Hot Coffee

You better finish your little cafe latte there, they'll never let you in with it.

Why not?

'cause they don't allow outside drinks into the movie.

Well, we'll just see if we can't get around that.

Pardon me. Excuse us.

Oh!

Ahh!

Coffee!

And then, there is this tonight.

In albuquerque, an 81-year-old woman has been awarded $2.9 million

After she sued mcdonald's, claiming their coffee was too hot.

It seems she was holding a cup between her legs while driving.

I spoke to a lawyer, we're suing for millions.

Suing, what for?

The coffee was too hot!

I've been thinking of quitting work here,

And suing big companies for a living instead.

Suing has become a popular american pastime,

And I'd like to get in on some of that easy money.

A college student sued his college, because his roommate partied too much.

A florida man sued because he got a bad haircut.

Of course, many of these lawsuits fail.

But you might win.

Stella liebeck did, because of a cup of coffee.

Every minute they waste on this frivolous lawsuit,

They're not able to waste on other frivolous lawsuits.

Like "ooh, my coffee was too hot!" it's coffee!

The woman, she purchased the coffee, and she spilled it on herself.

I mean, it wasn't like the mcdonald's employee took the coffee, threw it on her.

Now that in itself, then she would have had a lawsuit.

It's just, people just are greedy, and want money, and they'll do anything to get it.

I think many americans have a, a fundamentally wrong perception

Of the civil justice system.

They think that the system is flooded with frivolous lawsuits.

Jackpot justice!

Predatory trial lawyers at it again.

Junk lawsuits over frivolous injuries...

Lawsuit lottery, and jackpot justice, and frivolous lawsuits.

These were bumper-sticker phrases that were easy to market,

And use to move public sentiment away from a strong civil justice system.

The whole issue is, the industry does not want the public, generally,

To have access to the courts.

So, there's all of these devices and methods that businesses use

To keep consumers out of the courtroom.

My mother, at 79, was very active.

She drove, she drove well,

She very seldom dropped anything,

She very seldom spilled anything,

And so that, uh, for her age,

At 79 years old, I thought she was, she was remarkable.

And she had been working full-time just about,

Until about a week before this all happened.

My name is charles allen.

I'd like to introduce my wife, judy, and her mother, stella liebeck.

The woman who was burned by a cup of scalding hot mcdonald's coffee three years ago.

She cannot speak due to a confidentiality agreement that she signed,

But judy and I have no such agreement.

I am just xxtoded at how many people are aware of this case,

And how many people have a distorted view of the case.

It doesn't matter where I am, or who I speak to, they "oh, yeah, I know all about that."

Well, what do you know?

I got this picture in my mind that she actually pulled up,

Maybe took the coffee, and dumped it.

I think she went through the drive-through.

She was driving the car.

Tried to drive and drink it at the same time.

And then it might have popped open and it spilled on her lap.

Had it between her legs.

Spilled in her lap, it was too hot.

And then sued mcdonald's

For millions of dollars.

And I'll say, "what would you say if I told you she wasn't driving?"

"oh no, she was driving!"

"what would you say if I told you that's the wrong report, and she was not driving?

"she was in the parking lot.

"she was in the passenger seat. My nephew was driving."

So we had just dropped off my uncle at the airport,

And went to the nearest mcdonald's that I knew of, and this was it.

So, pulled up, she ordered coffee with her value meal,

And I knew she liked cream and sugar in it.

There was no place in, in my 1989 ford probe.

Everything sloped. There were no cup holders in that car.

Did I get cream and sugar also?

It's in the bag.

It's in the bag? Yeah.

Thank you.

We pulled out of here knowing that we...

I needed to get organized if I was going to be eating and driving,

And I knew she wanted to put her cream and sugar in the coffee,

So, pretty much pulled right here, almost exactly in this spot,

And handed her her coffee, or had already done that,

And so we just went about organizing,

And a short period after that, she started screaming.

Wanted to get the top off to put cream and sugar in,

So I put it between my knees to steady it with this hand,

Trying to get the top off, and it just went "whoo."

Are you going to show me the burns? Yeah.

What?

Yeah. Would that change your mind at all?

Wow.

Yes, if I saw injuries like that, I would definitely take a different view of it

From what I hear from the media.

Oh, my gosh!

Excruciating pain.

Uh, I was burned so severely that, uh, they didn't think I would live.

