Whoes fault?
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I agree, but it's sad that case became a joke instead of what the h@ll was McDonald's thinking?
Not I. That looks WAAAAY to close to the love zone for my comfort.
Yup away from the love zone. Speaking of love zone, I never heard it put that way. I'm going to start using it lol.
And leave it unattended in an incredibly hot car? Yes, they should know better.
If you don't have a witness AND physical evidence you don't have a case against a company that clears a good profit. If you can't pay a private detective 10 thousand bucks and a civil defense lawyer 12 thousand bucks you can't win 500 thousand bucks for biting into a piece of glass in your baked beans. To someone that makes under the wealthy line, that piece of glass was added to the can after being opened whether it was or not. To someone that makes 200k a year, that piece of glass has the same pattern of micron scratches as the glass shield on industrial oven #7 at the TX facility. I don't want to care about whether or not I have enough money to sue McDonnald's if their product harms me, but if I were harmed by their product I'd probably care then. I'm sorry I'm always the poor guy on a soap box but I like to play underdog advocate anyway.
I don't think we need tort reform. We need a new media network all together to stop giving powerful lobbyists the ability to pay off the new york times to report that we need tort reform.
I don't think we need tort reform. We need a new media network all together to stop giving powerful lobbyists the ability to pay off the new york times to report that we need tort reform.
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I 100% agree sometimes company's and or manufacturers have to be held accountable for bad decisions but it just seems to me company's and manufacturers get held accountable for consumer bad decisions also. This is a tough one because the lady did get some serious burns, but then again the cup had a warning the contence will burn you, and putting a cup of anything hot in between your legs is not a smart decision.That's not the best case to cite.
The Truth About The Hot Coffee Case
Picture of actual injuries.
ETA: I was incorrect. The picture I posted earlier was of another person burned by McDonald's coffee. The picture above is of the plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The article you posted sides with the lady . Im sure with a little searching I can find another article that paints a different picture but lists the same facts.
Did MC'Ds make their coffee to hot probably, Should you place anything hot between your legs and pry the lid off? Both had a fault IMO
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Actually, you should be careful of that McDonald's story. There was a very large, very rich corporate lobbyist group behind the trashing of that case.
Truth is, the woman--who was elderly--had third degree burns and needed skin grafts. Freaking skin grafts. It wasn't some ordinary "burn". Not by a long shot.
What was going on was McD's marketing dweebs had this ever so brilliant "idea" to ratchet up the temp of the coffee to levels known to be seriously dangerous (if memory serves, upward in the 140+ territory). Their--and I use the term loosely--reasoning was that since people going through the drive through wanted their coffee to still be hot when they got home, the coffee temp should be run up high so the coffee cooled to "hot" on the trip home.
But the temps were in known to be dangerous territory. I'd bet my last dollar there were tons of meetings along the way where people warned the marketing twerps "that's dangerous" and were brushed off.
Further, the family did not initiate legal action right off. They approach McD with an offer to settle for medical costs. That's all they wanted. McD's corporate policy was to tell any and all customers harmed by their products to go jump in a lake. So the family sued.
The jury did award a high amount (about $20 million) but the reasoning was that since we were talking about a multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation, the punitive damage award needed to be big enough to whack the corporation between the eyes, get their attention, and change their behavior. The formula used was actually interesting. They awarded one penny per cup of coffee sold on one day, globally, by McD (which gives you a glimpse at the sheer scale of McD).
The woman never saw that money. The appellate court reduced the sum to around $640,000. And, keep in mind, she had tens of thousands in medical bills pending.
Be leery of "tort reform". My state did it. So far, our "benefits" are we lead the nation in number of people unable to afford health insurance. And auto insurance rates are rising faster than average. In fact, rising so fast, I've had to cut back on my auto insurance coverage amounts about every third year as that's about how long it takes for the premiums to double.
And I'm 51, not 21. And have zero tickets and zero accidents on my record. It's been so long since I got a speeding ticket (and I still say it was a two bit speed trap but, meh, paid it, wasn't worth the trouble) I don't believe anybody had even heard of "Monica Lewinsky" yet when it happened. So, no, it's not me making it go up thank you very much.
If a company knowingly sells you a defective battery that blows half your face off and you live in Texas, you've been tort reformed into "yeah, whaddaya you gonna do about it?" and they'll keep selling known defective batteries.
Tort "reform" ain't necessarily for your benefit...
Is it possible to make it idiot proof? Then I would say no compensation.
TBH, I'm truly deeply disappointed by some of the comments, POVs and the graphic in this thread!
Some of ya'll really need to just put down your PVs and slowly slink away... or massively increase your nic levels!
Can anyone tell me exactly when common sense, reading comprehension and personal responsibility became obsolete?
We are eff'ed!!!
