Woman Burned by McDonald's Hot Coffee, Then the News Media | Retro Report | The New York Times
Summary
TLDRLa historia de Stella Liebeck, una anciana de 81 años que demandó a McDonald's después de que su café hirviendo le causara graves quemaduras, ha sido malinterpretada públicamente. A pesar de que inicialmente fue otorgada una compensación de 2.9 millones de dólares, el monto fue significativamente reducido por el juez y finalmente se llegó a un acuerdo por menos de 500,000 dólares. La demanda no fue por dinero, sino para que McDonald's redujera la temperatura del café, que se servía a 180-190°F, lo que es 30°F más caliente que la mayoría de las máquinas de elaboración de café en casa. La demanda ganó visibilidad internacional, pero también generó una distorción de los hechos, con la percepción pública de que Liebeck fue una mujer que se enriqueció accidentalmente. La demanda tuvo un impacto significativo en la cultura y la política de los EE. UU., siendo utilizada como argumento para la reforma legal y como un ejemplo de juicios excesivos. A pesar de las distorsiones, la demanda resultó en que McDonald's redujera la temperatura de su café en 10°F en sus manuales para franquiciados actuales.
Takeaways
- 👵 Una mujer de 81 años llamada Stella Liebeck fue premiada con 2.9 millones de dólares después de demandar a McDonald's por vender café demasiado caliente.
- 🚗 El incidente ocurrió cuando Stella, sentada en el asiento del pasajero de un automóvil estacionado, derramó 8 onzas de café que resultaron en quemaduras graves.
- 🔥 El café de McDonald's estaba servido a una temperatura entre 180 y 190°F, lo que es aproximadamente 30°F más caliente que la mayoría de las máquinas de preparación de café en casa.
- 🤕 Stella sufrió quemaduras del 16% de su cuerpo, incluyendo quemaduras de tercer grado en el 6%, lo que requirió de una hospitalización y costes médicos de $10,000.
- 💌 McDonald's inicialmente ofreció $800 como compensación, lo que Stella y su abogado consideraron insuficiente dada la gravedad de las quemaduras y los costos médicos.
- 📄 Se descubrió que entre 1983 y 1992, casi 700 personas afirmaron haber sido quemadas por el café caliente en McDonald's, indicando un patrón de peligrosidad.
- 🏆 El jurado deliberó durante 4 horas y decidió otorgarle a Stella $200,000 en daños compensatorios, reducidos a $160,000 debido a su participación en el derrame.
- 📉 McDonald's argumentó que los quemaduras eran extremadamente raras y que no justificaba cambiar su política de temperatura del café, a pesar de los numerosos incidentes.
- 📰 La historia de Stella se convirtió en una noticia internacional, pero a menudo se distorsionaba y se centraba en el monto de la compensación en lugar de los hechos subyacentes.
- 👩⚖️ El fallo del jurado fue significativamente reducido por el juez, quien redujo los daños punitivos a aproximadamente $650,000, y se resolvió por menos de $500,000.
- ☕ Posteriormente, McDonald's cambió su política, y el café se sirve ahora a una temperatura 10°F más baja para evitar futuros incidentes similares.
Q & A
¿Quién fue la mujer anciana que demandó a McDonald's por su café demasiado caliente?
-La mujer anciana fue Stella Lebeck, una viuda de 79 años.
¿Cuál fue la cantidad de dinero que Stella Lebeck fue inicialmente otorgada después de demandar a McDonald's?
-Inicialmente, Stella Lebeck fue otorgada $2.9 millones.
¿Por qué Stella Lebeck demandó a McDonald's?
-Stella demandó a McDonald's porque su café era demasiado caliente y causó quemar en ella, lo cual resultó en una hospitalización y costos médicos significativos.
¿Cuál fue la respuesta inicial de McDonald's cuando Stella Lebeck solicitó una compensación por sus facturas médicas?
-La respuesta inicial de McDonald's fue ofrecerle $800 a Stella Lebeck.
¿Cuál fue la política de McDonald's en términos de la temperatura del café en ese momento?
-La política de McDonald's era servir el café entre 180 y 190 grados Fahrenheit, lo que es aproximadamente 30 grados más caliente que la mayoría de las máquinas de preparación de café casera.
¿Cuántas personas, según documentos presentados en el juicio, reclamaron que habían sido quemaduras por el café caliente de McDonald's entre 1983 y 1992?
-Según documentos presentados en el juicio, casi 700 personas reclamaron haber sido quemadas por el café caliente de McDonald's en ese período de tiempo.
¿Cuál fue la decisión final del jurado en cuanto a la compensación para Stella Lebeck?
-El jurado acordó inicialmente una compensación de $200,000 en daños compensatorios, que luego redujeron a $160,000 por la responsabilidad de Stella en el derrame del café.
¿Por qué el jurado estableció daños punitivos en el caso de Stella Lebeck contra McDonald's?
-El jurado estableció daños punitivos para enviar un mensaje a McDonald's de bajar la temperatura del café y prevenir futuros accidentes similares.
¿Cuál fue el monto final de la compensación después de que el juez redujo los daños punitivos?
-El juez redujo los daños punitivos a aproximadamente $650,000, y según una fuente familiar con el caso, se llegó a un acuerdo por menos de $500,000.
¿Cómo se ha utilizado el caso de Stella Lebeck en el ámbito legal posteriormente?
-El caso se ha utilizado como un ejemplo de los jurados fuera de control y como una prueba de temperatura para evaluar a futuros miembros de jurado en otros casos.
¿Qué cambio se realizó en la política de McDonald's después del caso de Stella Lebeck?
-Después del caso, las guías de la franquicia de McDonald's actuales indican que el café debe ser servido y sostenido a 10 grados Fahrenheit más bajo.
Outlines
👵 McDonald's Coffee Spill Case
El caso de Stella Liebeck, una anciana de 81 años, quien demandó a McDonald's tras que un vaso de café hirviendo la lastimara gravemente. La demanda fue por $2.9 millones, generando una gran polémica en los medios. La atención se centró en la compensación, pero se perdieron los detalles del caso. Stella, viuda de 79 años, sufrió quemaduras al 16% de su cuerpo cuando derramó el café en una camioneta estacionada. Su familia solicitó a McDonald's una compensación para los $10,000 en gastos médicos, ofreciendo $800, pero la demanda terminó en juicio. Se reveló que McDonald's mantenía su café a 180-190°F, lo que es 30°F más caliente que la mayoría de las máquinas de café en casa, y que habían habido casi 700 quejas similares entre 1983 y 1992. El caso terminó con un veredicto a favor de Liebeck, pero la suma fue reducida por el juez a aproximadamente $650,000 y se resolvió por menos de $500,000.
📰 La Distorsión de los Medios
El veredicto del caso Liebeck generó una avalancha de cobertura mediática, pero la narrativa simplista distorsionó los hechos. La historia se redujo a una anciana que demandó a McDonald's por café caliente y ganó una gran compensación, lo que llevó a una percepción errónea de que fue un pleito sin fundamento. La familia de Stella se vio afectada por esta imagen negativa, y el caso se convirtió en un símbolo de los abusos en el sistema legal. A pesar de que el veredicto fue significativamente reducido y el caso tuvo un impacto real en las políticas de McDonald's, la narrativa distorsionada persiste en la cultura popular y se utiliza como un ejemplo en debates sobre la reforma legal.
🔥 El Impacto Sigue Calentando
El caso de Stella Liebeck ha tenido un impacto perdurable en la cultura y en los debates legales. Aunque ha habido esfuerzos por proporcionar una perspectiva más equitativa y contextualizada, como en el documental 'Hot Coffee', la percepción de que la demanda fue una exageración continúa. El caso se utiliza como un punto de referencia para evaluar a futuros miembros de jurados y para argumentar en favor de la reforma legal. La familia de Stella, que lucha con la distorsión de los hechos, destaca la tristeza de ver cómo su reputación fue manchada por una narrativa simplista y sensacionalista. McDonald's ha modificado sus procedimientos para reducir la temperatura del café en respuesta al caso.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Albuquerque
💡Stella Liebeck
💡Quemaduras
💡Demanda legal
💡McDonald's
💡Temperatura del café
💡Premios judiciales
💡Pérdida de la narrativa
💡Reformas legales
💡Cultura popular
💡Malentendidos
Highlights
一位81岁的老妇人在新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基因麦当劳咖啡烫伤而获得290万美元赔偿。
Stella Lebeck在车内不慎将咖啡洒在腿上,导致严重烧伤。
Stella Lebeck的诉讼引发了媒体的广泛关注,成为公众讨论的焦点。
公众普遍误解了这个故事,认为Stella Leeck意外致富。
Stella Lebeck当时79岁,是坐在一辆停着的车里的乘客座位上被烫伤的。
Stella Lebeck的烫伤覆盖了身体的16%,其中6%为三度烧伤。
麦当劳最初只提供了800美元的赔偿,远低于Stella Lebeck的医疗费用。
在审判前,Stella Lebeck和她的律师尝试了两次和解,但麦当劳拒绝了。
麦当劳的政策是将咖啡加热至180至190°F,比家用咖啡机高出约30°F。
1983年至1992年间,近700人声称被麦当劳的热咖啡烫伤。
陪审团一致同意赔偿Stella Lebeck 200,000美元的补偿性赔偿,但因她自己造成了溢出,金额减少到160,000美元。
为了向麦当劳发出降低咖啡温度的信息,陪审团设置了惩罚性赔偿。
惩罚性赔偿的金额基于两天的咖啡销售额,为270万美元。
媒体报道的焦点是赔偿金额,但对案件的细节和陪审团的决策过程报道不足。
Stella Lebeck的案件被用作推动法律改革的例子,特别是针对被认为是无理取闹的诉讼。
实际上,法官将惩罚性赔偿金额大幅减少到大约650,000美元,最终和解金额少于500,000美元。
Stella Lebeck的家人仍然受到公众对她错误认知的困扰。
麦当劳的特许经营手册现在要求咖啡的持有和提供温度降低10°F。
Transcripts
[Music]
in Albuquerque New Mexico an elderly
woman was severely burned when she
spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee in
her lap an 81-year-old woman has been
awarded $2.9 million after she sued
McDonald's claiming their coffee was too
hot Stella lebeck spilled just 8 ounces
of coffee but she attracted a flood of
