A lawsuit has been filed against a San Francisco McDonald’s restaurant after it was claimed that an elderly woman had “severe burns” from a hot cup of coffee and that staff members had refused to help her. The plaintiff in the case, Mable Childress, filed a lawsuit on September 14 in the San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the fast-food restaurant breached its “duty of care” by giving her a coffee cup through the drive-thru that was missing its lid.
- The Accusations
Childress claims that the event happened on June 13 of this year at the San Francisco McDonald’s, which is located at 1100 Fillmore Street. Her lawsuit claims that while she was trying to take a sip from the coffee cup, the lid suddenly opened, letting “scalding coffee” spill out and severely burning and scarring her groin. She says that the incident caused her emotional distress in addition to her physical injuries, and it also cost her a lot of money in hospital and medical bills.
Childress tried to report the incident to three McDonald’s workers, including supervisors, according to the lawsuit. She claims that they “ignored” her and “refused to help” until she finally left the restaurant to get medical attention.
How McDonald’s Reacted
In response to the accusations, Peter Ou, the owner and operator of the disputed San Francisco McDonald’s franchise, said that his establishments follow stringent food safety procedures, which include closing hot beverage lids. After Childress recounted her experience later that day, Ou said that they take customer complaints seriously and that within minutes, staff members and management had reached out to her, giving support. They are presently going over the lawsuit’s specifics.
McDonald’s Coffee Lawsuit History
McDonald’s has been the target of legal action in the past for its hot coffee. The most notorious incident occurred in 1992 when 79-year-old Stella Liebeck suffered third-degree burns after hot coffee leaked into her lap at a New Mexico McDonald’s. Following a trial in which Liebeck requested a $20,000 settlement to pay for her medical bills, a jury ultimately granted her $2.7 million in punitive damages.
The jury’s verdict was predicated on their discovery that, at the time, McDonald’s coffee was served almost forty degrees hotter than that of other restaurants. A judge then lowered Liebeck’s award to $480,000, with the ultimate settlement sum being kept secret.
Like Recent Occurrence
A Florida family successfully sued McDonald’s for $800,000 in July following an incident in which their 4-year-old daughter claimed burned herself severely after eating a hot Chicken McNugget. The family stated that the child suffered second-degree burns on her leg as a result of the nugget being stuck in her car seat. Both the franchise owner and McDonald’s denied any involvement in the burns.
Well, maybe, some people should avoid hot food items and drinks. I absolutely hate tepid hot food or drinks.
Only in the USA where we have an oversupply of ambulance chasers and people that rather sued somebody for money instead of working for a living.
Coffee is hot, so is freshly fried food, and all those “settlements” are paid by the rest of us with higher prices and with changes to our lives that are negative as lawyers and insurance companies focus more on extreme safety than in enrichment of experiences.
Nothing in life is “Idiot proof” OR fully accessible to everybody and lawyers pocket 40% or more of the “settlement”, an added cost we ALL have to bear.
The woman who some years back, sued a McDonald’s for burns to her genital area after she STUPIDLY set a cup of hot coffee on the seat between her legs in the drive thru, then proceeded to pull out,
Instead of being awarded a huge settlement, should have been tossed out of court, then arrested for initiating a frivolous lawsuit, and fined!!!Coffee is hot, and anyone with half a brain knows better than to do what she did!!!!!
How dumb are people?
1. If it’s missing a lid you don’t accept it until they put one on. Duh!
2. Coffee is hot! How dumb to think you can automatically drink it without letting it cool down a bit. Duh!
IT’S COFFEE FOR CHRIST’S SAKE! That means it’s hot period and you can even tell that when you hold the cup! Again Duh!
It’s very clear some people have no common sense and have the IQs of carrots! They deserve to learn a lesson if they are that stupid! The judge should throw it out of court for the stupidity factor alone.
In the long run we end up paying for it in increased costs because of these carrots lack of brains!