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McDonald’s once again sued after customer burns herself on hot coffee

McDonald’s is being sued over a hot coffee spill, again.

This time, a San Francisco location is being accused of serving a “scalding” cup of coffee with an improperly attached lid, which allegedly resulted in the coffee pouring out on plaintiff Mable Childress’ body and causing “severe burns” after she tried drinking it.

The lawsuit, filed last week, alleged that the elderly woman is suffering from “physical pains, emotional distress and other damages.” The restaurant’s negligence was a “substantial factor” for her injuries, it alleged.

Childress also said in the lawsuit that the restaurant employees “refused” to help her, a point that the McDonald’s denied.

Akasazh ,
@Akasazh@feddit.nl avatar

The real question is why would anyone still get coffee at McDonalds?

TronnaRaps ,

At least in Toronto, it’s one of the better options.

Leviathan ,

Montreal too. Before I got into specialty coffee (which is altogether another thing) I was pretty much only drinking mc-d’s in the mornings. There’s no real grocery store option for at home pour over that compares either.

Neon ,

so you can sue McDonalds

it’s like playing Lotto, but you also get a Coffee to it

MrLuemasG ,

You can usually get it for a dollar with the app and it’s better than a lot of the stuff that can be made at home with an automatic coffee maker. I used to get it a lot until I could afford to support smaller coffee places

Akasazh ,
@Akasazh@feddit.nl avatar

Fair enough

kogasa ,
@kogasa@programming.dev avatar

Big doubt that it’s better than almost anything you can make at home with an automatic coffee maker. It’s awful. The convenience is the only reason.

Astronautical ,

I concur to this; I used to work at McDonald’s, and we only changed out the coffee like twice a day if that

MrLuemasG ,

We must’ve had different experiences with it. I also wouldn’t say it’s better than almost anything you can make at home with an automatic coffee maker - just a lot of it. I’d take it over any of the more common supermarket brands of coffee grounds (Folgers, Starbucks, Great Value, Dunkin, Peet’s, and Maxwell House in particular)

CurlyMoustache ,
@CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world avatar

Last time I visited the US, McDonalds and Dunkin’ Donuts was easy places to get coffee on the road that wasn’t see through, like pure water, or tasted like shit

Cethin ,

It’s fairly cheap for getting coffee out and it’s better than Starbucks coffee. Sure, go to a cafe if you have the means, but many don’t.

Akasazh ,
@Akasazh@feddit.nl avatar

This is quite a common answer. It seems like a virtual thing. In Europe there are many coffee cafes that aren’t much more expensive then Mac Donald’s, si I wouldn’t even think of going there.

Cethin ,

Yeah, the US general has a lack of cafés. I imagine there are two reasons. First is the culture doesn’t really encourage it (though that’s mostly newish, and has to do with the second point). Second, the sprawl, especially in suburban hell, does not allow for many third places at all. There’s almost nowhere people go to sit around and relax outside of their house. It’s a real shame and I think it’s caused a lot of issues.

Poob ,

Up in Canada (at least my part), McDonald’s coffee is a great affordable coffee. It’s better than Starbucks or (🤮) Tim Hortons. It’s not going to compete with a bespoke artisan coffee shop that squeezes cat butt glands or whatever justifies selling a $5 cup for $10, but it’s better than almost everything else for the price.

Akasazh ,
@Akasazh@feddit.nl avatar

Yeah I read that is a common option. Can’t believe that from where I’m from, decent coffee joints are all over. Nobody I know would go to McDonald’s for coffee

tooclose104 ,
@tooclose104@lemmy.ca avatar

The town I live in has 2 Tims, 1 McDonald’s, and no cafes. I never considered how deeply it would eventually hurt leaving a place with quality cafes and restaurants for a place without. At this point we’re considering on just moving to an unorganized township because there’s no point in paying the higher property taxes (there’s a long list of complaints to go with that nugget).

