I’ve spilled hot coffee on myself. I did not require hospitalization. I did not suffer permanent disfigurement. When 79-year-old Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, in 1992, spilled a hot cup of McDonald’s coffee all over her lap, she required skin grafts, took months to recover, and suffered permanent scarring.
Yet, the public was largely unaware of the extent of her injuries and saw the case as a clumsy old woman blaming McDonald’s for scalding herself.
Misreported Facts in Stella Liebeck Coffee Case
Stella Liebeck was not driving her car when the accident occurred. She was not at the drive-thru, either. The car was parked in a McDonald’s parking lot and she was sitting in the front passenger seat while her grandson went inside to get some cream and sugar for the coffee.
The car had no cup holder so Stella placed the cup between her knees while she removed the lid to add cream and sugar. The cup tipped over and the entire contents of the cup spilled on her lap.
Hot Coffee is Not Always Just Hot Coffee
There is a difference between hot and scalding. The coffee in Stella’s cup was not just hot, it was terribly, dangerously, ridiculously hot.
To make matters worse, the sweatpants she was wearing just kept this scalding hot coffee against her skin. The result was third-degree burns.
Is it reasonable to suffer third-degree burns from a spilled cup of coffee? A third-degree burn is a full-thickness burn. It destroys the outer layer of the skin and the entire layer beneath. Liebeck’s burns were, in a word, horrible.
How Hot is Coffee Normally Served?
While coffee is served at a range of temperatures and many may prefer it hotter than others, the accepted serving temperature of coffee in food service establishments is between 155ºF and 175ºF. This is warm enough to sip without scalding your lips and throat if you are careful.
How Hot Was the McDonald’s Coffee?
Stella’s coffee was served at McDonald’s recommended holding temperature of 180 to 190ºF, at least a full 15 degrees hotter than the upper range of normal serving temperatures.
According to experts, this is hot enough to cause third-degree burns in three to seven seconds and will certainly scald your lips and throat.
McDonald’s was well aware of the risk of burns from their coffee. They had received more than 700 reports of injury before Stella’s suit and had settled many of the claims, spending $500,00 in the process. Yet, the company had opted to do nothing to change its serving policies. To McDonald’s, 700 was a very low number compared to the billions of cups of coffee served.
It became clear to the jurors during the trial that McDonald’s had displayed a disregard for the safety of its customers in regards to the risk of being burned by their coffee.
Stella originally offered to settle the case for $20,000 to cover her medical expenses and lost income but the company would not offer more than $800, causing Liebeck to take them to court.
The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages but this figure was reduced by 20%, to $160,00, in consideration of her own negligence in spilling the coffee.
They also awarded $2,700,000 in punitive damages, a number her attorney came up with because it represented about two days’ worth of coffee sales for McDonald’s ($1,350,000 per day). These punitive damages were based on the fact that McDonald’s was well aware that its coffee was causing injuries due to being too hot but failed to take steps to solve the problem.
The judge reduced the punitive damages to $480,00, which is three times the amount of compensatory damages, bringing the total awarded to $640,000.
McDonald’s Still Refused to Change
Even after this suit, McDonald’s did not change the temperature of its coffee and continued receiving reports of injury. In 1997, another woman suffered first and second-degree burns when a cup of McDonald’s coffee spilled on her lap. McDonald’s was still serving its coffee at 180 to 190 degrees.