Some of ya'll really need to just put down your PVs and slowly slink away... or massively increase your nic levels!
Can anyone tell me exactly when common sense, reading comprehension and personal responsibility became obsolete?
We are eff'ed!!!
IMO it seems there is a huge lack of common sense and responsibility on both sides of the sue me sue you issue. If you are hurt by a companies poorly designed product, or hurt by a service you are paying for in good faith ie. doctor, contractor there must be responsibility on both sides. Being severely injured thru no fault of your own is no fun but lets face it if you are vaping hopefully you are old enough to know the risks of using products you are choosing to use( I am thinking of pv's, mods with replaceable batteries.) Now I don't know if a blu disposable could blow up, but I would have to say, that would be a viable lawsuit given as I am a new vaper and my first ecig was a blu which I used with no idea an ecig could possibly blow. I was so blissfully ignorant of that fact until a lot of study here about batteries, I still don't know if a ecig disposable could blow, I'm thinking not but mmm....
Here we are the commoners, arguing on a forum about great political philosophies.
The facts of the case are on many law review sites. I only linked to the article because it was a brief summary. Irrespective if what we feel the woman should or shouldn't have done with her coffee cup doesn't change the temperature of the coffee. McDonald's policy required coffee be held in the pot at 185 degrees (plus or minus five degrees) and burns from consumed food products can occur at roughly at 140 degrees.
When punitive damages are awarded it is not to the plaintiff for pain and suffering, that is covered by compensatory damages. Punitive damages are awarded to send a message to the defendant not to engage in such practices again. Punitive means punishment. How much money would it take to actually punish McDonald's? The punitive damages in the case were 2.7 million dollars (later reduced), which at the time was reported to be two days of McDonald's coffee sales revenue. Some message.
I'm sorry to go off on another rawr again, but when a product is used in the manner it was intended to be used and someone is injured there is product liability. The question becomes what would a reasonable person do? Would a reasonable person, in a car, put a styrofoam cup of coffee on the seat between their legs to put in cream and sugar? Would a reasonable person leave a battery charging in a hot car? There is a difference.
Oh gosh, sorry guys. I went off again.
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Lol! You beat me! I feel better now, since your post was longer.
And I believe the punitive damages were reduced to around $480,000. That's probably one day of lunch at McDonald's in California.
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I'm changing the title of my "media trashing ecigs" file to this:
I felt like learning something new tonight so if ya'll have the time, you can learn from my research:
You can't even open a Mcdonnald's for 500 thousand dollars. In order to be considered by the Mcdonnald's corporate offices to open your very own Mcdonnald's, you need to have a net worth (unborrowed) of at least $750,000.
A prospective Micky D's franchisee must put at least 25% in cash as a down payment toward the total cost of purchasing an existing restaurant building structure. The remainder of the cost of the building can be financed, but only for a maximum of no more than seven years. For a new restaurant, McDonald's head-quarter's requires 40% of the entire cost of the store be paid in cash at the outset.
On top of the required $750k net worth and the 25% of the cost of the building mortgage, there is a franchise fee. This is a direct fee that McDonnald's charges a prospective new franchisee. This fee is no less than $45 grand but can fluctuate upwards annually.
But lets not forget the regulated McDonnald's equipment. Equipment and pre-opening costs for a new store generally run on average from $959,450 to $2.11 million. Thats your regulation McDonnald's branded fryalator and your Mcdonnald's industrial griddle & microwaves.
There is also a sales fee. 4% of all sales goes directly to McDonnald's corporation. This pays for national advertising and licensing of the Mcdonnald's name, cooking equipment, and trademarks. This fee is collected at the end of the year and typically reaches $100,000 for each operating restaurant.
Each Mcdonnalds restaurant you see in your town brings in about 2.5 million dollars of revenue annually on average. as of 2010, there were around 14 thousand McDonald's restaurants in the US. Thats 35 billion dollars paid to eat McDonald's burgers and fries each year. And that is the US market alone. Thats around 1.5 billion dollars in corporate revenue each year which yields a dividend of around 60 to 90 cents per $100 share for shareholders on average.
There are many directors on the board and different divisions for different areas around the world, but the chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Miles D. White had a total compensation of $28,335,494.00 in 2008. This was from a salary of $1,795,471.00, $7,582,032.00 in stock awards, $10,757,796.00 from option awards, $4,200,000.00 for non-equity incentive plan, $3,149,302.00 for Change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, and $850,893.00 for "all other compensation". Other Executives of McDonalds earned from $175,000 to $17,000,000 in 2008.
Sources are Yahoo Finance, google search and wiki answers.
