Woman loses hot tea lawsuit against Starbucks

[Tack980]

McDonalds has never lowered the temperature of their coffee, it's still as dangerous as it ever was. What they did was to put the words "dangerous hot!" on the Styrofoam cup.

That's considered "sufficient" warning to get around the temp law. Got to love lobbying.

[Lady Dragonheart]

Well, that's good then, I suppose.

[dextersmith]

Trying to follow in the McDonalds hot coffee fiasco I see

She can try again there.

[Rooflesstoofless]

It was in America...North America. Way to learn geography.

Only idiots refer to Canada as America.

[Deleted]

Only idiots refer to Canada as America.

North America is not America, why does it have America in the name then

[Serpha]

Only idiots refer to Canada as America.

You must be from USA.

[dextersmith]

Knowing hot tea is hot, people like her aren't really buying a beverage, they're trying to buy a cup of cash. It could be a poorly calculated risk or negligence to have that near you in a moving vehicle. They probably high fived and cheered all the way to the hospital.

[Deleted]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...-tea-1.3970429

Can you believe scammers these days? Blaming Starbucks for her mistake.

Should probably not drive like an idiot with a cup of hot tea in the car then.
Trivial lawsuits like these make actual, legit lawsuits look bad and not get any press.

[Annoying]

The first lawsuit, the one against McDonalds? I keep hearing different stories about it, the last version was the woman was only paid for her medical bills, that was it.

I don't know what to believe.

Punitive and compensatory awards were two separate issues in that case. She was awarded compensatory awards for medical bills. ~$200k for the medical expenses she had (which is all she asked for, by the way). They awarded her ~$3m in punitive damages because of gross negligence -- 700 people had received third degree burns from McD's keeping its coffee too hot. McD's admitted it only ever measured the temperature for taste and never considered any injury potential in how it kept its coffee hot. They kept it at 190f, which causes deep tissue third degree burns in 2-7s.

She never asked for the punitive damages, so people that assume she was gold digging or something are wrong. She asked to be compensated for medical damages and the jury, on its own, decided she deserved the punitive damages, not her or her lawyer.

[quras]

SNIP...

Additionally, she didn't get additional money. She only asked for payment of medical bills.

Thats not entirely true. I present to you the Stella case.

http://www.stellaawards.com/stella.html

[Independent voter]

Punitive and compensatory awards were two separate issues in that case. She was awarded compensatory awards for medical bills. ~$200k for the medical expenses she had (which is all she asked for, by the way). They awarded her ~$3m in punitive damages because of gross negligence -- 700 people had received third degree burns from McD's keeping its coffee too hot. McD's admitted it only ever measured the temperature for taste and never considered any injury potential in how it kept its coffee hot. They kept it at 190f, which causes deep tissue third degree burns in 2-7s.

She never asked for the punitive damages, so people that assume she was gold digging or something are wrong. She asked to be compensated for medical damages and the jury, on its own, decided she deserved the punitive damages, not her or her lawyer.

This is the old story.

The new story is she never received the punitive damages.

McDonalds never lowered the temperature of the coffee, all they did was put the words "caution hot" on the outside of the Styrofoam cups.

I would like to know exactly what happened.

[caervek]

Only idiots refer to Canada as America.

Until 150 years ago Canadians did too ^^

[Rooflesstoofless]

North America is not America, why does it have America in the name then

You must be from USA.

Until 150 years ago Canadians did too ^^

ITT: People who are dense enough to try and conflate continent with country.

I'm going to start saying Chile is part of America too since South America has the name 'America' in it.

[Aitch]

Third degree burns?? Jesus can you imagine if she had put it in her mouth as intended..

[Maconi]

[zenkai]

It wasn't even in America. Way to not read the thread. Wow!

LOL someone flunked geography.

[gegalfo]

whats a hot water? is it just hot water? and if it is whats it for? jsut drinking? who does that?

[Serpha]

ITT: People who are dense enough to try and conflate continent with country.

I'm going to start saying Chile is part of America too since South America has the name 'America' in it.

ITT: People who think the world revolves around their arseholes.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

I get how fun it is to try and troll tennisace guys... but seriously...Unless the word "America" is preceded by the words "North", South", or "Central" or is in the plural form "the Americas"... it's pretty obviously referring to the country and not to a general geographic region.

[Stormspark]

The only way I could see blaming the retailer is if the beverage was hot enough to melt through the cup. If the liquid being spilled on someone was a result of THEIR actions, then it's their fault, not the business. It doesn't matter how hot it is. Hot things are hot. If you spill them on yourself and cause burns that's on you.

Now if Starbucks or Mcdonald's or whoever handed her a cup, and it was so hot that it melted through the cup and went all over them and caused burns, sure then I can see blaming the business.