Leviathan ,

coffee shop that squeezes cat butt glands or whatever justifies selling a $5 cup for $10

The cost is twofold, justified by having:

1- actual quality cherries, grown and dried in a labor intensive ways by farmers actually making real money directly off of the sale of their coffee and-

2- small, local coffee Roasters actually taking care of the roast on a coffee you want to taste while also getting paid for their hard work.

That probably sounds fucking snobby as hell but it really makes a difference that is hard to ignore once you start tasting it.

No butt glands involved, feline or otherwise.

dezmd ,
@dezmd@lemmy.world avatar

The real takeaway issue is $10 for a $5 cup of $.11 cents worth of ground coffee beans.

Astroturfed ,

As far as widely available (especially in BFE where it’s this or a shitty gas station) it’s decent coffee. I’d say it’s better than Starbucks, mostly because Starbucks coffee is terrible. Almost no big chain gives you coffee worth the $5 of whatever they charge.

agent99 ,

background: podcast episode about the McDonalds Hot Coffee Case on You’re Wrong About

badelf ,

Click for a humorous take of coffee at the arches.

Although I think maybe it’s a move by their marketing department - bad news is still publicity.

agent_flounder ,
@agent_flounder@lemmy.one avatar

I don’t think “burns herself” is quite the turn of phrase I would’ve chosen but then I don’t like the taste of boot leather so… yeah.

NightAuthor ,

Yeah, I swear I’m reading more and more articles/headlines that seem slanted in favor of the corporate side.

agent_flounder ,
@agent_flounder@lemmy.one avatar

Possibly. Or maybe you’re more aware of it now.

NightAuthor ,

Yeah, hard to say without a systematic review of news media I’ve consumed.

bob_wiley ,
@bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Madison420 ,

    Doesn’t matter, if you hand someone a cup with a lid on it you expect the lid is secured you aught to check anyway but still. If they simply have her a cup and a lid and she spilled somewhere in the process of putting one onto the other they wouldn’t be responsible.

    iamtrashman1312 ,

    “Is burned by” rather than “burns self,” it’s that easy

    Wildf1re ,

    Pathetic.

    xc2215x ,

    Obvious money grab.

    NevermindNoMind ,

    How’s that corporate boot taste?

    shalafi ,

    Yep. I doubt her fucking labia were fused together. The first case was a real issue and McD was clearly in the wrong. This one? McDonalds + hot coffee spill != automatic money.

    errer ,

    McDonald’s should be considered guilty unless proven innocent given their track record. Nail em to the wall lady!

    LifeInMultipleChoice , (edited )

    They were guilty of making coffee to hot years ago. I have no idea how they were sued for 800k off of selling removeden tenders that were still hot.

    Edit: Is the term chicken actually sensored? Appears it shows now, strange

    JustAManOnAToilet ,

    The “en” isn’t censored but the first part is, I thought maybe you’d misspelled “fucking” to “fucken” and it censored that. Maybe just chick is somehow censored? Testing testing c h I c k chick chicken …

    Edit: no, and now I just sound like a very hungry madman.

    LifeInMultipleChoice ,

    Thanks for the support.
    Also C h i c k chick chicken sounds like a fats food commercial we’ll see in the coming years.

    derpgon ,

    It’s probably the “chicken tenders”, for some reason “chickentend” is censored.

    Or maybe he had a missclick, and it became a swear word lol.

    CoderKat ,

    You can’t test it. It’s Lemmy.ml that has the extremely strict filter.

    ciko22i3 ,
    @ciko22i3@sopuli.xyz avatar

    women ☕

    Madrigal ,

    Wonder how long before the “Stella awards” start mysteriously showing up all over social media again.

    LiveLGNProsper ,

    Next the are gonna get rid of coffee

    prole ,

    “Next” “they”

    Who are they? And next implies they’ve taken something away already. What has been taken from you?

    Sabre363 ,

    The ice cream

    LiveLGNProsper ,

    Fuck off!

    prole ,

    No, you frig off Ricky! Frig off!

