I used to think the same thing until someone pointed out the actual details of this lawsuit. It is defintely interesting. McDonald's was told repeatedly before this incident that they served coffee way too hot, something like 10-20F above the average. This lady just wanted a very small amount for medical bills, McDonald's bascially told her to go screw herself. In the end McDonalds was slapped with such a big fine because they were so far out of line with how they served the coffee in general and not because of the injuries to the old lady.
I don't even know why you are considering this. Over at stellaawards it states how stupid this woman was and how wrong the lawsuit was. Here's the list they have posted:
The plaintiffs were apparently able to document 700 cases of burns from McDonald's coffee over 10 years, or 70 burns per year. But that doesn't take into account how many cups are sold without incident. A McDonald's consultant pointed out the 700 cases in 10 years represents just 1 injury per 24 million cups sold! For every injury, no matter how severe, 23,999,999 people managed to drink their coffee without any injury whatever. Isn't that proof that the coffee is not "unreasonably dangerous"?
Even in the eyes of an obviously sympathetic jury, Stella was judged to be 20 percent at fault -- she did, after all, spill the coffee into her lap all by herself. The car was stopped, so she presumably was not bumped to cause the spill. Indeed she chose to hold the coffee cup between her knees instead of any number of safer locations as she opened it. Should she have taken more responsibility for her own actions?
And...
Here's the Kicker: Coffee is supposed to be served in the range of 185 degrees! The National Coffee Association recommends coffee be brewed at "between 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal extraction" and drunk "immediately". If not drunk immediately, it should be "maintained at 180-185 degrees Fahrenheit". Exactly what, then, did McDonald's do wrong? Did it exhibit "willful, wanton, reckless or malicious conduct" -- the standard in New Mexico for awarding punitive damages?
Come to think of it... What does Stallman do besides giving talks all the time? I haven't heard much come out, other than the GNU Radio (but that's run by an Electrical Engineer).
Slashdot Mirror
In your adobe/Reader/ directory, create a directory called plug_ins_disabled.
Copy all the plugs in from the plug_ins/ to plug_ins_diabled/ except the following:
ewh32.ap
printme.api
Search.api
The load time should be considerable.
Come to think of it... What does Stallman do besides giving talks all the time? I haven't heard much come out, other than the GNU Radio (but that's run by an Electrical Engineer).
Oh Baby