Puterbac News Network and Political Discussion Thread

[Owlman]

Bullshit. Why should someone else pay for your own stupidity?

What are you talking about? Attorney's don't want to take frivolous suits because it mostly costs them money in the end. Did you not read what I wrote?

[Jungle Rat]

I didn't

[Owlman]

yeah, but I expect that from you Rat

[Jungle Rat]

Have you seen my flip flops?

[Owlman]

The ones with Romney's name on the sole?

[Jungle Rat]

No. Those are toes. Mine have Big Bird on them

[10ac]

Bullshit. Why should someone else pay for your own stupidity?

What are you talking about? Attorney's don't want to take frivolous suits because it mostly costs them money in the end. Did you not read what I wrote?

That's what's bullshit. If they had sold her coffee in a defective cup and they knew it was defective and the bottom fell out and scalded her would be one thing, but to sue someone (and fucking win) because you're a klutz is bullshit.

Hot coffee is hot, sharp knives are sharp, etc.

[Professor Tiger]

Those kinds of lawsuits aren't all that common.

IMO, a much bigger problem is frivolous med-mal lawsuits. Doctors now routinely practice defensive medicine by ordering tests that they know are probably unnecessary. But they don't want to run the 1% risk of NOT running them and getting sued. That is a BIG part of the reason health care costs and insurance rates are going up so fast.

[Owlman]

hot and scalding are two different things. Fortunately, science recognizes the difference. McDonald's served a product that they knew from previous lawsuits was dangerous and they continued to do so, despite already losing earlier lawsuits on the matter, which evidently didn't cost McDonald's enough so that they changed their ways (2.7 million equivalent to 2 days of coffee sales). By any definition, that is not a frivolous lawsuit. If they had continued to do so, their punitive damages would get even bigger.

[10ac]

And I and lots of others think it's bullshit. Some ambulance chaser had a nice payday because some old lady spilled her coffee. I wonder who initiated the sequence that ended in the suit. I doubt that it was her. Probably her son or daughter looking for a windfall or maybe the ambulance chaser was sitting in the ER waiting room. My guess is the latter.

[10ac]

Heh, then a Bart Durham commercial comes on at the end of the game.

[Owlman]

probably the son who was the driver who pulled over so she could put cream and sugar in the coffee. She spilled the coffee trying to take off the top (not surprising that this can happen to anybody). The son had to rush her to the hospital. 3rd degree burns on her thighs and buttocks in a 79 year old can be very dangerous.

As for getting rich, they only asked for $200,000 for hospital costs. The punitive damages were set by the jury because of McDonald's continued actions. So no, it wasn't an ambulance chaser looking for a windfall. They're out there, but not on this case.

[sardis]

Owlman, you are so entrenched in the legal system that you fail to see just how ridiculous that lawsuit is to the average sane person. In your world, if the case is arguable and you get just the right judge and jury and you win or get a settlement, then it was a legitimate case. To the rest of us, it is an unfair cost to businesses to feed a sue happy culture reared to believe that every thing bad happens to me is somone else's fault and I should be made right by SOMEONE, dammit. It is an insult to those who have legitimate claims and it ends up as additional cost to innocent consumers.

[Toemeesleather]

Well, at least we're all better off/healthier because of the the big tobacco settlement from a few years ago.

[THE_WIZARD_]

So Mickey D's should have to lower the temperature on their coffee brewing process thus making a crappier product and losing millions of their loyal coffee drinkers (I being one of them...they have the best coffee under $2) and suffering millions of dollars in lost sales and profit because some dumbass geezer can't figure out it is potentially dangerous to stick a hot cup of joe between your legs and open the lid in a vehicle.

Un-fucking-believable. Maybe McD's should also grind up their food so she doesn't have a choking hazard too and has to actually chew the food.

I thought it was hilarious when McD's starting putting warnings on their coffee cups that the product was "Hot". Consumerism for retards.

[Toemeesleather]

"War is a game that is played with a smile.
If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin,
keep out of the way till you can."

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength

[Owlman]

I'll take Churchill over Hoffer any day.

[Owlman]

So Mickey D's should have to lower the temperature on their coffee brewing process thus making a crappier product and losing millions of their loyal coffee drinkers

They don't seem to have suffered much. McDonald's coffee sales have increased dramatically and are one of the biggest sellers of coffee worldwide. For example, they are the number one seller of coffee in the UK.

[AlabamAlum]

Spacer,

See, I understand what you're saying about previous lawsuits and liability and precedence and whatnot. Here's what I am saying: I disagree with the previous suits just as I disagree with hers. Coffee should be that hot. You should expect it and take care not to spill it on yourself. Yes, I know that other places have dropped their coffee temps out of fear of lawsuits and thats a shame. Their coffee sucks now.

I want my coffee that hot and I do not need a warning. Just like I don't need 34 stickers on my ladder warning me that if I'm a dumbass, or do dumbassed things at the top of my ladder, I may fall and hurt myself.

To me, she should have had enough coffee at her advanced age to have expected it to be hot. If she is too doddering to remove the lid while sitting in a car, she should sit the coffee down and not touch it until it cools. Or not order it through a drive-thru. If I had been on the jury, it would have been hung or I would have argued until we not only ruled in favor of McD's but had hit the clumsy old bag for court costs and legal fees.

IMO, the only way that McDonald's should have been found liable in this -or any other spilled coffee suit- is if it were due to a cup defect or employee mistake (eg, the bottom falls out of the cup or the employee drops the coffee on the customer). Otherwise, stick with apple juice, you doddering old coffee-dropping granny.

[THE_WIZARD_]

In the very least...that dipshit old hag should share in the blame. I do understand that their coffee is hotter than other establishments and perhaps McD's could have done more to explain to their less braniac customers that their coffee is very hot...but what kind of an idiot puts coffee between their legs and takes the lid off? Mind boggling. Now if she had not had it between her legs and the action of taking the lid off caused a burn I could completely understand her case. There seemed to be an unfair distribution of blame to McD's in this case IMHO. I know McD's had other complaints about the temp of their coffee...like 700 of them...which sounds like a lot...but I believe that was over a ten year period...so 70 incidents per year for a company that has 20,000+ locations. That is ridiculously low.

Consumers need to bear a little responsibility in using the products they buy responsibly too. Pay her damn medical bill and tell her to never walk into a place that serves coffee again...yer too fucking stupid to drink coffee.