It wasn't a question of serving hot vs. lukewarm coffee. Rather, it was a question of McDonald's serving coffee at a temperature close to the boiling point, which is hot enough to cause 2nd-3rd degree burns, vs hot that is hot, but not dangerously so. If the coffee was hot enough to cause serious burns to the woman's genitalia (ouch! double ouch!!) it was also hot enough to cause similar burns to one's mouth/tongue/throat tissues. I remember getting coffee from McDonald's years ago, and you always had to let it cool off before you could drink it. As was pointed out by others, McDonald brewed and served their coffee back then at very high temperatures not because consumers wanted to drink coffee hot enough to sear the skin off their lips, but because they were able to extract more coffee per pound of beans and therefore made more money. And they had been repeatedly warned about the danger of doing so That they chose to ignore the warnings was one of the reasons they were hit with punitive damages when they forced the case to go to trial. And BTW-the jury award was significantly reduced on appeal. Anyone hear willing to take "X" amount of dollars in exchange for having 2nd-3rd degree burns to their groin area?
And as far as the post about the burglar who sued--that's not a true story. It's one of those internet urban legends that's often packaged with the McDonald's story under the title of "Stella Awards" (the plaintiff in the McDonald's case was named Stella), purportedly a collection of outrageous lawsuits designed to highlight absurdities in our judicial system.

Only problem: most if not all of the "cases" cited in the "Stella Awards" are untrue.
Best to fact check them first before quoting them....






Quote Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Well, yes, but what's the alternative?
Serving lukewarm coffee to appease the people who want to be insulated from life? Some things in our daily lives have the potential to hurt us. It is our own responsibility to make sure that they don't.

If I buy a hammer and hit on my fingers, the hardware store is not to blame.
Same if the hammer were an axe. It is understood that buy buying the axe, I take responsibility for using it. Come to think of it, it's the same when using a straight razor. If you buy one and cut yourself, you can't hold dovo accountable.

Imo, if you buy coffee, you know it will be hot enough to hurt you. If it then does, it is a bit lame to hold McD accountable. Yes, they were warned that their product was very hot. But that doesn't change the fact that coffee should be like that. They put a number of coffee experts on the stand who testified that indeed, coffee should be that hot. But to no avail.