The joy of tortWHEN Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old grandmother, sued McDonald’s after scalding herself with hot coffee in 1992, she became the butt of countless jokes. When a jury awarded her $2.7m in punitive damages, the case was held up as an example of frivolous lawsuits and of juries run amok.
In fact the case was less clear-cut. Mrs Liebeck, who needed skin grafts to treat third-degree burns, sued only when the fast-food chain declined to pay all her medical expenses. During the trial it emerged that McDonald’s served its coffee far hotter than home-brewed java. The jury also heard there were 700 other instances of bad burns from McDonald’s coffees served too hot. The jury’s suggested punitive award of $2.7m was roughly the equivalent of two days’ worth of coffee sales. The judge reduced the damages to $480,000. The case was later settled for an undisclosed amount.
Mrs Liebeck’s case became a rallying cry for tort reform, or “tort de-reform” as Ralph Nader puts it. Tort law allows anyone with an injury to seek remedy in court with a trial by jury. It covers a wide range of issues, from product...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1WPlPPc
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