...I'm not questioning whether McDonald's knew that their hot coffee can cause burns. I'm questioning whether that by itself constitutes recklessness.
See, the problem is in the easy way you put "burns". Scalding temperatures and severe burns should be and were distinguished from the sort that leave you waving a hand and running a little cool water. And, as I noted, when you serve that through a window to people in cars and your own studies note that people aren't actually waiting until they arrive at another destination to consume it...you end up in court.
This is another symptom of the same lack of common sense in the system. Do you honestly think anyone needs to read the coffee cup to know that the coffee is hot? They should also mention that it's wet lest anyone drown in it...
Again, there's a difference between expecting hot coffee and getting a product they admit isn't fit for consumption at the temperature it's first served, a temperature that can and did cause serious injury.
...What do you think I am missing here?
An accurate relating of the facts, the controlling standards of law and a conclusion in line with those. Stuff like that.
lain: As rhetoric it will probably get you elected in the right county.
:cheers:
"The jury was informed that McDonald's operations and training manual required its coffee to be brewed at 195 to 205 degrees and held at 180 to 190 degrees for optimal taste, and that this was 40 to 50 degrees hotter than coffee made at home.
A McDonald's expert argued that any coffee hotter than 130 degrees could produce third-degree burns, so it did not matter that McDonald's coffee was hotter. But a plaintiff's expert testified that lowering the serving temperature to about 160 degrees could make a big difference, because it takes less than three seconds to produce a third-degree burn at 190 degrees, about 12 to 15 seconds at 180 degrees, and about 20 seconds at 160 degrees. According to Stella's son-in-law, McDonald's experts "admitted the [coffee] was too hot for consumption when sold.
They did not contest the fact that it took 25 minutes to cool to a drinkable temperature."
The 700 prior claims for likened incidents had mostly been settled by McDonald's, not dismissed and for up to 500k in one incident. The Shriners Burn Hospitals even became involved.
"Christopher Appleton, the McDonald's quality-assurance manager...acknowledged that most people would not realize that severe burns were possible with coffee that hot, but stated that McDonald's had decided not to warn its customers about this possibility."
Knowing the danger and the ignorance of the customer and making a considered decision not to warn them...no, nothing reckless about that.
lain: