Stella Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, P.T.S., Inc. and McDonald's International, Inc. The plaintiff, Stella Liebeck (1912–2004), a 79-year-old woman, suffered third-degree burns in her pelvic region when she accidentally spilled coffee in her lap after purchasing it from a McDonald's restaurant.
A judge later reduced Liebeck's award to $640,000 US. Liebeck required extensive skin grafts and surgery to treat burns covering 16 per cent of her body. She died a decade after settling her case. Other lawsuits centred on hot drinks have cropped up over the years.
Stella Liebeck, the 79-year-old woman who was severely burned by McDonald's coffee that she spilled in her lap in 1992, was unfairly held up as an example of frivolous litigation in the public eye. But the facts of the case tell a very different story.
Stella Liebeck was a 79-year-old woman in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whose grandson drove her to McDonald's in 1992. She was in a parked car when the coffee spilled.
In the McDonald's hot coffee case, Ms. Liebeck was found to be partially to blame for her injuries due to the way she removed the lid from her coffee cup. Her award was reduced by the percentage that the jury found her to blame for her injuries.
The jury found that McDonald's was 80 percent responsible for the incident. They awarded Liebeck a net $160,000 in compensatory damages to cover medical expenses, and $2.7 million (equivalent to $5,000,000 in 2022) in punitive damages, the equivalent of two days of McDonald's coffee sales.
She sued McDonald's and a jury awarded her nearly $3 million in punitive damages for the burns she suffered. Typical reaction: Isn't coffee supposed to be hot? And McDonald's didn't pour the coffee on her, she spilled it on herself! Besides, she was driving the car and wasn't paying attention.
The girls are Jazlyn Bradley and Ashley Pelman. Bradley, 19, is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighs 270 pounds. Pelman, 14, is 4-foot-10 and 170 pounds. Bradley said that a McMuffin for breakfast and a Big Mac meal for dinner was her regular diet.
alleged that McDonald's coffee was too hot to handle, but the photos she produced as proof of the injuries she sustained were found to be fake. Selena Edwards claimed to the court that after placing an order at a McDonald's drive-thru, an employee handed her a hot cup of coffee with a faulty lid.
Who Was Ray Kroc? Ray Kroc spent most of the first decades of his professional career selling paper cups and milkshake machines. After discovering a popular California hamburger restaurant owned by Dick and Mac McDonald, he went into business with the brothers and launched the McDonald's franchise in 1955.
A Russian woman is suing fast food giant McDonald's after an advert showing their cheeseburgers allegedly made her break her fast during Lent. Ksenia Ovchinnikova, an Orthodox Christian from Omsk, Russia, claims that seeing McDonald's adverts made her break her fast for Lent in 2019.
June Martino (August 10, 1917 – January 29, 2005) was an American businesswoman who became Ray Kroc's bookkeeper in 1948 and ultimately rose to Corporate Secretary, Treasurer, Director and part-owner of McDonald's Corporation.
A separate jury in May reached a split verdict in the lawsuit, finding fault with McDonald's and the franchise owner for the burns.
Stella Liebeck never regained the strength and energy she had before she was burned. She passed away in 2004, at the age of 91. McDonald's now serves its coffee at a temperature that is 10 degrees lower.
McDonald's chooses to keep their coffee scaldingly hot because, according to attorney Butch Wagner, hot coffee stays fresh for longer. They save money by doing this (millions per day, in fact, across their US franchises alone), even if it means paying out for other hot coffee settlements—of which there are plenty.
Birdie the Early Bird (performed by Felix Silla 1979–1986, Patty Maloney 1986–2001, voiced by Russi Taylor in the commercials, Christine Cavanaugh in The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald) – A yellow bird wearing a pink jumpsuit, flight cap and scarf who was introduced in 1980 as the first female character.
Federal regulators fined former McDonald's CEO Stephen Easterbrook $400,000 on Monday for charges related to the fallout from the sex scandal that resulted in his termination from the fast food giant. Steve Easterbrook, right, pictured here in 2015.
As of September 11, 2018, this outbreak appears to be over. A total of 511 laboratory-confirmed cases of Cyclospora infection were reported in people who consumed salads from McDonald's restaurants; the cases were reported by 15 states and New York City.
Since McDonald's was cash-poor in 1961, Ray asked the brothers if he could pay their requested $2.7 million over time. The brothers said no, that if Ray couldn't come up with the cash, they'd continue to collect their . 5% royalty. Harry found a backer, and the brothers got their money.
The brothers did get a percentage of the profits. The original deal was 1.9 percent of a franchisee's profits. It went to the McDonald's Corporation and 0.5 percent of that went to Dick and Mac McDonald. The falsehood in the movie is that Ray screwed the brothers out of that half a percent.
Shelling out $890.80? That will get you a “Big Max.” That is how much Moshe Tamssot's bill came to after he tested out the limits of McDonald's new customizable sandwich platform called Create Your Taste.
Myth: McDonald's got punished for serving hot coffee. Everyone serves hot coffee! Fact: McDonald's didn't just serve their coffee hot– their operations manual required that is be served between 180 and 190 degrees; 30-40 degrees hotter than other coffee-serving restaurants in the area.
Stella Liebeck, 79 years old, was sitting in the passenger seat of her grandson's car having purchased a cup of McDonald's coffee. After the car stopped, she tried to hold the cup securely between her knees while removing the lid. However, the cup tipped over, pouring scalding hot coffee onto her.
In the 10 years before the case, more than 700 people who were scalded by coffee burns made claims against the company. But McDonald's never lowered the temperature of its coffee. The plaintiff in the case was 79-year-old Stella Liebeck.