In 1992, a 79 years old Stella Liebeck bought a cup of coffee to

takeout coffee at a McDonald’s drive-thru with her grandson.

After they order, his grandson parked their car to eat their
breakfast. Stella put her coffee between her legs and removes
the lid to put sugar and the creamer for her coffee but suddenly
her tipped over and coffee spilled around her lap. She was
wearing sweatpants and she suffered a third-degree burn and
required skin grafts on her inner thighs and elsewhere.

The coffee was not just hot but dangerously hot. The coffee’s
temperature is about 180 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
McDonald’s had received more than 700 reports of injury from
its coffee, including reports of third-degree burns, and had paid
settlements in some cases.

Stella offered to settle the case for 20,000 dollars to cover her
medical expenses and lost income, but McDonald’s offered 800
dollars only which it is not enough to cover her expenses and
her pain experiences, that’s why the case went to trial.
The jury found stella to be partially at fault for her injuries
because she doesn’t mind herself that it is possible that the
coffee will spill but the jury’s is upset in McDonald’s due to
unwillingness to cooperate and change the policy because a lot
of people suffers.
The jurors awarded Stella 200,000 dollars in compensatory
damages for her pain, suffering and medical costs but those
damages were reduced to 160,000 dollars because they found
here 20% responsible. They awarded her 2.7 million in punitive
damages that amounted a two days revenue of McDonald’s
coffee sales. The judge reduced the damages to 480,000 while
noting to McDonald’s negligence.

After the trial, the media picked up her case as a punch line for
late-night comedians and on Seinfeld and made fun of her
about how she gets rich on only spilling the coffee around her
thighs.

Some news reports had some false information: They said she
was driving while she spilled the coffee while in reality, her
grandson was driving, with Liebeck in the passenger seat.

In 2011, trial lawyer Susan Saladoff made a documentary, “Hot

Coffee,” that exposed the true story and corrected some of the
public perception of the case.
Stella was only concerned about the other victims who will
encounter those pains she experienced. They once told
McDonald’s that they must warn the product’s user of possibly
dangerous features and the warning should say how hot it is
and that it could cause serious burns.

It is considered as quasi-delicts because due to their

carelessness, they didn’t even think about that 700 victims had
been burned by their coffee and still they didn’t change their
policy. The McDonald’s also shows how negligent they are
because Ms. Stella wants McDonald’s to pay her 20,000 dollars
for her medical expenses and the pain, she had experience but
McDonald’s is such a disgrace because they just want to give
Ms. Stella an 800 dollars which it doesn’t cover up the half or
the whole expenses on her medical.