them ...
An elderly woman is burned when she spills a cup of hot coffee on her lap. She sues her way to a $2.7 million jury-awarded jackpot. The next burn comes from the media, and her life is changed forever.
Here’s how to remove coffee stains. At the time, McDonald’s required its franchises to brew its coffee at 195 to 205 degrees and sell it at 180 to 190 degrees, far warmer than the coffee made by most home coffee-brewing machines.
McDonald’s had received more than 700 complaints about burns from hot beverages over the previous ten-year period. The defense countered that the number of complaints was statistically insignificant, given the billions of cups of McDonald’s coffee sold annually. Their point seemed to turn off jurors.
On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old widow, was in the passenger seat of her grandson’s Ford Probe ordering a Value Meal at the drive-through window of an Albuquerque, New Mexico, McDonald’s. Since there were no cup holders in the Probe and the interior surfaces were sloped, her grandson, Christopher Tiano, ...
During the trial, Liebeck’s surgeon, David Arredondo, MD, told the jury that if liquid at that temperature makes contact with skin for more than a few seconds, it will cause very serious burns. “If you’re lucky, it will produce second-degree burns,” he said.
James Byrd, Jr. and Darrell Byrd Versus McDonald’s. One of the most recent major class-action lawsuits against the fast-food giant was filed by The Ferraro Law Firm on Monday, August 31, 2020. The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of 77 former black McDonald’s franchisees, alleges racial discrimination. According to the complaints of the ...
In 2019, McDonald’s reportedly argued that it should be dropped from the lawsuit because “it is removed from the day-to-day operations of a franchisee.”. However, Walker’s attorney argues that because McDonald’s exerts such control over its franchisees and their employees, they should be liable for the incident.
Ultimately, Liebeck received less than $500,000 for her losses.
Perhaps one of the most famous personal injury lawsuits, Liebeck versus McDonald’s involves Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman who spilled 190°F McDonald’s coffee into her lap. According to the American Museum of Tort Law, Liebeck suffered third-degree burns on over 16 percent of her body including her inner thighs and genitals.
Ultimately, the suit argues, black franchisees were offered false opportunities by McDonald’s.
According to the complaints of the franchisees, black franchisees were pressured to open locations in undesirable and dangerous locations that had fewer sales but higher costs in security, insurance rates, and employee turnover. White franchisees, on the other hand, were allegedly offered profitable and safe locations.
Finally, in 2020, McDonald’s agreed to pay $26 million to settle the years-long class-action lawsuit. The settlement includes compensation for back wages, unpaid overtime, meal and rest breaks, and more.
Relatives of the woman injured in the 1992 coffee spill said the verdict was justified, noting the woman suffered third-degree burns that required skin graft surgery. They said McDonald’s directed its franchises to serve coffee at dangerously hot levels.
The lawsuit does not describe the severity of Carr’s injuries. Her attorney, Sheri Manning, did not respond to a request for comment. A McDonald’s spokeswoman also did not respond to a request for comment.