ZeroHedge article with their typical bait title.
Some of the comments expand further on why this happened (no surprise, the insurance company being a POS to their paying customer):
Geico let the lawsuit go on through judgment without defending its insured as required by the contract for which the insured paid premiums. Poor guy had a multi-million dollar judgment entered against him. Another judge later found that Geico should have defended its insured. Geico said, okay, let's start over then and retry the original case. Court said no, you should have defended your insured from the get-go.
That's why it is Geico's fault. If you're ever sued for something stupid and your insurance company that you've been paying for years to defend you from such lawsuits tells you to pound sand due to some technicality, you would get it.
If we had actually passed tort reform in the 90s we might have been able to save America.
And before anyone whines at me about Coffee Lady, I don't give a rat's ass. Anyone who holds a cup of coffee between their legs while driving is a bona fide retard. Misuse of a product should waive any responsibility from the manufacturer, period. It's thanks to that crusty cunt that vacuum cleaners have warnings like "do not use on genitals".
Wasn't driving when it happened (they were parked). Was hotter than you'd expect (185 degrees and 20-30 degrees hotter than most places that served coffee). Yes, she did try to hold it between her knees like an idiot. That said, no one expects coffee to cause a 7 day hospital stay just because you spilled it on yourself. McDonalds initially refused to pay more than $800. The jury awarded a shitton of punitive damages.
https://www.findlaw.com/injury/product-liability/the-mcdonald-s-coffee-cup-case-separating-mcfacts-from-mcfiction.html
Tort law being used against massive mega corporations is generally a good thing, not a bad thing.
(that said, used against small businesses, very destructive)
Also, mass torts (like used against 'asbestos' companies) is a total fucking grift and has caused many unjustified bankruptcies, but it is also might be the tool by which we can destroy shit like trans groomers in the future, so just remember to use it when the tide turns.
But anyways, takeaway: the McDonalds plaintiff and their lawyer were the good guys. Giving millions of customers far hotter than necessary coffee should result in lawsuits.
I honestly don't agree. The ridiculous award in that case was the first major blow in the dissolving of common sense in America. Almost overnight products began to be covered with ridiculous disclaimers and warnings, because companies found themselves in a position to be held liable for absurd amounts due solely to the stupidity of the customer. That's why the instruction manual for the sim card on my phone is half a page of actual instructions and 27 friggin pages of disclaimers in four different languages.
I will never call anyone who is the vanguard of the retardation of society a "good guy".
Didn't that coffee melt her skin tho? Like it was so ridiculously overheated nobody would even be able to drink it?
That's just the thing, it wasn't overheated. It was fresh. You have to boil coffee to make it. A boiling liquid will burn you.
That's why you don't hold it next to your junk.
It was definitely overheated you retard.
You don't even have the case facts right
I'm pretty sure they served it at like 250 degrees Fahrenheit
It's a few degrees short of boiling which doesn't really change the point but if you use boiling water the coffee will be bitter.
She didn't hold it between her legs, asshole, it fell when they handed it to her and the lid wasn't on it.
She DID hold it between her legs, asshole, and it DID have a lid on it until she removed it, and it did NOT fall when they handed it to her.
After her grandson pulled the car away from the window and fully stopped by a curb in the parking lot, Ms. Liebeck tried to remove the cup's lid to add sugar and cream. Lacking a flat surface inside the small car, she placed the coffee between her legs to free up both her hands for prying off the lid. As the lid came off, the Styrofoam cup tipped, spilling all the coffee into her lap, where it was rapidly soaked up by her sweatpants. 22 Ms. Liebeck screamed in pain, but Mr. Tiano did not understand, later relating that it at first seemed to be "no big deal." "When it happened, I thought, well, you know, we spilled a cup of coffee; it's basically our fault. You know it was our clumsiness that spilled the coffee." After all, spilling coffee or some other hot liquid on oneself is a common occurrence; "It was just a scald," he said repeatedly in his deposition. The grandson then proceeded to drive out of the parking lot, until a minute later when his grandmother became quite nauseous, and he suspected she was in shock.
Well, asshole, you are right. This will teach me to listen to pundits 15 years ago.
Or at all.