They had previously been sued for exactly the same thing and so knew what
they were doing - *that's* why they got hit so big!
Actually, they were notified with about 600 complaints of burns caused
by their coffee being substantially hotter than usual for coffee. Also
about their coffeecup lids being unusually tight and lacking cutaways for
sipping, so that people often ended up dislodging the whole lid with a
jolt that often led to a spill.
The plaintiff in that famous lawsuit at first asked for only
reimbursement of her medical bills, but McD's refused. Despite the fact
that it was obvious that she would not have incurred such medical bills if
the coffe was not at an unusual temperature for coffee.
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As for those who want to complain about trial lawyers? I say there are
more obvious targets!
1. Wyeth-Aherst (I hope I got this right) marketed the "Phen-Phen" (I
hope I spelled this right) weight loss drug combination. This resulted in
some cases of heart damage and a class action lawsuit that claimed
specific numbers/ranges of various degrees of heart damage. And the
defendant did indeed get caught with politically incorrect memos about the
plaintiffs as well as being caught understating or misstating the risks.
But the class action costs them billions, probably mostly from innocent
peoples' IRAs and 401K plans. But it does not stop there. Mostly from a
few small regions (sometimes just a small cluster of counties, at most a
moderately low population U.S. state or maybe a couple neighboring ones)
individual actions from plaintiffs that separated from the class action
arose, counting on jurors in those counties being culturally being very
generous with other peoples' money. Those individual actions had more
claimed cases of the most severe form of heart damage than predicted by
the plaintiffs' lawyers in the class action!
Not that I have any sympathy to money-grubbing US pharmaceutical
companies, but I think those lawyers are costing common USA residents more
than anyone else!
2. As reported in the Philadelphioa Inquirer (a newspaper drawing
complaints about being part of the "liberal press"!) a month or two ago,
a small law firm moved into the Philadelphia area from Florida and has
apparently been on a mission to find petty little violations of the
Americans with Disability Act by local small businesses. The businesses
get no complaints prior to notice that they are being sued. The law firm
offers to settle for a couple kilobucks or something like that to avoid a
trial that requires more than that in a defense.
This law firm sued even upon such basis as a toilet being 1 inch
displaced outside the required position range in a stall that a golf cart
can drive into (Would the defendant spend $5K or 10K to say in court that
moving a wall 1 inch is not a "reasonable accomodation"), and no
handicapped parking being provided by a business that did not even have a
parking lot.
The article mentioned that a Congressman from Florida (Foley if I
remember correctly) wants to introduce legislation that requires that ADA
lawsuits can only be filed after the prospective defendant has been
notified of violations (I hope in specifics!) and has been given 90 days
to correct them (and I hope suits are based on the specific violations
which the defendant was on notice of for at least 90 days). But I
fear this takes a back seat to flashier issues of partisan politics...
- Don Klipstein (
[email protected])