    Starts taking off pants to prepare to fight

    LiveLGNProsper ,

    This was actually pretty good made my day better after a terrible day at work thank you. 😂

    BenderOver ,
    @BenderOver@artemis.camp avatar

    I think they were just trying to make a joke…

    bizzle ,
    @bizzle@midwest.social avatar

    Who are they?

    In this context, probably WOKE LIBERAL GLOBALISTS lmfao

    BenderOver ,
    @BenderOver@artemis.camp avatar

    “They” is in reference of the user LiveLGNProsper… Now, do either of you know how to use context? Or are you just trying to make lame jokes?

    “Either of you” is in reference of the user prole and you.

    “You” is in reference of you, bizzle.

    Now that I (BenderOver) GAVE you (bizzle) the context, are you (bizzle) capable of answering my (BenderOver) questions (the string of words with the ‘?’ at the end?)? Or do you (bizzle) need more of a dumbed down explanation..? I (BenderOver) am here for you (bizzle). Just let me (BenderOver) know.

    Pistcow ,

    Who doesn’t like coffee hotter than the surface of the sun?

    Fosheze ,

    Childress also said in the lawsuit that the restaurant employees “refused” to help her, a point that the McDonald’s denied.

    What aid did she expect the minimum wage mc donalds workers to provide? They could have handed her napkins and called an ambulance but I’m pretty sure providing first aid is well outside their job description and training. Even then, first aid for burns would just be removing any clothing covering the burned area (that isn’t stuck to the wound) and then running cold water over the area. Then, depending on the extent and degree of the burns, you get them to a hospital. I’m not sure if this is another 3rd degree burns “fused labia” situation, but if it is then the article really glossed over that fact.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Maybe she expected them to act like human beings, but apparently that’s too much to ask.

    Fosheze ,

    And do what? That’s what I’m asking. What was she expecting them to do that they didn’t do? What actual action did she expect them to take that they didn’t take? What is “acting like a human” in this situation?

    You’re implying that these people were being selfish assholes but I can’t think of anything they could have done. Yes this lady is now covered in hot coffee. The employees can’t just magic that coffee off of her, even though I’m sure they wished they could have in that moment. They have napkins available. That’s the only means they had available to remove the coffee short of stripping an old woman in a mcdonalds which would have opened them up to all sorts of other problems. As I said in my origional post, they could have given her napkins and called an ambulance. You can’t just undo a coffee spill and there is very little you can do for large burns in the field.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    How about take her in the back and give her ice from the ice machine until the ambulance arrives?

    Fosheze ,

    See and now you’ve already screwed up. You never put ice on a burn. Burns damage nerves and by putting ice on it you are very likely to just cause frost bite as well. That’s why I said cold water in my origional comment. Aditionally ice machines are always full of nasty bacterial growth that you’ve now just smeared into a fresh wound.

    Thats why I said first aid was likely outside of their training. Not to mention they are all likely specifically instructed to never allow people “in the back” and would risk being fired for doing so.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Um… I didn’t suggest they take her pants off and put the ice directly on her burn. I’m not an idiot.

    ysjet ,

    Ignore this guy, his entire comment history is just corporate bootlicking.

    themajesticdodo ,

    I think you might be though. Or a child, or bad AI. Or an idiot. One of those.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    And now you’re blocked. Reddit behavior does not interest me.

    wokehobbit ,

    For 15 bucks an hour it sure as fuck is too much to ask. Fuck your stupid ass for not expecting coffee to be hot.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    I didn’t realize you sacrificed your basic human decency when your pay was low.

    wokehobbit ,

    Yup

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Well why not just kick the woman a few times while she’s writhing in pain? No reason to be moral or humanitarian because you’re not being paid enough to care about other people. That takes being paid more, not having a basic moral code.

    wokehobbit ,

    Way to take something way out of context and sensationalize it. Good job Fox News.

    dethb0y ,

    I’m honestly surprised this doesn’t happen more often than it does, considering how much coffee McD’s sells.

    thepianistfroggollum ,

    This person likely doesn’t have a case. The reason McD lost the first coffee case was because at the time they were offering free coffee refills, so they cranked up the temperature so people wouldn’t have time to sit and drink multiple cups.