attention the jury's award set off a
media frenzy and became a rallying cry
for those who believed are leg system at
run a monck I think it's absurd but as
her story cycled through newspaper
headlines talk show story lines and late
night punch lines one thing was lost the
facts this story is the most widely
misunderstood story in
[Music]
America the the public perception of it
is Stella leeck won a lottery she bought
the coffee she spilled it on herself and
now look she's a
millionaire when of course the facts are
much more complicated than that Stella
lebeck was a 79-year-old Widow sitting
in the passenger seat of a parked car
when she was burned on February 27th
1992 she had recently quit her job as a
department store clerk and moved to
Albuquerque to be near her daughter the
day that the burns happened my mother
and my nephew went through the
drive-thru at McDonald's and got
breakfast and coffee and they pulled
into the parking lot and in the Ford
Probe there's slanted surfaces
everywhere there's no place to put the
coffee she put it between her knees and
lifted the lid off and in the process of
doing that spilled the coffee and all of
the hot liquid went into the sweatsuit
that she was wearing and pulled in the
the seat all I remember was trying to
get out of the car I screamed not
realizing I was burned that bad I knew I
was in terrible
pain the severity of the burns caused
Stella Lebec to go into shock and her
grandson immediately took her to the
emergency room she was burned over 16%
of her body 6% of the burns were third
degree she was in the hospital for a
week medical bills were
$10,000 so Stella reached out to
Donald's and asked to be reimbursed we
couldn't believe that this could happen
over spilling the coffee so we wrote a
letter to McDonald's asking them to
check the temperature of the coffee and
to give recompense for the medical bills
and the response from McDonald's was an
offer of
$800 Stella lebeck had never sued anyone
before Albuquerque attorney Ken Wagner
took her case before they went to trial
they tried twice to settle out of court
but McDonald's refused we bought a
product it was used as intended it was
unreasonably hot and therefore
unreasonably dangerous and those were
the essential facts I was not in it for
the money I was in it because I want
them to bring the temperature down so
that people other people will not go
through the same thing I
did McDonald's policy was to serve
coffee between 180 and
90° that's about 30° warmer than most
home coffee brewing machines a burn
expert testified that liquid at 180°
could cause third degree burns within 15
seconds lawyers produced documents that
showed that between 1983 and 1992 nearly
700 people claimed that they had been
burned by hot coffee at McDonald's
McDonald's was on Big Time notice that
they had a product that was dangerous
and it was burning people we argued that
to the jury that they were callous and
indifferent in simply not turning down a
temperature an expert for McDonald's
testified that burns are exceedingly
rare one for every 24 million cups of
coffee served they just said it's
statistically
insignificant and we're not going to
change what we
do people interact with hot beverages
all the time in a fast food restaurant
and that doesn't necessarily mean that
restaurant is doing something wrong
attorney Tracy jensx tried the case for
McDonald's and argued that Mrs lebeck
bore personal responsibility because she
spilled the coffee on herself and that
McDonald's coffee wasn't any hotter than
the coffee at other fast food
restaurants she said the reason the
coffee was so hot was because that's
what customers wanted McDonald's had a
really really strong reason for why they
brewed their coffee at the temperature
they did it was an industrial standard
based on the the maximum extraction of
the flavor and the maximum holding
temperature but the jury saw how liquid
at that temperature can scald when they
were shown graphic photos of Mrs leck's
burned
groin the photos depicted where they had
to graph the skin from the side of her
legs to close the third degree burn and
I think if people would have seen the
severity of the burns they would have
realized it was not a laughing
matter after 7 Days of testimony and 4
hours of deliberation jurors came up
with a comprehensive answer to a
complicated case they unanimously agreed
to award Stella $200,000 in compensatory
damages but because she caused the spill
they reduced that to 160,000 jurors set
punitive damages to send the message to
McDonald's to turn down the temperature
of the coffee I remember I could see
Judge Scott going like this with his
pencil and I I thought oh I hope he's
counting digits on the verdict form
and he was they based the amount on the
revenue from two days of coffee sales
$2.7 million the size of the award got
the media's attention but it
