On Volokh,
http://volokh.com/2003_12_07_volokh_archive.html#107093681112071607 David Bernstein has
a good post on the McDonald's Coffee Spill Case-- a refutation of the common claim that
McDonald's served its coffee at an unduly hot temperature.
Left-wing Naderite types and trial lawyers
have been stewing for
years over the negative publicity given to the case of a woman who
won [edit: a jury verdit of] over $2 million [edit: later reduced to
"only" $480,000 by the judge] from McDonald's after spilling hot coffee
in her lap, resulting in severe burns. Don't people realize, they ask,
that McDonald's served its coffee at approximately 185 degrees, at least
20 degrees hotter than other fast food chains? And that other people
had also been burned by the coffee? Well, here's the problem for me.
If you make coffee at home, it is brewed at 195
degrees or higher, and it is recommended that it be served
immediately. Coffee is typically (or at least properly) kept at 180 degrees or slightly
higher in a carafe to maintain taste.
Thus, McDonald's was not serving coffee at a high temperature to satisfy customers who
would not drink it for a while; it was serving coffee at lower temperatures than a good
chef would recommend. While it is nonetheless true that you oughtn't to take a bath in
it, serving coffee at that heat does not merit punitive damages, and the judge that
allowed them to be awarded should be ashamed of himself.
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