Again, where she sustained injury is irrelevant. McDonalds hold temp was 185 +/- 5 degrees. At that temp, she would have been scalded regardless of location. During the trial, McDonalds Quality Assurance Manager admitted a customer drinking the product at that temperature would "scald their throat or esophagus".
"That she didn’t check that the lid was properly in place is her fault alone."
If anything, the lid may have been too secure. It was when she tried to remove it, the spill occurred.
I had a lawyer as a customer who claimed to know some details of that case. According to him, McDonalds had sent some memos around about the scalding hot coffee, but had done nothing about it. Also, the 6 million $ award(which I thought was ridiculous)was what the plaintiff showed to be McDonald’s daily profit or sales of coffee.
That is complete and utter BS. Water boils at about 115 degrees at 5,200 feet, the altitude in ABQ. At 185 the coffee would be at a rolling boil and a pot of coffee would evaporate entirely in about ten minutes at that temp. I went to the same mickey d's she did in the same year both before and after her incident and their coffee was not simmering much less boiling.
Just about every fast food restaurant that sells coffee to go has minimum temperatures that is checked by “Mr. X” at random times. At the chain my mom used to work for, the minimum temperature for the coffee was also 185*, and that was AFTER the customer had it in hand and was seated with his meal.
The only time the store would learn they were being visited by Mr. X was if one of the staff noticed the pocket thermometer. Otherwise, they only learned of it when the report came.
She was an idiot, and while I am saddened by her SELF_INDUCED injury, I still see absolutely no negligence on the part of the store that sold her something SHE KNEW WAS HOT!
Why didn’t she sue her grandson? After all, it could have been an unexpected jolt when he hit the brakes and stopped the car suddenly. I’m sure his insurance would have felt sorry for her too, just like the bleeding hearts on the jury (and here, evidently) did.