overshadowed the rest of the story
details of the case and the facts
related to how the jury made its
decision went mostly
unreported several days after the
verdict I had news crews from France
Japan Germany my driveway wanting to
interview me mean I was
stunned after the verdict came in
Wednesday August 17th the Albuquerque
Journal ran the first story The
Associated Press and Reuters wire
Services then filed reports and the
story was picked up in dozens of
newspapers worldwide it became an
international news event but as the
story's reach got bigger the word count
got smaller in some papers who was not
more than a blur 697 words in the in the
Albuquerque Journal became 3 149 words
in the AP and became as few as 48 words
in various renderings by Major
Metropolitan newspapers 48 words can't
explain a lot and then woman coffee
Millions sounds like a ripoff not like a
logical consequence of a thoughtful uh
trial the report aired on more than a
dozen National broadcasts and twice as
many local news shows the condensed
telling of the story created its own
version of the truth instead of pointing
out she spilled the coffee in the
passenger seat of a parked car this was
the new narrative it seems she was
holding a cup between her legs while
driving clamped it between her legs
drove down the street spilled it burned
herself sued McDonald's and collected
Stella has received letters saying stuff
like I was driving down the road I had
no business driving down the road with
coffee between my legs and all that
stuff see they're just plain ignorant my
mother was made the villain in this
story it's like bullying it feels like
bullying I mean it's not like the
McDonald's person leaned over the car
and poured it was an accident very much
like urban legends it is a very
compelling story once everybody decides
what is true about something and the
media has been sort of an echo chamber
for it then how do you deal with the
fact that they might be wrong now she
claims she broke her nose on the sneeze
got at the Sizzler bending over looking
at the chickpeas Oho my coffee was too
hot it's coffee
the lawsuit also got a lot of play on
talk radio it was a very hot issue for a
long time it's probably one of the most
Sensational high-profile uh tort cases
of the last 20 years so when tort reform
comes up most people say oh you sure of
the McDonald's case Republican lawmakers
crafting the contract with America seize
the
moment they tapped into public outrage
over frivolous lawsuits to promote the
common sense legal Reform Act leck's
case became exhibit
a the lady goes through a fast food
restaurant puts coffee in her lap Burns
her her legs and sues and gets a big
settlement that in of it of itself is
enough to tell you why we need to have
Tor reform she spilled hot coffee on her
lap while sitting in her car and claimed
it was too hot every day we hear about
another outrageous
lawsuit Stella's portrayal as a scheming
wannabe millionaire was based on the
jury's award but that amount was only a
sugestion in reality the judge
significantly reduced the punitive
damages the judge reduced the award to
about
$650,000 according to a source familiar
with the case it was settled for less
than
$500,000 Stella was not allowed to talk
to the Press but over the last two
decades her lawsuit has become part of
the cultural
discourse pardon me excuse
us
cof we got a chance do we have a chance
you get me one coffee drinker on that
jewelry you going to walk out of there a
rich
man Stella's daughter says that although
over the years some stories have given
greater context and A New Perspective
such as the documentary hot coffee her
family is still haunted by a perception
that doesn't seem to go
away getting bigger Jesus gettinger A C
of cof million I like Toby Keith but he
did the American
Ride do we have to keep living this over
and over and over again man it's hot how
hot is it it's so hot I poured
McDonald's coffee in my lap to cool
off what people believe are the facts of
this case and How Deeply held those
convictions are has become useful to
attorneys the case that became an
example of jury's being out of control
is now used to screen potential
jurors It's a Wonderful litmus test if
you're putting someone on a jury you
really have to know how they feel about
this case to know whether they are open
to the facts that you're going to
present McDonald's has been in the
public mind cast as the victim that
Stella liebeck needed to defend her
reputation is the saddest piece of this
whole story to me Stella lebeck died in
2004 when she was
91 the emotion that she went through she
just felt like people were coming at
her McDonald's Representatives didn't
return emails or calls but according to
current franchisee handbooks coffee must
now be held and served 10°
lower
[Music]
a
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