So yeah, the 400 thousand she got was a penny in the fountain so to speak. If McDonnald's workers were paid $15 an hour instead of $7.50 an hour on average, the cost of a Big Mac would rise a dollar and 3 cents. That is if corporate didn't take 4% of the added $1.06. So we should all be very grateful that Mcdonald's pays a single mother of 2 a wage that is 18% below the poverty line for a family of three. Otherwise we'd all have to spend a dollar more for lunch.
You can't even open a Mcdonnald's for 500 thousand dollars. In order to be considered by the Mcdonnald's corporate offices to open your very own Mcdonnald's, you need to have a net worth (unborrowed) of at least $750,000.
A prospective Micky D's franchisee must put at least 25% in cash as a down payment toward the total cost of purchasing an existing restaurant building structure. The remainder of the cost of the building can be financed, but only for a maximum of no more than seven years. For a new restaurant, McDonald's head-quarter's requires 40% of the entire cost of the store be paid in cash at the outset.
On top of the required $750k net worth and the 25% of the cost of the building mortgage, there is a franchise fee. This is a direct fee that McDonnald's charges a prospective new franchisee. This fee is no less than $45 grand but can fluctuate upwards annually.
But lets not forget the regulated McDonnald's equipment. Equipment and pre-opening costs for a new store generally run on average from $959,450 to $2.11 million. Thats your regulation McDonnald's branded fryalator and your Mcdonnald's industrial griddle & microwaves.
There is also a sales fee. 4% of all sales goes directly to McDonnald's corporation. This pays for national advertising and licensing of the Mcdonnald's name, cooking equipment, and trademarks. This fee is collected at the end of the year and typically reaches $100,000 for each operating restaurant.
Each Mcdonnalds restaurant you see in your town brings in about 2.5 million dollars of revenue annually on average. as of 2010, there were around 14 thousand McDonald's restaurants in the US. Thats 35 billion dollars paid to eat McDonald's burgers and fries each year. And that is the US market alone. Thats around 1.5 billion dollars in corporate revenue each year which yields a dividend of around 60 to 90 cents per $100 share for shareholders on average.
There are many directors on the board and different divisions for different areas around the world, but the chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Miles D. White had a total compensation of $28,335,494.00 in 2008. This was from a salary of $1,795,471.00, $7,582,032.00 in stock awards, $10,757,796.00 from option awards, $4,200,000.00 for non-equity incentive plan, $3,149,302.00 for Change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, and $850,893.00 for "all other compensation". Other Executives of McDonalds earned from $175,000 to $17,000,000 in 2008.
Sources are Yahoo Finance, google search and wiki answers.
So yeah, the 400 thousand she got was a penny in the fountain so to speak. If McDonnald's workers were paid $15 an hour instead of $7.50 an hour on average, the cost of a Big Mac would rise a dollar and 3 cents. That is if corporate didn't take 4% of the added $1.06. So we should all be very grateful that Mcdonald's pays a single mother of 2 a wage that is 18% below the poverty line for a family of three. Otherwise we'd all have to spend a dollar more for lunch.
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As I was into rc cars. I see more and more people using batterys and such wrong. Its the consumers responsibility to learn what they are using. Ask questions and read everything 4 times if need to be.
sorry, but this one gets me riled up- don't use the coffee spill as an example of tort reform- YOU DON"T KNOW what you are talking about. you are entitled to your opinion but not to your own facts-you don't know what the truth is behind that case you are only repeating garbage you heard "somewhere". learn the facts not the talking points.....
I know this is not popular because I seen it from the time I found this forum
All these posts about how could someone be that stupid
I mean when I first found this forum I thought everyone was born with this knowledge of batteries
I was not and no one I know has In fact everyone I've know leaves the cell phone on the charger over night
And other things described as stupid
I honestly believe when someone is new to this with no prior experience and get there first ego or cigalike
there really should be some type of warning
The B&M I got my first ego taught me to charge it on the computer let it charge overnight
I was a novice and did not think I had any reason not to trust them at the time
Now some one being a little more advanced getting a mod yes that's another story
at that point you should have done a lot of research before hand on safety
All these posts about how could someone be that stupid
I mean when I first found this forum I thought everyone was born with this knowledge of batteries
I was not and no one I know has In fact everyone I've know leaves the cell phone on the charger over night
And other things described as stupid
I honestly believe when someone is new to this with no prior experience and get there first ego or cigalike
there really should be some type of warning
The B&M I got my first ego taught me to charge it on the computer let it charge overnight
I was a novice and did not think I had any reason not to trust them at the time
Now some one being a little more advanced getting a mod yes that's another story
at that point you should have done a lot of research before hand on safety
We are all guilty of that from time to time. There is so much misinformation floating around its hard not to be fooled sometimes.
So because I didn't put IMO you're riled up? Sorry buddy I think its pretty clear thats all my own opinion. I'm pretty sure I clarified it further in a latter post.
You really have no idea what I think about a multitude of things. To assume that you do is extremely arrogant on your part.
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