[robdamanii]

I bought a set of knives the other day, and chopped my hand off. I didn't realize they were sharp. No warnings. I'm suing Henckel.

That's nothing to sue over. That's merely a testament to how damn good they really are. Make a commercial out of it!

 

[N8 v2.0]

what..????


What..???

 

[Tenchiro]

A Louisiana man claims in a lawsuit that Apple's iPod music player can cause hearing loss in people who use it.

what..????


What..???

Don't ruin things for the rest of us! :mumble:

 

[Brian HCM#1]

I believe there was a similar suit when the Sony Walkmans first came out back in the early 80's.

 

[N8 v2.0]

Don't ruin things for the rest of us! :mumble:

WHAT????!!

 

[JRB]

Don't ruin things for the rest of us! :mumble:

Don't worry. We knew it wasn't N8 when they said "man".

 

[Secret Squirrel]

WHAT????!!

Unfortunately, there's no sound...so you simply can't read...it's very sad really....but entirely believeable...

 

[N8 v2.0]

Unfortunately, there's no sound...so you simply can't read...it's very sad really....but entirely believeable...

There's no sound..?? So I'm not deaf then..??

Dammit!!!

I'm sueing!!!

 

[Secret Squirrel]

There's no sound..?? So I'm not deaf then..??

Dammit!!!

I'm sueing!!!

Ahhhh, the American way.:redX:

 

[narlus]

Ahhhh, the American way.:redX:

are you referring to poor spelling? that, too.

 

[N8 v2.0]

are you referring to poor spelling? that, too.

and, alas, punctuation as well... :redX:

 

[Reactor]

It now becomes more clear how she won the case - people like all of you were on the jury. McD serves over a billion cups of coffee a year so lets say 10 billion cups in 10 years and there were 700 people burned - pretty good odds I'd say. You're more likely to be hit by lightning or drown in a 5 gallon bucket of water and then who are you going to sue.

Read up: http://www.overlawyered.com/2005/10/urban_legends_and_stella_liebe.html

When you graduate high school and get out in the real world, let me know.

1. The coffee was hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns.
2. People had complained for years their coffee was too hot, so they knew there was a danger.
3. Mcdonalds did nothing about the danger they knew about.
4. The fix was simple, turn the heat down to what other coffee places use.
5. Even after paying 700 claims, they didn't still didn't correct the problem.
6. A person gets sent to the hospital, with third degree burns, needing skin grafts. Suddenly they won't pay.
&. They get sued.


To use something like BurleyShirley's analogy, it's like a shooting range has a gun that occasionally shoots off seemingly at random. People have complained about the gun. People have had minor injuries, and the range has paid their medical bills. And it still doesn't remove the gun from service. One day you walk in to the range, to shoot, they give you the gun, it goes off and and shoots of your wanker, would you sue?

 

[binary visions]

When you graduate high school and get out in the real world, let me know.

It doesn't invalidate your points, but it sure makes you look silly when you make assumptions that turn out to be wrong, and people often dismiss perfectly valid points on that basis alone.

 

[ghostrider]

I'm surprised the suit isn't based around the fact that it really is all to easy to turn the volume WAY up on an iPod. You just drag your hand across the front when you're reaching for your (McDonald's) coffee and you blow your eardrums in to the next cube.

 

[sanjuro]

McFact No. 1: For years, McDonald's had known they had a problem with the way they make their coffee - that their coffee was served much hotter (at least 20 degrees more so) than at other restaurants.

McFact No. 2: McDonald's knew its coffee sometimes caused serious injuries - more than 700 incidents of scalding coffee burns in the past decade have been settled by the Corporation - and yet they never so much as consulted a burn expert regarding the issue.

McFact No. 3: The woman involved in this infamous case suffered very serious injuries - third degree burns on her groin, thighs and buttocks that required skin grafts and a seven-day hospital stay.

McFact No. 4: The woman, an 81-year old former department store clerk who had never before filed suit against anyone, said she wouldn't have brought the lawsuit against McDonald's had the Corporation not dismissed her request for compensation for medical bills.