    Dozens of people had already been injured by this practice by the point the famous injury happened, and the courts had already warned McD to stop.

    gravitas_deficiency ,

    Your ignorance of the nuanced details of the case is showing

    queermunist ,
    @queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

    They’re supposed to serve it at a safe temperature, and they usually do.

    tbh I’m not sure how they managed to overclock their coffee maker. Did they just heat it up on the stove?

    conditional_soup ,

    Yep, wife used to work for Starbucks. You’re supposed to check/calibrate the thermostat on the machine on a regular basis so you get the coffee hot but not boiling, third degree burns hot. For whatever reason, it has to be done because the thermostats will gradually deviate from their initial settings. If you fail to check your thermostats, eventually someone’s going to burn the fuck out of themselves with a hot drink. Water, which is the main ingredient in any coffee product, has an enormous heat capacity, and will absolutely fuck your shit up before you have a chance to do anything about it.

    IIRC, McDonald’s was either deliberately tampering with their thermostats or just failing to check them when that famous case went down, which was how they were found to be negligent.

    JDubbleu ,

    They determined that the average customer stayed in a given McDonald’s after ordering for x minutes, so they made the coffee so hot it couldn’t be consumed within x minutes in an attempt to get people not to utilize their free refills on coffee. The coffee was so hot it was dangerous. All to save a customer from getting 2 more cents worth of coffee.

    conditional_soup ,

    Shareholders don’t ruin someone’s life in exchange for an extra 0.0001% return this quarter challenge (impossible)

    Omegamanthethird ,
    @Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world avatar

    I thought it was so the coffee would still be hot by the time you got to wherever you were driving to. Your explanation makes a lot more sense though.

    Dozzi92 ,
    @Dozzi92@lemmy.world avatar

    It makes a lot more sense if you presume malice. I put incompetence up top, followed by another explanation on this thread that the idea was to keep your coffee hot until you get to your destination.

    Sirsnuffles ,

    I don’t think I understand how it can be hotter than 100 celcius.

    I’m not defending McDonald’s here, they can rot.

    Like, coffee is mostly water, and water boils at atmospheric pressure at 100c. Milk boils slightly more than 100. I guess the lid would pressurise the steam a little? Maybe the coffee grinds hold the heat far more than the water? I wouldn’t have thought it would be diluted too much to make a difference.

    I guess this is a stupid question, because it happened. But how can boiling water cause third degree burns in the quantity of 500ml? I thought it’d have to be much more than that and very prolonged?

    Dozzi92 ,
    @Dozzi92@lemmy.world avatar

    Half a liter of boiling water will absolutely do damage, especially if you’re restrained to a seat and can’t get away from it. The water that comes out of your tap at home is probably only in the 140s, max, and that’ll do some damage.

    I’m also not certain anyone said the water was greater than 100c. I think the seminal case involved water that was 180-190 degrees F or something, and that it’s standard to be closer to 150 or so, which is essentially as hot as your tap gets at home.

    Sirsnuffles ,

    OK cool.

    It was me that said it can’t go above boiling, 100. I was just under the impression that it would burn of course, but third degree burns was surprising to me. Burning away the epidermis and nerves of the skin entirely seemed to me to require a much higher temperature. I guess I’m wrong, probably because of clothing holding the heat around the skin.

    Thanks.

    queermunist ,
    @queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

    It’s prolonged because the spill happened on clothing, so the boiling water is held on to the skin instead of just running off.

    Sirsnuffles ,

    That makes sense. Thanks.

