On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old Albuquerque, N.M resident, received third degree burns to her thighs, buttocks and groin when she spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee into her lap.
Most people assume that she was driving at the time, which is untrue. Her grandson, Chris, had driven the car through the McDonald’s drive thru, and he pulled the car into a parking space and had stopped so that he and Stella could add milk and sugar to their coffee before departing. The car, a 1989 Ford Probe, had no cup holders or other flat surfaces upon which the cup could be rested, so Stella placed the cup between her legs and held it steady with one hand so that she could remove the lid. While trying to remove the lid, Stella spilled the entire contents of the cup into her lap, resulting in severe third degree burns which required skin grafts to treat. The documentary shows photos of the burns, which look more like burns one would receive if someone shoved a burning torch into your crotch.
Stella tried to resolve the matter with McDonald’s before obtaining a lawyer. She only wanted McDonald’s to pay the portion of her roughly $10,000.00 in medical bills which were not covered by Medicare. McDonald’s refused, offering only $800.00 to settle her claim. Stella then retained a lawyer and sued McDonald’s for negligence, due to the temperature at which it served its coffee: between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit (which was in accordance with McDonald’s national franchisee policy). Coffee at this temperature is capable of causing third degree burns to exposed skin in a matter of seconds.
The jury found that both McDonald’s and Stella were negligent, allocating 20% of the fault to Stella and 80% to McDonald’s. It awarded Stella $160,000.00 in compensatory damages ($200,000.00 total compensatory damages, reduced by 20% due to Stella’s own negligence) and $2.7 million in punitive damages (roughly the value of 2 days’ of McDonald’s profits from coffee sales). The trial judge reduced the amount of punitive damages to $480,000.00. The case was confidentially settled while pending appeal. So, no, Stella didn’t get millions. Not even $1 million.
Hot Coffee shows how this relatively minor lawsuit was conflated into “all that is wrong with the American civil justice system” by the tort reform lobby, with a large assist by the news media, who were either too lazy or corrupt to get the facts of the case straight. If you come away from watching this film thinking that Stella Liebeck was a crass opportunist looking to get rich from a frivolous lawsuit, you weren’t paying attention.
