Question

Scenario: In the early 1990s, Stella Liebeck, 79 ordered a cup of coffee at McDonald's. She accidentally spilled the coffee on her lap and suffered serious burns. She sued McDonald's for negligence, among other things.
Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, P.T.S., Inc., No. D-202 CV 93 02419, 1995 WL 360309 (Bernalillo County, N.M. Dist. Cut. August 18, 1994).
Support the plaintiff, Liebeck and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the plaintiff to a basic negligence action only.

Answer 1

The case Stella Liebeck v. McDonald's highlights the event where the plaintiff ,Stella liebeck ordered a cup of coffee at the driveway which spill all over her legs and got her serious third degree burns.

McDonald's served coffee not fit for consumption : The coffee ordered by Stella was prepared at 190° , much above than the safety level of temperature. The temperature was almost 30-40 degrees hotter than other coffee-serving restaurants in the area.

Moreover the restaurant had previously also received almost 700 complaints of events of burns to people including children due to accidental spills which are likely to occur,,, thus making the hot temperature at which coffee was prepared unsafe to carry or consume for customers. Moreover McDonald’s itself also knew that their coffee was “not fit for consumption” as it had higher risk from causing serious to permanent damages but anyways served it like that because it tasted better showing the intentional negligence of company towards safety measures.

Strengths : The major strengths of the case are :

The plaintiff with her grandson driving the car pulled the car out of the driveway lane after taking the coffee and again stopped in parking to allow Plaintiff to add sugar and cream to the coffee. Therefore the car was not moving which thus cannot be hold as a reason of spilling of coffee reducing the fault at hands of Plaintiff.

Stella suffered most serious kinds of burns , (third degree burns) out of the extremely hot temperature of coffee which was served in Styrofoam cup which is more prone to spills and leaks.

Weakness :

Stella placed the Styrofoam cup between her knees to get her hands free for opening the lid. The pressure between her knees squeezed the Styrofoam cup resulting in leaking of hot coffee all over her lap and thighs. Stella mishandled the cup and could not remove the lid properly which contributed in causing her burns.

Conclusion : The court ruled against Mc Donalds for the serious act of negligence towards it's customers for serving drink at dangerously hot temperature...while putting plaintiff at 20% of fault.

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