Someone just shared this with me: details of the Liebeck case in which a dcalded woman sued MacDonalds.
http://www.knowable.com/a/-next-time-you-see-caution-may-be-hot?utm_content=inf_10_3136_2&tse_id=INF_de58d8bbfb1c4e5d8ad9530d458bea57

— (I mean, do any of you have any idea what a third-degree burn actually is? Third-degree burns involve “full thickness” tissue damage. We’re talking bone-deep, with possible destruction of tissue. Can you even imagine how hot that cup of coffee would have to have been to inflict that kind of damage in the few seconds it came in contact with her skin?)- “ The woman injured was 79-years-old at the time of her injuries, and suffered third-degree burns to the pelvic region, (including thighs, buttocks, and groin), which in combination with lesser burns in the surrounding regions caused damage to an area totaling a whopping 22% of her body’s surface. These injuries required two years of extensive medical care, including multiple skin grafts, during her hospitalization.”

— Keep in mind that at the time, McDonald’s already had over 700 cases of complaints about coffee-related burns on file, but continued to sell coffee heated to nearly 200 degrees Fahrenheit (around 90 degrees Celsius) as a means of boosting sales (their selling point was that one could buy the coffee, drive to a second location such as work or home, and still have a piping hot beverage). This, in spite of the fact that most restaurants serve coffee between 140 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit (60 to 71 degrees Celsius), and many coffee experts agree that such high temperatures are desirable only during the brewing process itself.

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I don’t doubt the veracity, all the accounts say she needed large skin grafts and two years of treatment etc. It just surprises me that coffee between 82 and 88 C (which is apparently what the range could have been) could cause such massive damage. I have been scalded by boiling water on my bare leg: it was a bad burn but went away eventually without a scar. I can imagine that immersion in 88 C water for several seconds could cause major burns. But when you spill very hot water (or coffee) on yourself it forms a thin that cools quickly or flows off. After all the skin has a huge temperature controlled reservoir of fat or muscle on one side of it. Was age a factor?

I imagine her skin would be paper thin and entirely possible she had very little fat underneath. Having said that, that coffee was far too hot. So unless she’s asked for extra hot coffee, I don’t know why they’d be serving it at that temp.

I personally hate the way this case was held up by the news media and even by comedians as a great miscarriage of justice.

If anything, the miscarriage of justice is totally the other way around. The victim didn’t even get her full medical expenses back, while the big M got so much free publicity that it was able to open coffee shops around the world solely on the strength of that free publicity. Result, victim nothing and muzzled by legal requirements not to reveal the amount of the payment. The big M millions and millions of dollars of extra profit.

Yes, it was the third degree burns that first made me take notice of the case.

The hot coffee went into the lap of a frail perwson. It would have soaked the clothes which would retain the heat. Therefore there are increased chances of the possibility of third degree burns. A third degree burn is where all the layers of skin are burned.

roughbarked said:

The hot coffee went into the lap of a frail perwson. It would have soaked the clothes which would retain the heat. Therefore there are increased chances of the possibility of third degree burns. A third degree burn is where all the layers of skin are burned.

Yes, a young person would have jumped up and screamed and ran around etc etc.

they should ban coffee – too dangerous