Is this crazy or what

[Liebchen]

The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States
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Actually, McDonald's instructed their staff to serve their coffee at 180–190 °F (82–88 °C). At that temperature, the coffee would cause a third-degree burn in two to seven seconds. As a result, Stella Liebeck suffered third-degree burns on six percent of her skin and lesser burns over sixteen percent. She remained in the hospital for eight days while she underwent skin grafting. Two years of treatment followed.

She originally just asked McD's to pay her $20,000 toward her medical costs. McDonald's offered her $800.

Documents obtained from McDonald's showed that from 1982 to 1992 the company had received more than 700 reports of people burnt by their coffee to varying degrees of severity, and had settled claims arising from scalding injuries for more than $500,000. So they had plenty of warning that they were endangering their customers.

Micky D's corporate honchos just did a cost/benefit analysis and decided that serving the hotter coffee was just more profitable. That's why the jury awarded punitive damages -- they were trying to get Ray Kroc's people to wake up and smell the coffee.

Sorry for being such a wet blanket, but I'm familiar with the case and it always cheeses me when people make McDonald's out to be the victim.

Oh, yeah, and the rest of it's BS, too. These stories circulate for a reason, and it's not a good one.