McFact No. 5: A McDonald's quality assurance manager testified in the case that the Corporation was aware of the risk of serving dangerously hot coffee and had no plans to either turn down the heat or to post warning about the possibility of severe burns, even though most customers wouldn't think it was possible.

McFact No. 6: After careful deliberation, the jury found McDonald's was liable because the facts were overwhelmingly against the company. When it came to the punitive damages, the jury found that McDonald's had engaged in willful, reckless, malicious, or wanton conduct, and rendered a punitive damage award of 2.7 million dollars. (The equivalent of just two days of coffee sales, McDonalds Corporation generates revenues in excess of 1.3 million dollars daily from the sale of its coffee, selling 1 billion cups each year.)

McFact No. 7: On appeal, a judge lowered the award to $480,000, a fact not widely publicized in the media.

McFact No. 8: A report in Liability Week, September 29, 1997, indicated that Kathleen Gilliam, 73, suffered first degree burns when a cup of coffee spilled onto her lap. Reports also indicate that McDonald's consistently keeps its coffee at 185 degrees, still approximately 20 degrees hotter than at other restaurants. Third degree burns occur at this temperature in just two to seven seconds, requiring skin grafting, debridement and whirlpool treatments that cost tens of thousands of dollars and result in permanent disfigurement, extreme pain and disability to the victims for many months, and in some cases, years.

The most important message this case has for you, the consumer, is to be aware of the potential danger posed by your early morning pick-me-up. Take extra care to make sure children do not come into contact with scalding liquid, and always look to the facts before rendering your decision about any publicized case.

But... (taken from the true Stella Awards homepage)

# The resulting $640,000 isn't the end either. Liebeck and McDonald's entered into secret settlement negotiations rather than go to appeal. The amount of the settlement is not known -- it's secret!

# 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." (Source: NCAUSA.) 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?

 

[riverside73]

I got pizza from a pizza joint by my house and baked into the pizza was one of those plastic coated wire bread ties. Suing them didn't cross my mind, although had I actually swallowed the bread tie and ended up in the hospital...hell yeah I would've sued them. But I did ask for my money back and they gave it to me and I have not been back there since. Their pizza sucked anyway-even without the bread tie!

 

[narlus]

and, alas, punctuation as well... :redX:

what was my punctuation error, ms. schoolmarm?

 

[Mike B.]

When you graduate high school and get out in the real world, let me know.

1. The coffee was hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns.
2. People had complained for years their coffee was too hot, so they knew there was a danger.
3. Mcdonalds did nothing about the danger they knew about.
4. The fix was simple, turn the heat down to what other coffee places use.
5. Even after paying 700 claims, they didn't still didn't correct the problem.
6. A person gets sent to the hospital, with third degree burns, needing skin grafts. Suddenly they won't pay.
&. They get sued.


To use something like BurleyShirley's analogy, it's like a shooting range has a gun that occasionally shoots off seemingly at random. People have complained about the gun. People have had minor injuries, and the range has paid their medical bills. And it still doesn't remove the gun from service. One day you walk in to the range, to shoot, they give you the gun, it goes off and and shoots of your wanker, would you sue?

Little do you know. I'm long past high school, hold an engineering degree, spent 6 years in the military, worked in both the aerospace and mass transit (subway/commuter rail) industries and believe in personal responsibility. Thousands of people trust their lives, to some extent, in decisions I have made at one point or another (look out DC, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, NJ, PATH riders, etc). You can't protect idiots from themselves. I've got plenty of range examples too like the guy that went to change barrels on an M60 without putting the asbestos glove on first. No lawsuit filed there, who do you think is at fault?

Proper range etiquette says the muzzle gets nowhere near my wanker - muzzle is always down range.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

But... (taken from the true Stella Awards homepage)

# The resulting $640,000 isn't the end either. Liebeck and McDonald's entered into secret settlement negotiations rather than go to appeal. The amount of the settlement is not known -- it's secret!

# 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." (Source: NCAUSA.) 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?

I love it when you can dig and change perspective with more facts.

This is more than I ever wanted to know, but it's good to disprove assumptions.