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Liebeck was in the passenger's seat of a 1989 Ford Probe, which did not have cup holders. On February 27, 1992, Liebeck ordered a 49-cent cup of coffee from the drive-through window of an Albuquerque McDonald's restaurant at 5001 Gibson Boulevard Southeast. Stella May Liebeck was born in Norwich, England, on Decemshe was 81 at the time of her lawsuit. In June 2011, HBO premiered Hot Coffee, a documentary that discussed in depth how the Liebeck case has centered in debates on tort reform. Ex-attorney Susan Saladoff sees the portrayal in the media as purposeful misrepresentation due to political and corporate influence. It was cited by some as an example of frivolous litigation ABC News called the case "the poster child of excessive lawsuits", while the legal scholar Jonathan Turley argued that the claim was "a meaningful and worthy lawsuit". The Liebeck case became a flashpoint in the debate in the United States over tort reform. The parties settled for a confidential amount before an appeal was decided.
#M.e.a.t. restaurant trial#
The trial judge reduced the punitive damages to three times the amount of the compensatory damages, totalling $640,000. They awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages to cover medical expenses, and $2.7 million (equivalent to $5,000,000 in 2021) in punitive damages, the equivalent of two days of McDonald's coffee sales. The jury found that McDonald's was 80 percent responsible for the incident. Liebeck's attorneys argued that, at 180–190 ☏ (82–88 ☌), McDonald's coffee was boiling hot and more likely to cause serious injury than coffee served at any other establishment. District Court for the District of New Mexico, accusing McDonald's of gross negligence. When McDonald's refused, Liebeck's attorney filed suit in the U.S. Liebeck sought to settle with McDonald's for $20,000 to cover her medical expenses.
#M.e.a.t. restaurant skin#
She was hospitalized for eight days while undergoing skin grafting, followed by two years of medical treatment. The plaintiff, Stella Liebeck (1912-2004), a 79-year-old woman, suffered third-degree burns in her pelvic region when she accidentally spilled coffee in her lap after purchasing it from a McDonald's restaurant. McDonald's Restaurants, also known as the McDonald's coffee case and the hot coffee lawsuit, was a highly publicized 1994 product liability lawsuit in the United States against the McDonald's restaurant chain. and McDonald's International, Inc.ġ994 Extra LEXIS 23 ( Bernalillo County, N.M. For similar uses, see Hot Coffee (disambiguation). It does not store any personal data."Hot coffee case" redirects here. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
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