I'm a nurse, and I was horrified

At the type of injuries that she had sustained.

Um, the skin grafts, and the pieces that were still ongoing.

So it was kind of a shocker, 'cause it's one thing to hear, but it's another thing to see.

So it was kind of, uh, "oh my goodness."

We could see the extent of this injury, so we started saying

We need to ask mcdonald's to pay for this.

Under no circumstances would she ever sue or do anything like that.

We thought that the company would take care of medical, and everything would be done.

And chuck and I wrote the letter to mcdonald's.

The very first thing we said is, "your machine must be too hot,

"so look at it, and fix it, if it's broken."

This must be an aberration.

"it must be an aberration. But if it is your, your policy,

"we ask you to worry about that policy,

"because it...You do not want to have this happen to just one person."

And then clearly it can't have happened to just one person.

We were extremely surprised when mcdonald's did not

Offer more than $800 on what was at that point a $10,000 medical problem.

It's one of those things that's really like,

If you ask people what the top ten issues they care about,

You know, the economy, healthcare, education,

The civil justice system never even makes the top twenty.

It's just not in, in most people's radar screen.

Until something bad happens to them,

And then the first thing that most americans think is that they should find a lawyer.

When you are hurt by somebody, harmed in some way,

And the person or the company that harms you is negligent,

Or does this intentionally,

You have a right to hold that wrongdoer accountable.

And those are the civil courts that handle those kinds of cases,

And that is our civil justice system.

It's a fundamental right that we have. It stems from the constitution,

From the bill of rights.

Our judicial branch of government is one of the very few places where

An average person can actually go and confront a big corporation

On somewhat of a level playing field, you know.

The other two branches of government are dominated by money, and politics.

The judicial branch is not, because you can't wine and dine juries.

In the courts, it's you versus general motors.

Or it's you versus, you know, bank of america.

And if you can present your information and your complaint in an effective way,

You have just as much likelihood of winning as general motors does.

There's no other part of the government where that's true.

I got involved in the liebeck case by way of invitation from reed morgan,

Who was lead council,

And once I met reed, and met stella liebeck, and looked at the evidence,

You know, they had my full attention.

Because the coffee in question was brewed at temperatures

That would approximate the temperature in your radiator

After you drive from, you know, from your office to home.

In discovery, we learned that in the franchise directives and manuals,

That the franchisee was required to follow,

That they had to have their, their waters at certain temperatures.

And they said that the holding temperature should be 180 fahrenheit to 190 fahrenheit.

Hot liquid, whether it's coffee, or water,

Or any liquid like that,

If it's in the range of 180 degrees or hotter,

If it is in contact with your skin for more than just a few seconds,

It will produce very serious burns.

If you're lucky, it'll produce a second-degree burn,

If you're not as lucky, you will get third-degree, or full-thickness burns

Requiring skin grafting and surgery.

And if you add up the, uh, burn history of mcdonald's

Since January of 1983 until March of uh, '92,

It's over 700 burn cases, and that doesn't surprise you, does it?

I can't say that I'm surprised or not surprised. I'm, I'm glad the number's not higher.

All right.

I'm, I'm really pleased that that's not more than that.

I thought that was, that was terrible

That he was so indifferent about it, you know.

Uh, even if it was just one person, that's enough to pay attention to.

I mean, uh, one person that spoke up.

I'm sure there's more than that, that was damaged with a hot coffee.

But, uh, it's so easy to burn at that temperature,

And they were so indifferent about it.

If you were to take a sip of that coffee,

Enough to where you could feel it go down your throat,

You can't do that at 180 to 190 degrees, can you, because you'll be burned.

You better not do that, you will get burned.

We talked about different percentages of how much was her fault versus, you know,

How much was mcdonald's,

And we finally came to assign 20% fault to mrs. Liebeck,

Because she had initially spilled the coffee,

And we assigned 80% of the, uh, blame to mcdonald's,

Because they had a very long history of people being injured,

And they were so adamant that it was such a trivial thing,

That they weren't going to bother to do anything

Other than just continue to rake in the money on their coffee sales.

And the fact that it was their own records

Really damned mcdonald's as far as I was concerned,

Because it was very obvious that they knew there was a problem,

And they were ignoring it completely.

Just totally disregarding the consumers' safety.

We looked at the coffee sales on a daily basis,