    JackFrostNCola ,

    I know your question about the burns is already answered by others but its important to consider that the generally accepted optimal temp for extracting the flavour from coffee beans is approx. 90-95°C, and hotter gives the coffee a more ‘burnt’ or less favourable flavour, so your coffee shouldnt be that hot. Further to this if you drink your coffee with milk, the milk is frothed at about 65°C which would bring the overall temp down a little more.
    This is all in an ideal world where Maccas actually gives a fuck if their coffee is ‘good’

    ZephyrXero ,

    In case anyone still has misconceptions about the famous case that came before. McDonald’s spun public opinion, but she had a legitimate case. youtu.be/Q9DXSCpcz9E

    Confound4082 ,

    “Fused labia”

    Fosheze ,

    The name of my garrage band.

    Sharkwellington ,

    Aka hot enough to weld flesh together.

    thepianistfroggollum ,

    I’m not going to watch the video since the case was covered in both my business law and ethics courses, but absolutely do not look up the images of her injury.

    It’s brutal.

    Broken_Monitor ,

    Beat me to it. I remember as a teenager hearing adults laugh about this, “how could you not know coffee is hot?? Hahaha”. Holy shit the McDonalds PR really fucked that lady over. It wasn’t until at least a decade later that I learned the reality of the situation and how horrific her burns were.

    Fuck McDonalds.

    chaogomu ,

    Jay Leno did the most to further that hit job. He spent months spreading lies, all while McDonald's became a major sponsor of his show.

    kameecoding ,

    it also made it onto Seinfeld, it was also pushed by Republicans and their mouthpieces (Fox) that the country ia going to hell everyone can sue for anything bla bla bla, typical moral panic stuff.

    that shit was so widespread I heard about the anyone can sue rhetoric about the USA as a kid, and I am from Slovakia

    HughJanus ,

    Well the “anyone can sue” is very much a real thing. But you can also counter-sue to recover “reasonable legal fees” (court costs, attorney fees) etc. if it’s found to be exceptionally egregious and litigious.

    But most of the cases you hear about are similar to the Maccas one where there are giant details left out of the public narrative.

    kameecoding ,

    it’s a real thing technically, but not realistically and it’s no different than in Slovakia, if you have a dispute here you can sue too.

    JokeDeity ,

    As ALWAYS with conservatives it’s just a reflection of themselves. They sue people more often and for bigger sums.

    CynicRaven ,

    Geeze, seriously? He also got massive mileage out of denigrating Monica Lewinsky.

    fmstrat ,

    What I don’t understand is how she was appealed down to $480K, but the family in FL got $800K for not warning that the nuggets were fresh out of the fryer. The former was way, way, worse.

    CaptFeather ,

    The only thing I can think of is maybe the '91 case wasn’t adjusted for inflation? That would make it a little over 1 mil today

    SeaJ ,

    What’s nuts is that she originally only asked for like $32k to cover the cost of the fucking skin grafts she needed.

    NevermindNoMind ,

    Just want to add that this wasn’t just McDonald’s spinning it for their own purposes, it was part of a larger effort of tort reform - spreading the conception that people are suing for everything, even hot coffee hur dur, so that the public would support things like caps on pain and suffering damages and punitive damages. Corporations wanted more leeway to maximize profits(the reason McDonald’s coffee was so hot was because they could get more coffee out of the beans that way), even if it hurt people, and the public jumped right on board. This was part of the same strategy as denigrating plaintiffs attorneys as “ambulance chasers” and the like. It got to the point that even when people were harmed, they still wouldn’t sue because they didn’t want to be lumped in with “those entitled people suing over everything”. It became a point of pride to get fucked over by corporations and to do nothing about it. Really disgusting how easily the public was manipulated by all that.

    Omegamanthethird ,
    @Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world avatar

    I just corrected someone about that last month who was using it as complaint about society. They had no idea about the details.

    bradorsomething ,

    Tl;dr: the burn fused part of her vulva, and they didn’t want to pay medical costs.

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