Reality Check

Okay. Regarding the McDonald's coffee incident:   

Not only did McDonald's serve their coffee much hotter than most restaurants or drive-ins did, their Styrofoam cups were defective.

Personal Observation No. 1 — About the same time the law-suit was being filed against McDonald's, but before it hit the news, on a long drive back to Seattle from a day-trip, I stopped at a McDonald's. I was driving, and I felt I needed a cup of coffee so I could stay alert for the rest of the drive. Also in the car were my wife, Barbara, and a friend, Nancy. We all ordered a bite to eat, and large coffees. As we pulled away from the window, the disk, about the size of a silver dollar, that formed the bottom of Nancy's Styrofoam cup dropped out, spilling the entire contents of the cup, very hot coffee, onto her lap (she hadn't put it her lap, she was still holding it), scalding her thighs. Part of the coffee hit the front of her heavy jacket, so she didn't' get the full cup in her lap, but it scalded her pretty painfully. The weather was coldish that day and Nancy had dressed appropriately, so although she was scalded, the fairly heavy clothing she wore prevented her from getting "the full benefit" of the overly hot coffee. She was uncomfortable for several days, but she didn't sue.

Personal Observation No. 2 — On a few occasions when I stopped at a drive-in (Jack-in-the-Box on these occasions), they often served their coffee in a cup stuck into a pressed cardboard tray with indentations that gripped and held cups. This made it convenient to set the tray on the passenger's seat, assured that the cup wouldn't tip over while I drove to a nearby park to eat my lunch and watch the antics of the resident squirrels. I acquired a small collection of these pressed cardboard trays.

In my perambulations about the city, I once stopped at a McDonald's, ordered a McRib barbeque sandwich and a large coffee. I could tell that the coffee was hotter than hell as I stuck the cup into the cup indentation in one of my trays. Again, I drove to a nearby park. When I parked the car and reached for my lunch, I saw that the passenger's seat was coffee-brown and soaking wet. The coffee had all drained out of the Styrofoam cup. Why? Observations provided the answer. The disk in that formed the bottom of the cup was just set in place. If you squeezed the cup slightly while holding it (hard not to do), the Styrofoam flexed, and the disk could very easily drop out of the bottom.

The indentation in the pressed cardboard tray had flexed the cup sufficiently that the disk dropped out and the coffee quickly emptied onto the seat without my noticing it.

And likewise, Nancy had undoubtedly flexed the cup slightly while holding it, the disk dropped out, and the hot coffee dumped into her lap.

And I'll bet dollars to donuts that this is exactly what happened to the woman who sued McDonald's

McDonald's is definitely at fault for not doing something a) about the serving temperature of their coffee; and b) the defective design of the Styrofoam cups they were using. Apparently it took this lawsuit to get their attention.

This was definitely NOT a trivial lawsuit!

Don Firth