time now for night court you'll remember
back in 1993 stella lybeck sued
mcdonald's over a hot cup of coffee that
caused severe burns
while the case was dismissed in the
media as a frivolous lawsuit a jury
ended up awarding her almost 3 million
dollars in damages now
almost 30 years later civil suits over
scalding hot coffee continued to pile up
like this new one
this results from an incident at a new
jersey dunkin donuts
while most on the run coffee joints now
warn just how hot their beverages are
they put it right on the cops
well does the plaintiff then have a case
let's ask tonight's legal eagles host of
the talking feds podcast
former u.s attorney harry lipman and
washington times legal affairs reporter
and attorney
alex sawyer welcome to you both we are
now in session
hey shannon let's start with exhibit a
this is from the complaint it says
defendant jane doe
employee number one breached such duty
owed to plaintiff by
failing to observe the environment of
her workplace and
serving plaintiff the cup of scalding
hot coffee in a manner as to spill the
entirety of the liquid on planet's lap
and causing immediate and agonizing pain
to plaintiff's thigh and groin area alex
why shouldn't they have to pay up
well i think the donut shop should argue
that the man assumed the risk
and possibly contributed to it i think
any reasonable person knows that when
they're driving through
somewhere and ordering a beverage
whether it's hot or cold that there's a
risk of a spill
yeah we talked about that during the
commercial about all of us have had some
type of either cold or hot beverage
where
it seems like the cap isn't always on
i'm always double checking because you
know sometimes it ends up all over the
car
let's go to exhibit b though this is
from dunkin donuts it was a state
statement to fox news today they said at
duncan the safety and well-being of our
guests is a priority while we are not
able to comment on pending litigation
against a franchisee
we can confirm duncan is not named as a
defendant in this case
so harry they say that the safety and
well-being of the guests is a priority
but
this does involve a franchisee oh
there's a surprise but look the
the the duncan franchisee is named
because that's the guy who doesn't train
jane doe i mean think about this how
long do you think she she'd been working
and this is a drive-through this is
different from 94.
you drive through somebody presents you
a cup of coffee and it spills all over
your
you know your thigh and thousands of
dollars in medical damage why shouldn't
they pay you know how how people are at
drive-throughs just
move them up move them up move them up
and she gave them a cup of coffee she
hadn't closed up and it was scalding
what about so many of these cups now
i've seen them you guys are probably too
that
they say on there um do assume this is
hot or assume that this is a
you know a very heated liquid that kind
of thing harry
some lawyer put that on but the truth is
under the law
you can't wave away negligence somebody
in dunkin donuts headquarters along with
if you eat these you're responsible for
the heart attack you later have
i mean you know the if they were
negligent
right if my kids agree but if if the
employee was negligent
sort of caused this to spill on his lap
it doesn't matter that they tell her
oh it could be hot or whatever that's
just a kind of lawyer's ploy
we do we do like to put language in
there to try to protect ourselves and
our clients
go ahead alex and it's impo it's
important to note too that since that
mcdonald's case
a number of courts have dismissed
similar claims like this there was a
seventh circuit ruling that actually
said
a judge said that hot coffee is not
quote unreasonably dangerous and
starbucks of course is
had faced a number of these lawsuits and
eater.com reported that uh
they've won more than they've lost on a
two to one ratio
no fear she's using it if you're if
you're if you're going
if you're going in to starbucks you can
order your stuff
extra hot you can also on the app which
is all i ever use because it's super
convenient now you can order extra hot
so
some people are asking for this and then
i wonder if they then keep the receipt
that says well you ordered
extra hot in case something happens i
don't know but let's get to this um
exhibit d let's skip ahead to that one
this one um from eater says this
talking about the mcdonald's case the
most famous of these is 1993 lawsuit
filed against mcdonald's by a senior
citizen who was awarded nearly three
million dollars after suffering severe
third degree burns from a cup of coffee
that spilled in her lap since then the
company has paid out piles of money
in numerous similar suits and the
litigation just keeps on coming so
harry how about folks who may be
there are those who are not completely
honest in this world i don't know
anything about the plaintiff in this
case
but do you think there's an incentive
for people to have an
accident with their coffee knowing that
there are potentially millions of
dollars they could be paid
yeah well that part would be a crime i
mean people do that in insurance too but
of course
i do think people think hi i've just
been spilled where's the lawyer of
course this guy
leonard allen says you know i've got all
these injuries and medical bills to
prove it and i do think it's different
because it's a drive-through
but sure there's some there's some
shysters out there but not
leonard allen my client okay
harry and alex thank you very much be
careful with your beverages this weekend
we're gonna put it to the jury now thank
you both